Prey choice and diet of wolves related to ungulate communities and wolf subpopulations in Poland

Predation of wildlife by free-ranging domestic dogs in Polish hunting grounds and potential competition with the grey wolf

“…obs.). Wolves predominantly hunt ungulates in Poland (Jędrzejewski et al, 2012), and our data indicate that wolves eat similar ungulate prey as free-ranging dogs on hunting grounds, including roe deer, red deer, and wild boar. Compared to dogs, wolves killed more red deer and fewer roe deer and wild boar.…”

“…Data were unavailable for wolf predation on fallow deer, an introduced game species with a relatively restricted distribution in Poland, primarily where wolves are absent or sparse. Polish wolves rarely have brown hare remains in their diet (Jędrzejewski et al, 2012;Nowak et al, 2011). But, if wolves do predate on brown hare, unlike dogs, they typically eat them entirely, so hares predated by wolves would not be available for identification.…”

Risk perception by endangered European bison Bison bonasus is context (condition) dependent

“…There is however some support for avoidance of humans in reducing the distance they travelled across open areas (hypothesis 2). This makes biological sense as wolves rarely prey on bison in Białowie_ za (Jędrzejewska and Jędrzejewski 1998;Jędrzejewski et al 2012; Krasińska and Krasiński 2013), however humans regularly do so by culling sickly individuals (up to 17 % of bison are shot annually for population regulation; Krasińska and Krasiński 2004). Humans also increasingly chase bison from fields in conflict situations.…”

“…1a) (Altendorf et al 2001). While wolves rarely kill bison in Białowie_ za (0-3 recorded kills annually or 2.6 % of all bison mortalities; Jędrzejewski et al 2012;Krasińska and Krasiński 2013), they more frequently take bison in North America (Smith et al 2000) to the extent that they can drive populations to near extinction (Carbyn et al 1993). We hypothesised that (2) if disturbance/poaching/culling was a threat to bison, they would show higher GUDs at sites closer to human habitation having associated humans with risk following an increase in human-wildlife conflict with the recent expansion of bison beyond the Białowie_ za forest (Hofman-Kamińska and Kowalczyk 2012) (Fig.…”

Response of the Wolf (Canis Lupus Linnaeus, 1758) Population to Various Management Regimes at the Edge of Its Distribution Range in Western Poland, 1951-2012

“…Translocation of over one thousand red deer in the mid 1950s from western to eastern Poland allowed successful recovery of the species (Niedziałkowska et al, 2012). However, densities of red deer were still three-fold higher in western than in eastern Poland (mean 4 indiv./10 km 2 in WPL versus 1.5 indiv./10 km 2 in EPL, in 1981-2004), as were the densities of two other native wild ungulates (roe deer and wild boar) (Pucek et al, 1975;Pielowski et al, 1993;Grabińska, 2007) -together these species comprise most of the wolf diet in Poland (Jędrzejewski et al, 2012). Because hunter surveys underestimate numbers of ungulates, the actual densities in WPL were most likely much higher than stated in the official data (Pucek et al, 1975).…”