1,721,056 research outputs found
A review of wolf predation in Southern Europe - Does the wolf prefer wild prey to livestock?
No full text1. The recent recovery of the wolf in southern Europe has not yet removed the risk of local extinction. Wolf populations are fragmented and often comprise fewer than 500 individuals. In North America, northern and eastern Europe, wolves feed mainly on wild herbivores. In southern Europe, this canid has apparently adapted to feed also on fruit, rubbish, livestock, small and medium-size mammals. 2. The main conservation problem lies with predation on domestic ungulates, which leads to extensive killing of wolves. The reintroduction of wild large herbivores has been advocated as a means of reducing attacks on livestock, but predation on the latter may remain high if domestic ungulates are locally abundant. 3. Our synthesis of 15 studies, published in the last 15 years, on food habits of the wolf in southern Europe, has shown that ungulates have been the main diet component overall. A significant inverse correlation was found between the occurrence (%) of wild and domestic ungulates in the diet. The presence of relatively few wild ungulate species was necessary to reduce predation on livestock. 4. Selection of wild and domestic ungulate prey was influenced mainly by their local abundance, but also by their accessibility. Feeding dependence on rubbish was local and rare. In Italy, the consumption of rubbish/fruit and that of ungulates was significantly negatively correlated. Diet breadth increased as the presence of large prey in the diet decreased. 5. The simultaneous reintroduction of several wild ungulate species is likely to reduce predation on livestock and may prove to be one of the most effective conservation measures
Bird Diversity in Short Rotation Coppice in Northern Italy
No full textIn recent decades, the establishment of plantations to produce biomass for energy, known as short rotation coppice (SRC), has been increasing in many countries in Europe. As with other tree plantations, these stands could enhance the structural diversity of intensively managed farmlands and consequently lead to an increase in animal diversity. In this study, we examined the effects of hybrid poplar SRCs on breeding bird richness, diversity and abundance in Northern Italy. We recorded bird species and estimated their abundances using point counts. We then analysed the relationships between landscape composition and bird abundances, as well as community composition, using canonical correspondence analysis. The results showed that birds abundances in SRCs were generally lower than in woodland and arable land (SRC: 1.30 birds/km(2), woodland: 2.57, arable land: 1.89), and the same was true for species richness (SRC: 7.06 species/km(2), woodland: 12.90, arable land: 9.13) and species diversity (Shannon Indices in SRC: 0.951, woodland: 1.606, arable land: 1.241). Half of the species found in SRC are considered farmland birds, a group whose species richness was significantly higher than that of forest and generalist species. Our research suggests that a system with rotational harvesting of mixed age and structure stands enhances habitat heterogeneity and consequently could support bird communities. In particular, SRCs and reforestations seem to play an important role for some birds by providing them with complementary or supplementary habitat for foraging and nesting
Sicilian Rock partridge (Alectoris graeca whitakeri): is the current protected area network enough?
No full textHabitat selection by the red fox (L. 1758) in an Alpine area
No full textHabitat selection and the influence of habitat variables on red fox ranges were assessed in the Gran Paradiso National Park, Western Alps, Italy, all year round. Nine hundred twenty-two scats were mapped as "signs of presence" by monthly surveys of fixed transects in the main habitat types and altitude belts. Forested habitats and lower attitudes (1000-1500 m a.s.l.) were selected, whereas upper altitudes were avoided, during the cold season. This pattern was attributed to the availability of ungulate carrion, widely used as food by foxes, at low altitude, while upper altitudes provided poor resources in the cold season. During the warm season, no clear pattern of habitat selection could be detected. The selection for forested habitats could therefore be explained by the availability of resources other than food, e.g. resting and denning sites. The strong seasonality of an Alpine altitudinal succession, where resource availability varies over short distances, may lead to home ranges containing a variety of habitat types along the altitudinal gradient, providing resources throughout the year. Foxes possibly hold "vertical" home ranges, where certain habitat types became strategic, especially under limiting climatic conditions
Factors affecting the crop damage by wild boar (Sus scrofa) and effects of population control in the Ticino and Lake Maggiore Park (North-western Italy)
No full textWild boar foraging impacts the crops, pastures, and meadows causing remarkable losses to agricultural income. Protected areas located in plains, such as the Ticino Valley Natural Park, are characterized by the coexistence of important natural habitats and intensive agricultural areas. In the Park, from 2010 to 2017, 49% of the complaints report an event of damage to maize and 43% to meadows. The total expense for reimbursements of the maize amounted to € 439,341.52, with damages concentrated in May, after sowing period and between August and September, during the milky stage of maize. For meadows reimbursements amounted to € 324,768.66, with damage events concentrated in February and March. To reduce damage to crops, the Park administration carried out lethal control of the wild boar population. From 2006 to 2017, the most used control method was culling from hunting hides. In our analysis, we did not find significant relationships between the number of shot boars and the damage amount. The factors that determine the decrease of damage probability to crops are mainly related to human disturbance and the characteristics of the fields. The predictive model of damage risk built comparing damaged and undamaged fields showed a good predictive ability. The population viability analyses showed that it is impossible to obtain a drastic reduction of population with the current harvest rate. By tripling it and focusing on the females and sub-adult a numerical reduction of 50% of the population would be achievable in 7 years and the probability of population survival would be halved in 3 years
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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