No abstract

0. 1996. The feeding habits of wolves in relation to large prey availability in northern Italy. -Ecography 19 287-295.We investigated wolf feeding habits in relation to the abundance of wild and domestic ungulates to test the hypothesis that large prey are preferred and that their abundance affects the use of other food categories and diet breadth. We determined diet composition by scat analysis from December 1987 to December 1992. The research was carried out in three study areas located in northern Italy and characterised by marked differences in wild and domestic ungulate abundance. In study area A (low wild and domestic ungulate availability) fruits. livestock. other vertebrttes and wild ungulates made up the bulk of the diet (71% in volume). In area B (high availability of livestock) wolf diet was mtinly based on sheep and wild boars (80% in volume). In study area C (high availability of wild ungulates) wild ungulates were the main food of wolves ( W h in volume). Significant differences were found among study areas in the mean percentage volume of all food categories and in particular for wild ungulates, livestock, other vertebrates and fruits (p < 0.0oOI in all cases). Diet breadth decreased in areas with high availability of large wild and domestic herbivores. The use of livestock species was lower where there was high abundance, richness and diversity of the wild ungulate guild. Selection for wild ungulate species was partially affected by their abundance: however other factors as prey social behaviour. adaptability to the habitat (for introduced species), and body size could have an important role in species selection by wolves. In particular in area C wild boars were selected for, roe and red d m avoided, and fallow deen and mouflons used as available. Livestock species were used in relation to their abundance and accessibility. in particular sheep were selected for and cattle avoided; but if calves born in the pastures were considered as the only available cattle, they were selected for and sheep were used as available. Large and in particular wild herbivores were found to be of great importance for the wolf population maintenance in northern Italy, one of the most important recovery areas of Mediterranean wolves. A . Meriggi (correspondence). A . Brangi and 0. Sacchi,

. 1991. Habitat use and diet of the wolf in northern Italy. Acta theriol. 36: 141 -151.Habitat use and diet of wolves Canis lupus were examined in a mountainous area in the northern Apennines (northern Italy) from December 1987 to March 1989. Wolf signs were looked for along 22 transects representative of the different habitat types of the study area in order to define seasonal differences in habitat use. Scats were collected and analysed to identify the main food items used by wolves in each season. Changes in range surface area were recorded in different seasons in relation to food availability and territoriality of the wolves. Pastures and bushy areas were selected in all seasons, while mixed woods were used only in autumn and conifer reafforestations in winter and spring. Beech woods and arable land were avoided all year round. The main food items of the wolves were fruit (Rosaceae), livestock and wild boar. Fruit was above all in winter and spring, livestock (sheep and calves) mainly in summer during the grazing period and wild boar all year round. The presence of the wolves in northern Italy is only partially dependent on food sources of human origin but these arc of fundamental importance during the period of pup rearing.

A radio-tracking study was carried out on a re-introduced population of grey partridges in a 10.6-km 2 study area located in central Italy, in order to assess mortality rate and to evaluate the feasibility of carrying out large scale re-introductions of the species. Thirty-nine grey partridges were caught by live-traps during winter 2000 and equipped with backpack radio-transmitter. All released birds were offspring of partridges re-introduced previously on the study area and no significant differences were found in survival probabilities between sexes, age classes (juveniles or adults), and weight classes (<400 g or 400 g), with the exception of the juveniles-adult comparison with the weight class 400 g. Kaplan-Meier estimates give an average survival of 734 days (SE = 15.5). GLM analysis showed an overall interaction effect of the sex, age, and weight (P = 0.03). Mortality increased during the covey break up, if compared to other periods, although the differences were not significant; the same was for males, for adults, and for both weight classes, while significant differences resulted for female and juvenile survival rate among periods. Predation was the main mortality source for radio-tagged grey partridges (71.0%), followed by disease (25.8%). The high mortality rate found in our study could be explained in part with the origin of the population that was originally re-introduced using hand-reared grey partridges. Some important negative characters of reared birds, such as the poor anti-predator behaviour and the low diseases resistance, could carry over during the first and following wild generations.

The grey partridge became extinct in the province of Siena (central Italy) in the late seventies, whereas the red-legged partridge had already disappeared by the beginning of the twentieth century. Some reintroduction attempts of both species carried out in the 1980s gave encouraging but not definitive results, and failed after an initial success. This was probably due to the low number of birds released, the small size of the re-introduction areas, their isolation, the farm-bred origin of the partridges, and hunting. In the province of Siena, for the first time in Italy, a large-scale reintroduction program of grey and red-legged partridges was experimented. The project started up in 1995 with seven reintroduction areas for grey and four for red-legged partridge, and was extended to 19 areas (22,562 ha) for grey and 7 (6858 ha) for red-legged partridge in 2002. Population viability analyses for both species showed that if reintroduced populations were isolated they would be extinct in a few years. Therefore, a metapopulation approach was adopted (contemporary releases in reintroduction areas close to each other). In each area, 100-1000 partridges per year were released for a minimum of 3 years, from different farms in order to achieve the maximum initial genetic diversity. Releases were effected in late summer (August-September) in acclimatization pens containing 10-20 aviaries. The reintroduced population showed marked variability of some demographic parameters, such as pair density and brood production rate; instead, average brood size was relatively constant across the study areas, but with annual variations. Reintroduction success was limited to a few areas only, mainly depending on the habitat characteristics of the areas, their surface area and isolation, and on the degree of care for the birds during the acclimatization period.