In Central Europe, where most wolf populations persist in habitats altered by humans, the dynamics of these populations are significantly influenced by human activities. Our studies in the western-most part of the Polish Carpathian Mts, 1996–2003, revealed that the winter density of wolves varied in the region from 1.3–1.9 wolves/100 km2 (on average 1.6, SE=0.13). In late summer, the average number of wolves in a pack was 4.7 wolves (n=21, range 2–9, SE=0.4), while an average pack in winter consisted of 4.0 wolves (n=25, range 2–7, SE=0.3). The mean wolf territory covered an area of 158 km2 (SE=26.7, range 98–227 km2). In the Silesian Beskid Mountains, where no human hunting pressure occurred, the wolf population increased during the study period at a mean rate of 28% per year. However, in the Żywiecki Beskid Mountains, where wolves were subject to hunting management in the Slovakian parts of their territories, the population did not increase. The mean rate of increase of the wolf population in the entire study area was 8% per year. Wolf mating seasons began on February 13th and lasted until March 7th, with pups being born during the first ten days of May. Pup rearing places were located between 880 and 1290 m a.s.l. (average = 1009 m a.s.l., SE=34.5, n=11), in dense thickets or under roots of fallen trees and stumps. We did not find excavated dens. In late summer, we recorded an average of 1.9 pups per pack, but counted only 1.3 pups per pack the following winter. Reasons for death (n=18) included culls (83%), collisions with motor vehicles (11%), and sarcoptic mange (6%). In the Żywiecki Beskid Mountains we estimated the minimum mortality rate of 1.5 individuals/pack/year.
We studied the location of Eurasian badger (Meles meles) setts in relation to various environmental factors, and attempted to assess the role of competition with other burrowing carnivores and the importance of human activity on their sett selection in the Western Carpathians (southern Poland). Excavated dens (53 %), caves and rock crevices (43 %), and burrows under buildings (4 %), were used by badgers as permanent shelters. Setts were located mostly in foothills (< 680 m a.s.l.), but selection for den location within the lower montane zone (680-980 m a.s.l.) was also observed. Excavated setts were recorded only up to 640 m a.s.l., while setts in rock crevices occurred up to 1050 m a.s.l. Badger shelters were mainly situated in forests or covered by dense bushes. Badgers avoided northern slopes in all altitudinal zones, and located their burrows mostly on SE or W slopes in foothills, and S or E slopes in montane zones. Setts were placed further from human settlements and main roads, but closer to meadows with high earthworm biomass, when compared with random points. Within badger territories, 1-12 setts were recorded. Badgers occupying territories which included both foothills and montane zones used burrows at various altitudes, but their main setts used for overwintering, were located exclusively above 800 m a.s.l. We conclude that sett location by badgers in mountains is shaped not only by the availability of cover and geological factors influencing digging, but also by human pressure and distance to foraging areas.
We investigated, in a laboratory experiment, how natural food available in autumn influences the body mass, locomotor activity, and level of detoxification enzymes in the bank vole Clethrionomys glareolus (Schreber, 1780). In September and October 2001, two groups of bank voles were fed with herbs and acorns. A well-balanced mixed diet was a control. The animals fed with herbs showed high locomotor activity, compared to those fed control diet, a distinct increase of food consumption but loss of body mass. These voles also showed remarkably increased levels of detoxification enzymes (cytochrome P-450 and glutathione transferases) in their livers. Bank voles fed with acorns also lost weight and were more active, compared to the control (but less than the herb-fed group), and had higher levels of detoxification enzymes. Bank voles fed with the control diet showed the lowest level of locomotor activity and did not lose weight. We explain the increased activity of bank voles with stress response to low-quality food, especially as this effect ceased after changing the diet to the control one. Our results suggest that poor nutritional quality of herbs, the bank voles’ main food under natural conditions, may be the main cause of seasonal decline in vole density in autumn-winter.
In summer 1992 through spring 1994, amphibian abundance and breeding was studied in the pristine temperate forests, typical of central European lowlands. The years 1991, 1992, and 1993 were among the driest in the recent decades, with the spring-summer precipitation 35% lower than the long-term average. In the primeval forests of Białowieża National Park, common frogs Rana temporaria spawned in small (on average, 0.2 ha) ponds (postglacial melt-out hollows) devoid of wood cover and characterised by water pH 5.1-6.0 (as measured in April). Breeding success of frogs, monitored qualitatively in 1993, was rather poor due to pond desiccation. The capture of amphibians on forest grids revealed that densities and seasonal dynamics differed between wet and drier deciduous forests. No amphibians were captured in the mixed coniferous forests during the study. In the wet ash-alder forests, on average, 39 amphibians ha-1 were recorded in late April, 12 ind ha-1 in summer, and 195–222 ind hasup-1 in autumn (September). In those forests, 90% of captured amphibians were common frogs, 6% common toads Bufo bufo, and 4% moor frogs R. arvalis. In the drier oak-lime-hornbeam forests, amphibians appeared in May, and increased in numbers towards summer (19–24 ind ha-1) and autumn (45–71 ind ha-1). Of all amphibians caught in those forests, 43% were common frogs, 38% common toads, and 19% were moor frogs. A majority of amphibians captured in autumn were young of the year. By mid-October, all amphibians had left the forest for their hibernation sites. Comparison of our data collected in very dry years with other available data from Bia∏owie ̋a Primeval Forest (various years between 1955 and 1998) revealed that summer indices of amphibian abundance were strongly positively correlated with rainfall in April-June of the census year and the previous year.