Distribution and status of lynx in the border region between Czech Republic, Germany and Austria

Wölfl, Manfred; Bufka, Luděk; Červený, Jaroslav; Koubek, Petr; Heurich, Marco; Habel, Hubertus; Huber, Thomas P.; Poost, Wilhelm

doi:10.1007/bf03192427

Cited by 32 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Red deer also occur in the BFNP at an estimated density of 1.56 animals km –2 . During our study, roe deer in the BFNP were subject to predation by European lynx which had been reintroduced in the 1980s (Wölfl et al ). Between 2005 and 2012, of the 168 individuals monitored 30% were killed by lynx, making up about 50% of the mortality recorded.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat selection by a large herbivore at multiple spatial and temporal scales is primarily governed by food resources

et al. 2016

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Habitat selection can be considered as a hierarchical process in which animals satisfy their habitat requirements at different ecological scales. Theory predicts that spatial and temporal scales should co‐vary in most ecological processes and that the most limiting factors should drive habitat selection at coarse ecological scales, but be less influential at finer scales. Using detailed location data on roe deer Capreolus capreolus inhabiting the Bavarian Forest National Park, Germany, we investigated habitat selection at several spatial and temporal scales. We tested 1) whether time‐varying patterns were governed by factors reported as having the largest effects on fitness, 2) whether the trade‐off between forage and predation risks differed among spatial and temporal scales and 3) if spatial and temporal scales are positively associated. We analysed the variation in habitat selection within the landscape and within home ranges at monthly intervals, with respect to land‐cover type and proxys of food and cover over seasonal and diurnal temporal scales. The fine‐scale temporal variation follows a nycthemeral cycle linked to diurnal variation in human disturbance. The large‐scale variation matches seasonal plant phenology, suggesting food resources being a greater limiting factor than lynx predation risk. The trade‐off between selection for food and cover was similar on seasonal and diurnal scale. Habitat selection at the different scales may be the consequence of the temporal variation and predictability of the limiting factors as much as its association with fitness. The landscape of fear might have less importance at the studied scale of habitat selection than generally accepted because of the predator hunting strategy. Finally, seasonal variation in habitat selection was similar at the large and small spatial scales, which may arise because of the marked philopatry of roe deer. The difference is supposed to be greater for wider ranging herbivores.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat selection by a large herbivore at multiple spatial and temporal scales is primarily governed by food resources

et al. 2016

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“…) and Eurasian lynx has been reintroduced in the 1970s (Wölfl et al. ). Lynx mainly prey on roe deer and to a much lesser extent on red deer (Belotti et al.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat metrics based on multi‐temporal Landsat imagery for mapping large mammal habitat

Oeser

Heurich

Senf

et al. 2019

Remote Sens Ecol Conserv

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Up‐to‐date and fine‐scale habitat information is essential for managing and conserving wildlife. Studies assessing wildlife habitat commonly rely on categorical land‐cover maps as predictors in habitat models. However, broad land‐cover categories often do not adequately capture key habitat features and generating robust land‐cover maps is challenging and laborious. Continuous variables derived directly from satellite imagery provide an alternative for capturing land‐cover characteristics in habitat models. Improved data availability and processing capacities now allow integrating all available images from medium‐resolution sensors in compositing approaches that derive spectral‐temporal metrics at the pixel level, summarizing spectral responses over time. In this study, we assessed the usefulness of such metrics derived from Landsat imagery for mapping wildlife habitat. We categorize spectral‐temporal metrics into habitat metrics characterizing different aspects of wildlife habitat. Comparing the performance of these metrics against categorical land‐cover maps in habitat models for lynx, red deer and roe deer, we found that models using habitat metrics consistently outperformed models based on categorical land‐cover maps, with average improvements of 13.7% in model AUC and 9.7% in the Continuous Boyce Index. Performance increases were larger for seasonal habitat models, indicating that the habitat metrics capture intra‐annual variability in habitat conditions better than land‐cover maps. Comparing suitability maps to ancillary data further revealed that our habitat metrics were sensitive to fine‐scale heterogeneity in habitat associated with forest structure. Overall, our study highlights the considerable potential of Landsat‐based spectral temporal metrics for assessing wildlife habitat. Given these metrics can be derived directly and in an automatized fashion from globally and freely available Landsat imagery, they open up new possibilities for monitoring habitat dynamics in space and time.

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“…The only large predator is Eurasian lynx ( Lynx lynx ), which was reintroduced in the 1970s and 1980s [32]. At present, this lynx population is stagnant [33].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Country, Cover or Protection: What Shapes the Distribution of Red Deer and Roe Deer in the Bohemian Forest Ecosystem?

et al. 2015

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The Bohemian Forest Ecosystem encompasses various wildlife management systems. Two large, contiguous national parks (one in Germany and one in the Czech Republic) form the centre of the area, are surrounded by private hunting grounds, and hunting regulations in each country differ. Here we aimed at unravelling the influence of management-related and environmental factors on the distribution of red deer (Cervus elaphus) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) in this ecosystem. We used the standing crop method based on counts of pellet groups, with point counts every 100 m along 218 randomly distributed transects. Our analysis, which accounted for overdispersion as well as zero inflation and spatial autocorrelation, corroborated the view that both human management and the physical and biological environment drive ungulate distribution in mountainous areas in Central Europe. In contrast to our expectations, protection by national parks was the least important variable for red deer and the third important out of four variables for roe deer; protection negatively influenced roe deer distribution in both parks and positively influenced red deer distribution in Germany. Country was the most influential variable for both red and roe deer, with higher counts of pellet groups in the Czech Republic than in Germany. Elevation, which indicates increasing environmental harshness, was the second most important variable for both species. Forest cover was the least important variable for roe deer and the third important variable for red deer; the relationship for roe deer was positive and linear, and optimal forest cover for red deer was about 70% within a 500 m radius. Our results have direct implications for the future conservation management of deer in protected areas in Central Europe and show in particular that large non-intervention zones may not cause agglomerations of deer that could lead to conflicts along the border of protected, mountainous areas.

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Distribution and status of lynx in the border region between Czech Republic, Germany and Austria

Cited by 32 publications

References 5 publications

Habitat selection by a large herbivore at multiple spatial and temporal scales is primarily governed by food resources

Habitat selection by a large herbivore at multiple spatial and temporal scales is primarily governed by food resources

Habitat metrics based on multi‐temporal Landsat imagery for mapping large mammal habitat

Country, Cover or Protection: What Shapes the Distribution of Red Deer and Roe Deer in the Bohemian Forest Ecosystem?

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