Does a non-invasive method – latrine surveys – reveal habitat preferences of raccoon dogs and badgers?

We aimed to examine whether habitat preferences of raccoon dogs Nyctereutes procyonoides and badgers Meles meles can be revealed by using a non-invasive method, latrine surveys. We searched for latrines of these carnivores with scat detection dogs in SW Finland. We compared the results of latrine surveys with the results of a radio-tracking study conducted simultaneously in the same area. Our results showed that latrine surveys and radio-tracking gave fairly similar results: both methods revealed that raccoon dogs favoured deciduous forests, open woodland and reed beds but avoided fields, and badgers favoured deciduous and pine forests but avoided fields, gardens and reed beds. Latrines of both species were often located in the core areas but also along home range borders. Latrine survey revealed possible competition for space between the native badgers and alien raccoon dogs. Latrine survey is a non-invasive method, which gives accurate location points of animals. It could be developed further by combining it with bait-marking and by training the dogs to show us other signs of animals besides latrines.