Determinants of badger Meles meles sett location in Białowieża Primeval Forest, northeastern Poland

The aim of our research was to investigate the relative importance of food supply, geological conditions, human activity and neighbouring badger Meles meles territories for location of badger setts in Białowieża Primeval Forest (BPF) within the boundaries of Poland (595 km 2 ). In our study, we included 67 badger setts surveyed in the field as well as 7,563 pseudo‐absence points located randomly in each subcompartment of the forest. For each point, 18 habitat and landscape variables were assessed. The data were analysed using the Random Forest model in two stages, i.e. feature selection and variable importance assessment. Our results indicate that the human‐related variables for location of badger setts in BPF (strong avoidance of main roads, bimodal reaction to open and built‐up areas) were of highest importance. The second most important variable was the distance to neighbouring active main setts (preference of the distance of 2 km from the nearest active main sett). The least important variables were habitat conditions affecting digging possibility and food availability, such as the presence of cambisols or fresh entic podzols made of loamy sands on ablation moraine or aeolian dunes with potential vegetation of thermophilous oak Quercus robur ‐hornbeam Carpinus begulus forest of fresh pine Pinus sylvestris ‐oak mixed forest. We conclude that large intact forest complexes function as refuge areas for badger populations if badger mortality is high in open areas relative to the benefits of wide food availability in open areas.