Red deer on the move: home range size and mobility in Bulgaria

Abstract

The red deer is a main game species in Bulgaria, as well as in large parts of Europe. However, its behaviour has not been studied in depth on a local scale, especially on the Balkans. This study presents the first GPS telemetry data for red deer in Bulgaria –in the Central and Eastern Balkan Mountains, the Rhodopi Mountains and the lowlands of North-eastern Bulgaria. 18 individuals (2 subadult stags, 12 adult stags and 4 adult hinds) were tracked, accumulating a total of 1159 (for males) and 1464 (for females) GPS fixes. In spite of the pronounced individual differences, all stags were more mobile (average step length/12 h = 857 m) and had larger home ranges (average HR = 7393 ha) than hinds (average HR = 2085 ha, average step length/12 h = 448 m). Three of the individuals (1 hind and 2 stags) dispersed, forming two distinct home ranges. The results from this study outline the need for detailed studies on the behavior of the species, as a vital part of its management and conservation.

Extruded diet macronutrient digestibility: plant-based (vegan) vs. animal-based diets in client-owned healthy adult dogs and the impact of guardian compliance during in-home trials

“…High meat commercial diets appeal to some pet guardians based on the ideology that domesticated dogs should consume a diet that closely replicates that of their carnivorous wolf ancestors Hare et al, 2012;(Axelsson et al, 2013;Buff et al, 2014). Although wolves may choose to eat some vegetation, the quantity of plant materials they typically consume is far less than the amount of animal tissue they consume and for that they can be considered to remain true carnivores (Zlatanova et al, 2014;Lyu et al, 2018). However, in domesticated dogs, genes for digestion and metabolism have shown coevolutionary trends with humans resulting in increased capacity for digesting and utilizing plant-derived nutrients, with dogs now being facultative carnivores rather than true carnivores like their wolf ancestors (Axelsson et al, 2013;Buff et al, 2014;Fortes et al, 2010;Hare et al, 2012;Lyu et al, 2018;Twomey et al, 2002;Wang et al, 2013).…”

Application of the tyraliera counting method to the large-scale inventory of red deer Cervus elaphus in the northern part of Western Pomerania, Poland

“…in Bulgaria (Popova et al 2018), methodical counts provide results comparable to the official hunting documentation data. But in this country, the red deer population has been in decline since the 1980s (Zlatanova et al 2019). The above review shows that the size of the differences between the estimates of the number of red deer in hunting plans, and those obtained through methodical counts increases The mean red deer density in northern part of Western Pomerania (Poland) determined by the drive count method with drivers in line formation was 21.5 animals/km 2 of the forest and each administrative unit exceeded 5 red deer/km 2 .…”