Predation by wolves Canis lupus on roe deer Capreolus capreolus was studied by scat analysis in five areas of the Province of Arezzo, north-eastern Tuscany, Italy. In the intensive study area (ISA) roe deer represented 19.1% of mean per cent volume (MPV) while in the other areas its use ranged between 10.9% and 53.4% of MPV. A low degree of variation was found in both annual and seasonal use of roe deer, although seasonal differences were more marked in those areas where roe deer use was lower. In ISA, roe deer was negatively selected among species: the Ivlev's electivity index ranged between − 0.41 and − 0.89. Analysing intra-specific selection, in ISA < 1-year-old individuals were preferred by wolves, mainly during the fawns' first months of life. This trend was confirmed in the other areas, where fawns represented more than 50% of the relative number of roe deer prey. In ISA, the use of roe deer (as MPV) was not correlated with its density or with that of the main prey, wild boar, and in almost all the other areas no relation between use and density of roe deer was founded. However, in the one area where both roe deer density and use were the highest, these two variables seemed to exhibit a comparable trend. The use of roe deer was negatively correlated with the percentage of forest cover among all the study areas.
Studies on predation by the wolf (Canis lupus) have often reported contradictory results about the role of prey density and vulnerability on wolf prey use. We investigated dietary response and prey selection by wolves in a high-density and multi-species ungulate community, analysing scats collected over a period of 11 years in the Casentinesi Forests, Italy. The second most abundant species, wild boar (Sus scrofa), was found to be the main wolf prey, and we did not observe any dietary response of wolves to variations in the density of either primary or secondary prey species. Selection patterns were uniform throughout the study period. Wolves strongly selected for wild boar piglets, while roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) fawns and adults, red deer (Cervus elaphus) adults and fallow deer (Dama dama) adults were avoided. Wolf preference for wild boar was inversely density dependent. Within each species, juveniles were preferred to adults. Medium-sized, young individuals of both wild boar and roe deer were optimal prey, although with different selection patterns related to the different anti-predator strategies adopted by each prey species. The results of this study suggest that in productive ecosystems with high density and high renewal rates of prey, selection patterns by wolves are determined by prey vulnerability, which is connected to prey age and body size. The different patterns of wild boar versus cervids use by wolf across Europe seems to be related to their relative abundances, while the strong selection of wild boar in Italian Apennines with respect to the more frequent avoidance in central-eastern Europe is better explained by higher piglet productivity and smaller body size of adults boar in Mediterranean temperate forests.
Depredation on livestock and wolf pack Canis lupus distribution was investigated in the province of Arezzo, Tuscany, from 1998 to 2001. Although livestock was uniformly distributed, damage level and distribution were focused in the mountainous area inhabited by wolf packs hence there were huge differences between areas with and without wolves. In the whole province a few farms were persistently affected by predation (6%), and they reported 38% of the total attacks and 37% of the total losses. Surplus killing phenomena involved only sheep and goat farms, affecting 18% of the total. Thirty-five attacks (14% of the total attacks) reported 536 kills (44% of the total livestock killed in the whole province of Arezzo). During the period 1998-2001, compensation costs in the province averaged 86 863 Euros (range: 68 805-99 318 Euros). In the same period, no farmer requested prevention funding from the Tuscan region. During the study period wolf population was stable: wolf packs were distributed on 47% of the whole province (1504 km 2 ), with a density estimated at 2.9 AE 0.7 wolves 100 km À2 .
One major concern in wolf (Canis lupus) conservation is the risk of genetic contamination due to crossbreeding with domestic dogs. Although genetic monitoring of wolf populations has become widely used, the behavioural mechanisms involved in wolf-dog hybridization and the detrimental effects of genetic introgression are poorly known. In this study we analysed Y-chromosome microsatellite variation in the recovering Italian wolf population and detected strikingly different allele frequencies between wolves and dogs. Four Y haplotypes were found in 74 analysed male wolves, and all of them were present in a focus wolf population in the Apennines. On the other hand, only 1 haplotype was found in the recolonizing wolf population from the Western Alps. The most common haplotype in a sample of domestic dogs, was also found in 5 wolves, 2 of which revealing a signature of recent hybridization. Moreover, another suspect hybrid carried a private haplotype of possible canine origin. These results give support to the idea that female wolves can breed with male stray dogs in the wild. The Y-chromosome variation in Italian wolves contrasts with the previously observed lack of mitochondrial variation. Further investigations are needed to clarify at what extent historical or recent wolf-dog hybridization events may have contributed to the observed haplotype diversity. In conclusion, the two molecular markers employed in this study represent effective means to trace directional genetic introgression into the wolves male lineage and have the noteworthy advantage of being suitable for analyses on low-quality DNA samples.
Anthropogenic hybridization is widely perceived as a threat to the conservation of biodiversity. Nevertheless, to date, relevant policy and management interventions are unresolved and highly convoluted. While this is due to the inherent complexity of the issue, we hereby hypothesize that a lack of agreement concerning management goals and approaches, within the scientific community, may explain the lack of social awareness Donfrancesco et al.Addressing Wolf-Dog Hybridization in Europe on this phenomenon, and the absence of effective pressure on decision-makers. By focusing on wolf x dog hybridization in Europe, we hereby (a) assess the state of the art of issues on wolf x dog hybridization within the scientific community, (b) assess the conceptual bases for different viewpoints, and (c) provide a conceptual framework aiming at reducing the disagreements. We adopted the Delphi technique, involving a three-round iterative survey addressed to a selected sample of experts who published at Web of Science listed journals, in the last 10 years on wolf x dog hybridization and related topics. Consensus was reached that admixed individuals should always be defined according to their genetic profile, and that a reference threshold for admixture (i.e., q-value in assignment tests) should be formally adopted for their identification. To mitigate hybridization, experts agreed on adopting preventive, proactive and, when concerning small and recovering wolf populations, reactive interventions. Overall, experts' consensus waned as the issues addressed became increasingly practical, including the adoption of lethal removal. We suggest three non-mutually exclusive explanations for this trend: (i) value-laden viewpoints increasingly emerge when addressing practical issues, and are particularly diverging between experts with different disciplinary backgrounds (e.g., ecologists, geneticists); (ii) some experts prefer avoiding the risk of potentially giving carte blanche to wolf opponents to (illegally) remove wolves, based on the wolf x dog hybridization issue; (iii) room for subjective interpretation and opinions result from the paucity of data on the effectiveness of different management interventions. These results have management implications and reveal gaps in the knowledge on a wide spectrum of issues related not only to the management of anthropogenic hybridization, but also to the role of ethical values and real-world management concerns in the scientific debate.
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