After the emergence of African swine fever (ASF), the wild boar population numbers fell drastically in Eastern Europe. This situation made it possible to verify the changes in the wolves’ diet that occurred. The material collection was carried out in two regions, Grodno and Vitebsk, in Belarus. In total, 19 species/groups of prey were observed in the gray wolf diet, but the most important were wild boar, elk, red deer, roe deer and beaver. The decrease in the number of wild boar caused changes in the diet of wolves but only in Vitebsk region, where wolves’ diet before the ASF epidemic outbreak consisted mainly of elk and wild boar. After the decrease of wild boar numbers, wolves still mainly hunted elk, but other types of prey included roe deer, red deer and beaver. We found a negative correlation between wild boar and both deer species (roe deer and red deer) in the wolves’ diet. Moreover, the more the wolves consumed elk, the less they consumed beaver. In our opinion, only intensive hunting of wolves by humans can explain the resulting dietary fluctuations between elk and beaver, as well as the fact that wolves did not turn to other food sources.
One of the basics of effectively managing a wild boar population is knowledge of its home range, spatial patterns, and habitat use. However, little is known about the reaction of wild boar to changes in the agricultural landscape during the time of harvesting. In this study, we assessed the impact of crop harvesting on habitat selection of wild boar. For this reason, we analyzed radio-collared animals in four summer months (from June to September) in an agricultural landscape in Poland. We analyzed the habitat selection by wild boar with a generalized linear model and Jacob’s selectivity index. The wild boar preference for arable land, pastures and the “other” category showed clear monthly dynamics. In contrast, a stable preference for forests and mosaics was observed throughout all months. The preference of wild boar to arable land dropped significantly in August, which we interpret as the impact of the harvest. We conclude that intensive agriculture contributes to significant changes in the frequency of wild boar in various habitats. This, however, does not apply to all habitats, because forest habitats are constantly visited by wild boar as their main daytime refuge. Moreover, extensive farming, although less attractive for wild boar, is rather neutral and does not alter the abundance of animals in habitats.
The Garden Dormouse (Eliomys quercinus), is the rarest species of the Gliridae family in Central Europe. So far, information on the occurrence of this species in Poland is based mainly on historical data in the literature. The presence of the Garden Dormouse is additionally confused by the occurrence of the Forest Dormouse (Dryomys nitedula) of similar appearance. The range of both species overlap in Poland, and they have often been distinguished incorrectly.
The aim of the research was to critically analyse the known localities of the Garden Dormouse in Poland, using both literature data and museum collections. The analysis of museum collections indicated errors in species identification, where specimens of the Forest Dormouse were usually described as a Garden Dormouse. New, previously unknown, localities have also been found. Most numerous in the collections are specimens from the vicinity of Babia Góra (Western Carpathians), where 5 individuals were caught in the early 1960s. Another occurrence of the Garden Dormouse in the Carpathians was recorded in Zakopane in the second half of the 19th century. Another region of the species’ occurrence is the area of Lusatia, in the lowland, western part of the country, where one specimen was found. The last specimen was found in Silesia in the first half of the 20th century. The remaining literature information should be considered uncertain. The last certain information about the occurrence of the Garden Dormouse in Poland comes from the 1960s from Zawoja (vicinity of Babia Góra) and since then, despite intensive searches in the 1970s and 1980s, this species has not been found in the localities where it was captured earlier. There have been significant changes in the landscape in the areas where the species historically occurred. The mosaic of mountain pastures, arable fields and small spruce forests, constituting a favourable habitat for the Garden Dormouse, has been replaced by beech forests, which are currently dominated by the Edible Dormouse (Glis glis).
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