Badgers are highly social mustelids living in complex clan groups centred on sett systems. Their social structure has important implications for welfare, particularly in the context of disease management and culling debates.
The social complexity of badger society has direct welfare relevance in disease management contexts. Culling programmes that disrupt established clan structures cause social stress for surviving individuals and prompt wide-ranging movements as territorial boundaries collapse. This perturbation effect has been documented in the Randomised Badger Culling Trial and is the primary reason licensed culling is controversial from both welfare and disease control perspectives. Individual badgers that survive a cull but are displaced from their home range face welfare challenges including inability to access familiar food sources and conflict with neighbouring clans. Badgers are also affected by road mortality, habitat loss, illegal persecution, and flooding of setts. Understanding the social dimension of badger welfare is important for evaluating intervention consequences beyond individual mortality.