Diet and wild ungulate preferences of wolves in northwestern Anatolia during winter
The gray wolf (Canis lupus) is making a comeback in many habitats in central Europe, where it has been once extirpated. Although densities are still low to moderate, this comeback already raises management concerns. In Anatolia, the gray wolf is one of the most common predator species occupying almo...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:09cdb3c7ddfc480598cea4382888987d 2024-01-07T09:42:34+01:00 Diet and wild ungulate preferences of wolves in northwestern Anatolia during winter Deniz Mengüllüoğlu Eylül İlaslan Hasan Emir Anne Berger 2019-08-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7446 https://doaj.org/article/09cdb3c7ddfc480598cea4382888987d EN eng PeerJ Inc. https://peerj.com/articles/7446.pdf https://peerj.com/articles/7446/ https://doaj.org/toc/2167-8359 doi:10.7717/peerj.7446 2167-8359 https://doaj.org/article/09cdb3c7ddfc480598cea4382888987d PeerJ, Vol 7, p e7446 (2019) Canis lupus Predator-prey Sus scrofa Prey preferences Livestock guarding dog Population density Medicine R Biology (General) QH301-705.5 article 2019 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7446 2023-12-10T01:49:47Z The gray wolf (Canis lupus) is making a comeback in many habitats in central Europe, where it has been once extirpated. Although densities are still low to moderate, this comeback already raises management concerns. In Anatolia, the gray wolf is one of the most common predator species occupying almost all kind of habitats. Although its numbers were reduced in some parts of the country, it has never been extirpated and lived in sympatry with humans. In this study we investigated, for the first time, the winter diet of wolves in north-west Anatolia, where a multispecies wild ungulate community occurs in sympatry with high density livestock. We selected two geographically close but different habitats (steppe and forest) with different wild prey availabilities and compositions. In both areas ungulate contribution to winter diet biomass was more than 90%. Wolf pack size (four to eight wolves) were higher in the study area where livestock numbers and human disturbance were lower and wild prey were more available. In both study areas, wild boar (Sus scrofa) was the main and most preferred food item (Chesson’s α = 0.7 − 0.9) and it occurred at higher density where wolf pack size was smaller. We could not find a high preference (Chesson’s α = 0.3) and high winter predation pressure on the reintroduced Anatolian wild sheep (Ovis gmelinii anatolica) population that occurs in the study area covered by steppe vegetation. Contribution of livestock and food categories other than wild ungulates to wolf diet stayed low. Wolves can help mitigate human-wildlife conflict regulating wild boar numbers, the most common conflict-causing ungulate species in Anatolia. Instead of managing wolf numbers in human dominated landscapes, we recommend reintroduction of wild ungulates to the areas where they became locally extinct and replaced by livestock. Article in Journal/Newspaper Canis lupus gray wolf Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles PeerJ 7 e7446 |
institution |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Canis lupus Predator-prey Sus scrofa Prey preferences Livestock guarding dog Population density Medicine R Biology (General) QH301-705.5 |
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Canis lupus Predator-prey Sus scrofa Prey preferences Livestock guarding dog Population density Medicine R Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Deniz Mengüllüoğlu Eylül İlaslan Hasan Emir Anne Berger Diet and wild ungulate preferences of wolves in northwestern Anatolia during winter |
topic_facet |
Canis lupus Predator-prey Sus scrofa Prey preferences Livestock guarding dog Population density Medicine R Biology (General) QH301-705.5 |
description |
The gray wolf (Canis lupus) is making a comeback in many habitats in central Europe, where it has been once extirpated. Although densities are still low to moderate, this comeback already raises management concerns. In Anatolia, the gray wolf is one of the most common predator species occupying almost all kind of habitats. Although its numbers were reduced in some parts of the country, it has never been extirpated and lived in sympatry with humans. In this study we investigated, for the first time, the winter diet of wolves in north-west Anatolia, where a multispecies wild ungulate community occurs in sympatry with high density livestock. We selected two geographically close but different habitats (steppe and forest) with different wild prey availabilities and compositions. In both areas ungulate contribution to winter diet biomass was more than 90%. Wolf pack size (four to eight wolves) were higher in the study area where livestock numbers and human disturbance were lower and wild prey were more available. In both study areas, wild boar (Sus scrofa) was the main and most preferred food item (Chesson’s α = 0.7 − 0.9) and it occurred at higher density where wolf pack size was smaller. We could not find a high preference (Chesson’s α = 0.3) and high winter predation pressure on the reintroduced Anatolian wild sheep (Ovis gmelinii anatolica) population that occurs in the study area covered by steppe vegetation. Contribution of livestock and food categories other than wild ungulates to wolf diet stayed low. Wolves can help mitigate human-wildlife conflict regulating wild boar numbers, the most common conflict-causing ungulate species in Anatolia. Instead of managing wolf numbers in human dominated landscapes, we recommend reintroduction of wild ungulates to the areas where they became locally extinct and replaced by livestock. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Deniz Mengüllüoğlu Eylül İlaslan Hasan Emir Anne Berger |
author_facet |
Deniz Mengüllüoğlu Eylül İlaslan Hasan Emir Anne Berger |
author_sort |
Deniz Mengüllüoğlu |
title |
Diet and wild ungulate preferences of wolves in northwestern Anatolia during winter |
title_short |
Diet and wild ungulate preferences of wolves in northwestern Anatolia during winter |
title_full |
Diet and wild ungulate preferences of wolves in northwestern Anatolia during winter |
title_fullStr |
Diet and wild ungulate preferences of wolves in northwestern Anatolia during winter |
title_full_unstemmed |
Diet and wild ungulate preferences of wolves in northwestern Anatolia during winter |
title_sort |
diet and wild ungulate preferences of wolves in northwestern anatolia during winter |
publisher |
PeerJ Inc. |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7446 https://doaj.org/article/09cdb3c7ddfc480598cea4382888987d |
genre |
Canis lupus gray wolf |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus gray wolf |
op_source |
PeerJ, Vol 7, p e7446 (2019) |
op_relation |
https://peerj.com/articles/7446.pdf https://peerj.com/articles/7446/ https://doaj.org/toc/2167-8359 doi:10.7717/peerj.7446 2167-8359 https://doaj.org/article/09cdb3c7ddfc480598cea4382888987d |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7446 |
container_title |
PeerJ |
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7 |
container_start_page |
e7446 |
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