Home ranges of two wolf packs in the Slovak Carpathians

• Main Authors: Finďo Slavomír, Chovancová Barbara
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Subjects: wolf; home range; habitat use; Slovakia; Canis lupus
• Online Access: https://kramerius.lib.cas.cz/view/uuid:8495ab45-90d0-dc45-84d5-461a64669b4b

Movements, home-range size and habitat use of the European wolf (Canis lupus) are described in the Slovak Carpathians. The study was carried out in 1994–2002 in two national parks of central Slovakia. In the Tatry National Park we monitored for 11 months an adult male associated with a pack of 7. In the Nízke Tatry National Park we radio-tracked an adult female for 82 months (1995–2002). Over the course of the study the pack size in the Nízke Tatry ranged from 2 to 7 members. In this park the most intensive telemetry was conducted from 1996 to 1997 when the radio-tagged female reared her offspring. Home – ranges of radio-collared wolves calculated for the whole period of radio – tracking (MCP with 100 % of observations) were 146 km2 (male) and 191 km2 (female), respectively. Extraterritorial forays were not observed. Core areas of the home – ranges estimated by the Kernel method (50 % of locations), were small (21 km2: male; 28 km2: female) and overlapped mainly with the forest habitats heavily used by red deer (Cervus elaphus). The size of territory used in summer was 24 % – 49 % smaller than in winter.