An assessment of injury to European badgers (meles meles) due to capture in stopped restraints.

As part of ongoing culling operations, European badgers (Meles meles) were captured using stopped restraints in winter (October to December 2005) and summer (May to June 2006) in the Republic of Ireland. A subset of these badgers, those caught during four consecutive nights, was examined postmortem to determine the frequency and severity of physical injuries resulting from capture in the restraints. The skin and the tissues underlying the restraint of 343 badgers were assessed for injury by visual examination. There was an absence of skin damage or only minor skin abrasions in 88% of badgers; an absence of subcutaneous tissue injury or only localized subcutaneous tissue injury in 69%; and an absence of muscle injury or only slight muscle bruising in 99% of badgers. Only 2% of badgers had cuts to the skin and 5.5% had extensive subcutaneous edema, whereas 1.2% had areas of hemorrhage and tearing of the underlying muscle. Our results show that the majority of badgers examined sustained minimal injuries attributable to capture in stopped restraints.

Diseases and mortality in free-ranging brown bear (Ursus arctos), gray wolf (Canis lupus), and wolverine (Gulo gulo) in Sweden.

Ninety-eight brown bears (Ursus arctos), 20 gray wolves (Canis lupus), and 27 wolverines (Gulo gulo), all free-ranging, were submitted to the National Veterinary Institute, Uppsala, Sweden, during 1987-2001 for investigation of diseases and causes of mortality. The most common cause of natural death in brown bears was infanticide. Infanticide also was observed in wolverines but not in wolves. Traumatic injuries, originating from road or railway accidents, were the most common cause of death in wolves and occurred occasionally in brown bears. Most wolverines were submitted as forensic cases in which illegal hunting/poaching was suspected. Sarcoptic mange was observed in several wolves but not in brown bears or wolverines. Sarcoptic mange most likely was acquired from infected red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) that were killed by wolves. Other parasites and infectious diseases were only found sporadically.