{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,26]],"date-time":"2026-03-26T14:11:17Z","timestamp":1774534277651,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":62,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,10]],"date-time":"2021-09-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1631232000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"FCT\/MCTES through national funds, and the co-funding by the FEDER, within the PT2020 Partnership Agreement and Compete 2020.","award":["UIDB\/00329\/2020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["UIDB\/00329\/2020"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Animals"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Carnivores social organization varies widely, from strongly social to solitary predators. European badgers are facultative social carnivores that also shows a geographical variation in social structure. These patterns derive mainly from central\/west European regions, with an under-representation of Mediterranean populations that face different conservation challenges, especially regarding group composition, sett use patterns and breeding phenology. We addressed these traits topics for a population inhabiting a Portuguese agro-silvo-pastoral system. Based on monthly monitoring of 34 setts and continuous camera-trapping surveys of 12, we showed that setts surrounded by diversified vegetation and located in sandy sites are more used, a pattern probably linked to food availability and ease of sett excavation and maintenance, respectively. Badgers followed a general pattern regarding group size (2\u20134 adults), but showed an intermediate population density (0.49\u20130.73 badgers\/km2), with values higher than those estimated for other Mediterranean environments, but lower than for central-western populations. This, together with the breeding (November\/January) and cub emergence (1.8 cubs\/sett; March\/April) periods, indicates an ecological adaptation to the landscape context, where human-related resources and mild environmental conditions allow badger to reach higher densities than in many southern populations, and to reproduce earlier than their northern counterparts.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ani11092663","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,10]],"date-time":"2021-09-10T10:31:34Z","timestamp":1631269894000},"page":"2663","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Sett Use, Density and Breeding Phenology of Badgers in Mediterranean Agro-Sylvo-Pastoral Systems"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Marcelo","family":"Silva","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"cE3c\u2014Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Faculdade de Ci\u00eancias, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4186-7332","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lu\u00eds Miguel","family":"Rosalino","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"cE3c\u2014Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Faculdade de Ci\u00eancias, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Sandra","family":"Alcobia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"cE3c\u2014Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Faculdade de Ci\u00eancias, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Margarida","family":"Santos-Reis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"cE3c\u2014Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Faculdade de Ci\u00eancias, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"191","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev.es.15.110184.001203","article-title":"Life history patterns and the comparative social ecology of carnivores","volume":"15","author":"Bekoff","year":"1984","journal-title":"Ann. 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