Monitoring of Wild Animal Species in the Czech Republic

AbstractIn the paper, the method of data collection, processing and visualization of the occurrence of non-indigenous and endangered animal species in the Czech Republic is described. Our new software enables easy data entry about the observation of monitored species to the expert public. The data obtained is then used by expert and scientific institutions in order to search for optimal solutions of nature protection and population management and results are open to the public.This analytic and software solution was developed by the Department of Information Technologies, Czech University of Life Sciences; the data has been also used by the Forestry and Wood Faculty and the Faculty of Life Sciences

Are they both the same shit? Winter faeces of roe and red deer show no difference in nutritional components

Herbivorous ungulate diets affect population performance and overall forest health through balanced interactions on plant-herbivore relations; therefore, understanding them is critical. Faeces are frequently used in ungulate nutritional ecology because they can provide information about animals' digestive efficiency. Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and red deer (Cervus elaphus) have different morpho-physiological and ecological constraints, and these differences should be reflected in their faeces. On the other hand, the lack of information about the animal (sex, age, reproductive status, diet selection, etc.) may be challenging for such studies. This study aimed to detect species' different susceptibility to these factors reflected in animals' faeces. Thus, we hypothesised that near-infrared reflectance spectrometry (NIRS) could distinguish between the faecal nutrients of two cervids. We collected 94 usable faeces from both species along the forest transect in Bohemian forests in the Czech Republic, covering 2 500 ha. Roe and red deer overlap was determined using the four faecal nutritional components on two axes. No discrimination occurred, refuting our hypothesis and highlighting that out-of-control variables are critical for faecal studies in uncontrolled settings. Fibrous parts explained the most variance (48%), indicating animals' strong reliance on nutrition quality. Apparently, uncontrolled supplementary feeding produced similar faecal nutrient outcomes during the nutrition-limiting winter, which was theoretically supported by the animal's response to predation and hunting pressure. The inability of NIRS to identify the source of N in faeces may also explain the lack of discrimination

Habitat selection of semi-free ranging European bison: Do bison preferred natural open habitats?

European bison (Bison bonasus) were successfully reintroduced in many free or semi-free areas across Europe during the last decades. Due to the increased numbers, the conflicts between human activities and bison are more frequent. Therefore the knowledge about spatial activity and habitat preference in new regions is the need for management decision making. We studied daily and seasonal habitat use of the semi-free European bison herd in the Czech Republic from 2014 to 2019. The lead cows of the herd were collared with the GPS devices with a 30-minutes GPS fixes interval. The bison herd strongly preferred the managed open areas and supplementary feeding stations during the seasons (Jacob´s index from 0.49 to 0.99). On the contrary, they avoided the forest type and unmanaged open habitats (Jacob´s index from −0.23 to −0.69). The managed meadows and feeding places they used almost exclusively during the night while the forest during the day-light

Trophic discrimination factors of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in hair of corn fed wild boar.

Stable isotope measurements are increasingly being used to gain insights into the nutritional ecology of many wildlife species and their role in ecosystem structure and function. Such studies require estimations of trophic discrimination factors (i.e. differences in the isotopic ratio between the consumer and its diet). Although trophic discrimination factors are tissue- and species-specific, researchers often rely on generalized, and fixed trophic discrimination factors that have not been experimentally derived. In this experimental study, captive wild boar (Sus scrofa) were fed a controlled diet of corn (Zea mays), a popular and increasingly dominant food source for wild boar in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in Europe, and trophic discrimination factors for stable carbon (Δ13C) and nitrogen (Δ15N) isotopes were determined from hair samples. The mean Δ13C and Δ15N in wild boar hair were -2.3‰ and +3.5‰, respectively. Also, in order to facilitate future derivations of isotopic measurements along wild boar hair, we calculated the average hair growth rate to be 1.1 mm d(-1). Our results serve as a baseline for interpreting isotopic patterns of free-ranging wild boar in current European agricultural landscapes. However, future research is needed in order to provide a broader understanding of the processes underlying the variation in trophic discrimination factors of carbon and nitrogen across of variety of diet types

The mean length and rate of growth of the shoulder and rump hair of individual wild boar.

<p>Values are reported as mean ± SD; n = 100 for individuals 1, 2, and 3 (i.e. n = 50 for shoulder and n = 50 for rump); n = 40 for individual 4 (i.e. n = 20 for shoulder and n = 20 for rump).</p><p>The mean length and rate of growth of the shoulder and rump hair of individual wild boar.</p

Sequences of wild boar hair used for isotope analysis of δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N.

<p>The wild boar hair were collected at the first sampling period (day 42) and at the end of the experiment (day 140) from the shoulder and rump of each wild boar.</p