Food habits of the Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx in southeast Poland

We studied diet and prey preferences of the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) inhabiting south-east Poland, based on kills found during GPS-GSM telemetry and opportunistic winter tracking. Among 64 lynx kills were roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) (91%), red deer (Cervus elaphus) (3%) and brown hare (Lepus eur...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Vertebrate Biology
Main Authors: Mysłajek, Robert W., Stachyra, Przemysław, Figura, Michał, Nowak, Sabina
Language:English
Subjects:
predation
prey preferences
large carnivore conservation
game management
Lynx
Lynx lynx lynx
Online Access:https://kramerius.lib.cas.cz/view/uuid:6abdd206-b024-4ea4-bcf9-0e764205ccf1
https://doi.org/10.25225/jvb.21061
Description
Summary:We studied diet and prey preferences of the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) inhabiting south-east Poland, based on kills found during GPS-GSM telemetry and opportunistic winter tracking. Among 64 lynx kills were roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) (91%), red deer (Cervus elaphus) (3%) and brown hare (Lepus europaeus) (6%). From the ungulate community, lynx selected roe deer (D = 0.845) and avoided all other ungulates. We recorded one case of surplus and two cases of parallel killing. Lynx visited the same killed roe deer on average for 2.3 days, and for up to six days when surplus or parallel killing occurred. High numbers of the roe deer in south-east Poland supports the persistence of the lynx, but we urge managers to take under consideration food requirements of the lynx when planning game management.

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