Changes in the relative abundance of sympatric carnivores can have far-reaching ecological consequences, including the precipitation of trophic cascades and species declines. While such observations are compelling, experimental evaluations of interactions among carnivores remain scarce and are both logistically and ethically challenging. Carnivores are nonetheless a particular focus of management practices owing to their roles as predators of livestock and as vectors and reservoirs of zoonotic diseases. Here, we provide evidence from a replicated and controlled experiment that culling Eurasian badgers
Meles meles
for disease control was associated with increases in red fox
Vulpes vulpes
densities of 1.6–2.3 foxes km
−2
. This unique experiment demonstrates the importance of intraguild relations in determining species abundance and of assessing the wider consequences of intervention in predator populations.
Temporal and geographical variation in skull size of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and the Eurasian badger (Meles meles) in Austria
