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Trophic Enrichment Factors for Blood Serum in the European Badger (Meles meles) |
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| Authors: | David J. Kelly Andrew Robertson Denise Murphy Tara Fitzsimons Eamon Costello Eamonn Gormley Leigh A. L. Corner Nicola M. Marples |
| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Zoology, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.; 2. Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus, Tremough, Cornwall, United Kingdom.; 3. School of Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin (UCD), Dublin, Ireland.; 4. Central Veterinary Research Laboratory, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Backweston, Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland.; University of Western Ontario, Canada, |
| Abstract: | Ecologists undertaking stable isotopic analyses of animal diets require trophic enrichment factors (TEFs) for the specific animal tissues that they are studying. Such basic data are available for a small number of species, so values from trophically or phylogenetically similar species are often substituted for missing values. By feeding a controlled diet to captive European badgers (Meles meles) we determined TEFs for carbon and nitrogen in blood serum. TEFs for nitrogen and carbon in blood serum were +3.0±0.4‰ and +0.4±0.1‰ respectively. The TEFs for serum in badgers are notably different from those published for the red fox (Vulpes vulpes). There is currently no data for TEFs in the serum of other mustelid species. Our data show that species sharing similar niches (red fox) do not provide adequate proxy values for TEFs of badgers. Our findings emphasise the importance of having species-specific data when undertaking trophic studies using stable isotope analysis. |
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