Dietary response of the Eurasian badger , Meler meler , to a decline of its main prey in the Doñ ana National Park

The Eurasian badger (Meler meler) is considered to be a harvester rather than a hunter (Lruuk, l989), because its food usually consists of vegetables and small and easily captured animals, such as worms and insects, and it rarely captures mammals (Neal, l986). However, in the Doñ ana National Park of Mediterranean Spain the badger apparently behaves as a facultative specialist in the consumption of young rabbits, Ovyctolagur cuniculur (Martın, Rodrıguez & Delibes, l995). In l990, an outbreak of Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease (RHD) caused high mortality among adult rabbits in most of the Doñ ana area (Villafuerte et al., l994), although all sites of Doñ ana were not affected to the same extent. This situation offered the possibility of comparing the food habits of badgers in the Doñ ana Biological Reserve (DBR) before (data of Martın et al., l995) and after the outbreak of RHD, while using another site where rabbit density has changed little over the last few years as a control area.