Habitat selection of Eurasian woodcock Scolopax rusticola during the spring migration period in Hungary

To establish a decent regulation of the hunting of woodcock in Hungary, a monitoring programme started in 2009 at a national scale. More than 900 participating observers collect data of woodcock during synchronized censuses each spring and in autumn to have basic knowledge of woodcock presence and abundance in the country. Data collecting locations were selected by the observers themselves based on their former experiences, which was primarily influenced by the former knowledge about habitat use of woodcock. Their selection of sites could primarily be influenced by the former knowledge about habitat use of woodcock. This situation offers an opportunity to evaluate this choice of habitats. In this study we investigated the habitat selection of woodcock during spring migration and we tested whether the preceding designation of observation points reflects enough knowledge about their habitat preferences. We used four year spring observation data of the Hungarian woodcock monitoring programme based on synchronized censuses. In order to evaluate the choice of the observers, observation points were buffered with a radius of 874 meters - 2* radius of a 60 ha circle which is known to be used by woodcock individuals in the evening roding period. We intersected the buffers with the Corine Landcover map, and we compared their composition with the composition of buffers of randomly generated points.To evaluate the choice of the birds, correlation between landcover types preferred or avoided by the observers and the detections of woodcock was tested using the nonparametric Spearman correlation. In the case of forests we performed an additional analysis: We classified the buffers using 3 categories of their forest cover rates (0-45% OPEN, 45-77% MID, 77-100% FORESTED). We took 50 random samples of each forest cover rate class per year and we tested the differences among them in the number of woodcock detections and the frequencies of positive sites (where woodcock observation happened).According to our results, the locations of the observation points might not be resulted by random choice. Most landcover types preferred or avoided are also correlated with woodcock abundance. However the correlations we have found were weak. The key element of choice is the presence of forests. The higher rate of broad-leaved forests near the points can raise, the higher rate of discontinuous urban fabric or non-irrigated arable land can lower detection probability

Application of the LoCoH method in the analysis of roe deer habitat use

The purposes of this study were (1) to demonstrate a novel and effective method of home range estimation, and (2) to determine the annual home range sizes of roe deer - captured and radio-tagged in a floodplain forest – with the fix-k LoCoH method. We used one year localization data of six roe deer equipped with GPS-GSM collars in January 2007. The home ranges were estimated with the fixed-k LoCoH (with 50% and 95% isopleths). To calculate the k value we used the “minimum spurious hole covering” (MSHC) rule. The obtained k values varied between 16 and 21. The size of the LoCoH home ranges varied between 230-540 hectares. The size of the 95% isopleths varied from 38 to 82 hectares, while the core areas (50% isopleths) were between only 5.02 and 8.23 hectares. To illustrate home ranges we also utilized the land cover map of the study area. Based on these results we propose this method to achieve better estimates of roe deer home ranges living in our study area

Monitoring of ungulate impact in Hungarian forested Natura 2000 sites.

Ungulates have both, advantageous and disadvantageous effects in forest ecosystems. But predominantly, there is a one-sided negative opinion about their role and impact mainly based on economic damage caused by these game species. However, we should also always consider their ecological role in forested habitats as ecosystem engineers. We, therefore, aimed to establish a nationwide monitoring of ungulate impact assessing forest-ungulate interactions based on a reliable unified methodology. This monitoring includes measurements of understory woody plant supply and tree-trunk availability to and their utilisation by ungulates; moreover the estimation of forest regeneration and intensity of area use by ungulates. First field studies take place on special areas of conservation (SAC) in Mátra Mountains belonging to the Natura 2000 network and covering about 5000 hectares. Various forest stands will be examined along transects with 100 sample points in each SAC area to ensure the representativity of sampling. The collected data will characterize the relationships between the relative ungulate density and food availability to herbivores. In this way, the forest-game interactions can be also described. A new monitoring system based on our elaborated methodology will provide regular data from many parts of the Hungarian forests. The spatial and temporal comparisons of those values help us to understand how different ungulate species contribute to the maintenance of natural processes of our forest ecosystems

Monitoring of ungulate impact in Hungarian forested Natura 2000 sites

Ungulates have both, advantageous and disadvantageous effects in forest ecosystems. But predominantly, there is a one-sided negative opinion about their role and impact mainly based on economic damage caused by these game species. However, we should also always consider their ecological role in forested habitats as ecosystem engineers. We, therefore, aimed to establish a nationwide monitoring of ungulate impact assessing forest-ungulate interactions based on a reliable unified methodology. This monitoring includes measurements of understory woody plant supply and tree-trunk availability to and their utilisation by ungulates; moreover the estimation of forest regeneration and intensity of area use by ungulates. First field studies take place on special areas of conservation (SAC) in Mátra Mountains belonging to the Natura 2000 network and covering about 5000 hectares. Various forest stands will be examined along transects with 100 sample points in each SAC area to ensure the representativity of sampling. The collected data will characterize the relationships between the relative ungulate density and food availability to herbivores. In this way, the forest-game interactions can be also described. A new monitoring system based on our elaborated methodology will provide regular data from many parts of the Hungarian forests. The spatial and temporal comparisons of those values help us to understand how different ungulate species contribute to the maintenance of natural processes of our forest ecosystems

Habitat use of roe deer in a floodplain forest and the neighbouring agricultural area

The purposes of this study were 1) to determine the annual and seasonal home range sizes of roe deer captured and radio-tagged in a floodplain forest, and 2) to evaluate the habitat-use in light of the differences in vegetation between the floodplain forest and the neighbouring agricultural lands. We used one year localization data of six roe deer equipped with GPS-GSM collars in January 2007. Their home ranges were estimated with minimum convex polygon and kernel home range (with 60% and 90% probability contours) methods. To evaluate the habitat-use we also utilized the land cover map of the study area. The size of the MCP home ranges varied between 500-1000 hectares. The size of the KHRs (90% probability contours) varied between 30-120 hectares, while the core areas (60% probability contours) were between only 5-35 hectares. The core area of each roe deer contained at least 10% forested habitat; while the agricultural habitat type played a significant role only in four of the cases (the proportion of agricultural land was higher than 50% only in three of them). Significant differences were found between home range sizes and also between the proportions of the used habitat types. The results of yearly vegetation-preference calculations showed that each studied roe deer avoided the agricultural lands. Based on these results we suppose that different spaceuse strategies can exist among roe deer living in our study area

Analysis of game damage estimation methods in winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) thruogh GIS simulations

Wildlife damage to agriculture causes significant economic loss worldwide annually. Game managers or hunters are responsible for the financial compensation of the crop damage caused by game species in several countries, including Hungary. Accredited experts estimate the level of the damage; however, currently, there are no standardised methods that would be obligatory to apply. In order to obtain information on the accuracy and bias of the different sampling methods, we designed GIS simulations in winter wheat (Triticum aestivum), which covers a significant proportion of the arable land not only in Hungary, but also globally. We tested two sampling methods with three sampling plot arrangements in a GIS environment. Our questions were the following: (1) How accurate and biased are the examined samplings? (2) Does the rate or the spatial distribution of the damage (or the interaction of these factors) affect the results of the investigated methods? We created 15 wheat field models with 1:2 side ratio, 12 cm row width and the area of 3 ha. We simulated 5 damage rates (10%, 30%, 50%, 70%, 90%) and 3 spatial damage patterns [random, aggregated in 1 and 2 field edges], of which the latter two follow the actual pattern of crop damage caused by big game species. V, W and X sampling tracks were allocated on each field model, and then they were sampled with square shaped, 1 m2 quadrats and 1 m long row sections (with 5 repetitions). The sample size was 20 and 25 plots, respectively (determined by the original description of the methods). At the sample plots, the total number of plants and the number of damaged plants were counted. According to our results, the statistical parameters of the different samplings were similar; the difference between the best and the poorest values was low. The rate and spatial distribution of the damage, as well as their interaction,  had a significant effect on the estimation of each quadrat sampling, while the row sections were significantly affected only by the damage distribution (V and W tracks) or the damage rate (X track). According to our findings however, the difference between the labour-intensity of the two approaches can be decisive. With the sample sizes in our study, remarkably lower number of plants had to be examined along the row sections, than in the quadrats. This suggests that the experts can obtain similar quality results with less effort, if they choose the row section sampling over the quadrats

Evaluation of the wildlife management practice of Liszt Ferenc International Airport

We investigated the wildlife strike data of years from 1997-2011 of Liszt Ferenc International Airport. The number of carcasses found on the airport increased till the year 2006, then, after a steep fall it became stabilized. Most of the strikes/found carcasses indicate presence of bird species, amongst these Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) and Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo) have a remarkable occurrence. In the previous five years birds’ trend suggests decreasing, whilst mammalian species’ trend shows upward tendencies. Its reason is that the continuously growing tool-collection of the utilized management methods is mainly suitable against bird specie