Data from: Altitude shapes the environmental drivers of large-scale variation in abundance of a widespread mammal species

Habitat quality and heterogeneity directly influence the distribution and
abundance of organisms at different spatial scales. Determining the main
environmental factors driving the variation in species abundance is
crucial to understand the underlying ecological processes and this is
especially important for widely distributed species living in contrasting
environments. However, the responses to environmental variation are
usually described at relatively small spatial scales. Here, we studied the
variation in abundance of a widely distributed mustelid, the European
badger (Meles meles), across France. We used (1) direct detections of
9,439 dead and living badgers, from 2006 to 2009, to estimate badger
relative abundance in 703 small agricultural regions of metropolitan
France and (2) a Bayesian modelling approach to identify the main
environmental determinants influencing badger abundance. Despite a
continuous distribution of badger in France, we found large variation in
badger abundance between regions, explained by environmental factors.
Among a set of 13 environmental variables, we demonstrated that badger
abundance in lowlands (< 400 m a.s.l.) was mostly driven by biotic
factors such as potential food resources (earthworm abundance and fruits
crops) and forest fragmentation. Conversely, in mountainous areas, abiotic
factors (i.e. soil texture and climate) drove the variation in badger
relative abundance. These results underline the importance of mapping the
abundance of wildlife species based on environmental suitability, and
highlight the complexity of drivers influencing species abundance at such
large spatial scales. Altitude shaped the environmental drivers (biotic
vs. abiotic) that most influenced relative abundance of a widespread
species. In the case of badger, such abundance maps are crucial to
identify critical areas for species management as this mustelid is a main
wild vector of bovine tuberculosis in several countries.