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Informazioni legaliL'istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (ISPRA) e le persone che agiscono per conto dell'Istituto non sono responsabili per l'uso che può essere fatto delle informazioni contenute in questo rapporto. ISPRA - AutoriElisabetta Raganella Pelliccioni, Francesco Riga e Silvano Toso Luca Pedrotti ha collaborato alla stesura del capitolo dedicato al monitoraggio delle popolazioni. Stefano Mattioli e Vito Mazzarone hanno collaborato alla stesura del paragrafo relativo al conteggio dei cervi maschi al bramito. Revisione dei testiStefano Focardi e Vittorio Guberti hanno fornito utili commenti per l'elaborazione del capitolo 2. Marco Apollonio, Riccardo Fontana, Sandro Lovari, Luca Mattioli, Stefano Mattioli, Vito Mazzarone, Piergiuseppe. Meneguz, Chiara Mercuriali, Sandro Nicoloso, Luca Pedrotti, Franco Perco, Maurizio Ramanzin e Maria Luisa Zanni hanno provveduto ad una revisione critica dei capitoli dedicati alla gestione venatoria ed al controllo delle popolazioni. Autori delle illustrazioniA.M. De Marinis ha elaborato le sagome degli Ungulati utilizzate nel testo e per la quarta di copertina. RingraziamentiSi ringraziano gli autori delle foto e delle schede di approfondimento (menzionati nel testo). Si ringrazia il Corpo Forestale dello Stato -Ufficio per la Biodiversità, Riserva Naturale dello Stato Bosco della Mesola per la foto del Cervo della Mesola realizzata da G. de Socio (ISPRA). .3.1 Il Capriolo italico ............................................................................................................ 10 1.3.2 Il Cervo sardo.................................................................................................................. 13 1.3.3 Il Cervo della Mesola ...................................................................................................... 15 1.3.4 Il Camoscio appenninico ................................................................................................. 17 1.3.5 Lo Stambecco................................................................................................................... 20 1.3.6 La Capra di Montecristo ................................................................................................. 22 1.3.7 Il Muflone (popolazione sarda PresentazioneL'evoluzione del popolamento degli Ungulati rappresenta senza dubbio uno dei più notevoli mutamenti del quadro faunistico italiano negli ultimi decenni. I profondi cambiamenti socio-economici, culturali e normativi intervenuti a partire dalla metà del secolo scorso hanno determinato condizioni favorevoli ad una progressiva riconquista degli antichi areali ed oggi gli Ungulati hanno rioccupato una parte consistente del territorio nazionale dopo che per almeno trecento anni l'azione dell'uomo aveva provocato la loro sostanziale scomparsa; essi sono tornati dunque a svolgere un importante ruolo strutturale e funzionale nelle biocenosi italiane, con indubbie ricadute positive anche per la conservazione di altri taxa, in particolare i grandi Carnivo...

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This study provides insights about the diversity, prevalence and distribution of alpine wild galliformes gastrointestinal parasite community, trying to fill a gap in the scientific information currently available in scientific literature. The analysis included three host species: 77 rock partridge (Alectoris graeca saxatilis), 83 black grouse (Tetrao tetrix tetrix) and 26 rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta helveticus) shot during the hunting seasons 2008–2015. Parasites isolated were Ascaridia compar, Capillaria caudinflata and cestodes. The rock ptarmigan was free from gastrointestinal parasites, whereas the most prevalent helminth (37%) was A. compar in both black grouse and rock partridge. C. caudinflata occurrence was significantly higher in black grouse (prevalence = 10%, mean abundance = 0.6 parasites/sampled animal) than in rock partridge (prevalence = 1.20%, mean abundance = 0.01 parasites/sampled animal). Significant differences were detected among hunting districts. A. compar was found with a significant higher degree of infestation in the hunting districts in the northern part of the study area whereas cestodes abundance was higher in Lanzo Valley. Quantitative analysis of risk factors was carried out using a generalized linear model (GLM) only on the most common parasite (A. compar). Latitude was the only factors associated with infestation risk (OR = 52.4). This study provides information on the composition and variability of the parasite community in the alpine Galliformes species.

Background Poaching is a prominent source of ‘hidden hurdles’, cryptic impacts of human activities that may hinder the conservation of animal populations. Estimating poaching mortality is challenging, as the evidence for illegal killing is not outwardly obvious. Using resighting and recovery data collected on 141 marked red deer Cervus elaphus within the Stelvio National Park (central Italian Alps), we show how multievent models allow to assess the direct impacts of illegal harvesting on age- and sex-specific survival, accounting for uncertainty over mortality causes. Results Mortality caused by poaching was consistently higher for males than for females in all age classes. In males, the probability of dying from poaching was higher for extreme age classes, while in females all age classes showed fairly similar values of poaching mortality. The strong bias in sex-specific poaching mortality was possibly due to trophy killing in adult males and ‘bushmeat-like’ killing for private or commercial gain in young males and in females. Conclusions A robust assessment of age- and sex-specific prevalence of poaching in wildlife populations is pivotal when illegal killing is of conservation concern. This provides timely information on what segment of the population is most likely to be affected. Besides obvious demographic consequences on small populations, age- and sex-biased poaching prevalence may contrast with the need to maintain ecosystem complexity and may alter behavioral responses to human presence. The information provided by multievent models, whose flexibility makes them adaptable to many systems where individual-based data is part of population monitoring, offers a support to design appropriate strategies for the conservation of wildlife populations. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12983-019-0321-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Land-based birds, belonging to Galliformes order are considered to be potential intermediaries in the emergence of new strains of influenza A viruses (AIVs), but the viral circulation in these birds remains largely unknown. To gain insights into the circulation of AIV in the wild Galliformes populations in Italian Alps, we conducted a virological survey on rock partridge (Alectoris graeca saxatilis) belonging to Phasianidae family and on tetraonids including rock ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus helveticus) and black grouse (Tetrao tetrix tetrix). In 2003 and 2004, during the hunting seasons, 79 wild Galliformes, categorised into age and sex classes, were hunted in the Sondrio Province (Central Alps). Cloacal swabs were collected from 11 rock partridges and from 68 tetraonids including 23 alpine rock ptarmigans and 45 black grouses. We tested cloacal swabs by a high sensitive reverse transcription- (RT-) PCR detecting the matrix gene of AIV. No AIV was detected in the investigated samples, thus, suggesting the lack of AIV circulation in these relict populations in the study period. In terms of threatened species conservation, during wildlife management activities, it is very important to exclude the introduction of AIV-carrier birds in shared territories, a fact representing a health risk for these populations.

Female reproductive performance is a central component of ungulate population dynamics, and it can be influenced by individual, social, and environmental factors. Researchers have often assumed direct effects of different predictors on reproduction, yet more complex relationships should be considered when investigating temporal variations in life‐history traits within a broader eco‐evolutionary context. In this study, we explored direct effects of individual, social, and environmental predictors on female reproductive performance and investigated potential causal chains among variables. We analyzed the variation in fecundity, measured as the probability of being pregnant, in 215 adult female deer Cervus elaphus culled on the Italian Alps, with respect to age, body mass, kidney fat, jaw length, lactation status, population size, temperature and precipitation in spring–summer, temperature and snow depth in winter, and the delayed effect of spring–summer temperature. We used random forest and logistic regression models to select variables whose direct effects best explained variation in fecundity. Path analysis was used to test for alternative hypotheses of direct/indirect effects between pre‐selected weather (spring–summer temperature) and individual (age, kidney fat index [KFI]) predictors. The most important direct predictors of fecundity were age, kidney fat, and the interaction between kidney fat and spring–summer temperature. Path analysis supported the hypothesis that higher spring–summer temperature had negative, indirect effects on the probability of being pregnant, mediated by decreasing values of KFI. Our study revealed some complex, cause–effect relationships between weather stochasticity, body condition, and reproduction, possibly suggesting a conditional trade‐off between opportunity for reproduction and survival, and emphasizing how environmental variations and individual characteristics may interact to shape life‐history traits in ungulate populations.