The Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx population in the Carpathian Mountains is considered to be one of the best preserved and largest in Europe and hence is a source for past and current reintroduction projects in central Europe. However, its status in Slovakia has been reported to the European Commission on the basis of hunters´ reports and expert estimates that have never been validated by a robust scientific approach. We conducted the first camera-trapping surveys to estimate the density of Eurasian lynx in Slovakia by means of spatial capture–recapture models in two reference areas during 2011–2015. We estimated population density per 100 km2 of suitable lynx habitat (posterior SD) as 0.58 ± SD 0.13 independent individuals (adults and subadults) in the Štiavnica Mountains and 0.81 ± SD 0.29 in Veľká Fatra National Park and surroundings. These are the lowest densities estimated using spatial capture–recapture models so far reported for the species, suggesting the lynx population in Slovakia is below carrying capacity. We suspect that low densities may be attributable to undetected human-caused mortality. Our results imply that official game statistics are substantially overestimated. Moreover, the lynx population in Slovakia may not be at favourable conservation status as required by the EU Habitats Directive. We therefore call for a thorough assessment of the density and trend of the Slovak Carpathian lynx population, and the establishment of a scientifically robust monitoring system.

This study provides for the first time in the Carpathians analysis of spatial behaviour of 20 male red deer monitored during 2005-2013 using radio-telemetry. Two distinct spatial patterns were displayed in the same local population, i.e. residential and migratory. Residential annual home ranges were significantly smaller compared to migratory ones using both Minimum Convex Polygon and Kernel Home Range, due to periodic movement of migrants between distinct seasonal ranges. Residents remained in the same area throughout the year and showed a positive age effect on the home range size. While seasonal ranges of migrants were comparable in size, residents surprisingly expanded their space use in winter compared to other seasons. Fidelity to seasonal ranges over the years, especially winter, was striking and comparable in both migrants and residents with increasing tendency throughout the year (37-68 %). Vertical differences in home range altitudes were most obvious in migrants, although in both migrant types, significant descent was recorded during the winter. The longest horizontal movements were recorded in three young stags emigrating to neighbouring mountain ranges (30, 47 and 65 km). Because 45 % of the population seems to be migratory, the data support importance of large-scale hunting management established in Slovakia in 2009.

The effect of various supplementary feeds on bark browsing was studied in red deer under controlled conditions. Fifteen female red deer were randomly assigned to five dietary treatments (n=3 animals each)

he recent increase of red deer Cervus elaphus population and consequent damage caused by their herbivory impact increasingly concern foresters and farmers in Slovakia as well as in other European countries. hus, the topic of vegetation-deer interactions with focus on forage production is especially relevant for developing adequate management guidelines. Using data from 320 sampling plots, we estimated the overall availability of all forage items seasonally consumed by red deer in commercial temperate forests and identiied the main factors afecting forage availability in summer and winter. We found that cutblocks were the most productive habitats throughout the year irrespective of the site quality. Summer forage biomass peaked at ≈8 years and winter forage biomass at ≈10 years following felling, then slowly declined as the cutblocks aged and the canopy increased. Understorey vegetation production in mature forests was determined primarily by light availability, as the major driving factor of vegetation growth in the closed-canopy forest ecosystems, and to a lesser extent by a site quality. We suggest that the site quality index that is traditionally used in forestry is not an eicient predictor of the forage availability for red deer, and estimations of the forage potential of hunting grounds should incorporate more complex models to evaluate carrying capacity of the landscape.

Comparisons of community structure across sites allow for the detection of convergent patterns and the selective forces that have produced them. In this study, we examined the foraging guild structure of birds breeding in forests on three continents-Europe, North America, and Australia, with largely phylogenetically distinct avifaunas. We examined two hypotheses: (1) the bird assemblages in the three geographically separated forested study sites should have similar foraging guild patterns to the extent to which environmental resources of these forests are similar, and (2) if bird assemblages in structurally similar forest habitats have undergone adaptive evolution, then radiation of species into guilds should have been caused by analogous selective resource gradients (factors). Bootstrapped cluster analysis (UPGMA) and bootstrapped principal coordinate analysis (BPCoA) of chord distances were employed to determine foraging guild structure for each assemblage, and to extract the significantly different factors responsible for segregation of species into guilds. Cluster analyses identified three analogous foraging guilds (ground and litter foragers, foliage gleaners, and trunk foragers) in each of the bird assemblages, supporting the first hypothesis of guild structure convergence. The BPCoA determined that two environmental factors (vertical resource allocation and spatial tree morphology gradients) were primarily responsible for segregation of species into guilds in these three geographically distant but structurally similar forests. These findings support the hypothesis that guild structures in forest bird assemblages largely reflect the similarities and differences in forest structure and the distribution and abundance of foraging resources, and result from largely adaptive evolution. Nomenclature: Bird nomenclature follows Dickinson (2003).