The concept of monitoring of abundance and distribution of wolf Canis lupus in Poland
Journal Title: Roczniki Bieszczadzkie - Year 2013, Vol 21, Issue 1
Abstract
Under the Habitat Directive wolf requires species monitoring. Parameters that have to be monitored are: distribution of the species, the dynamics of the numbers and condition of the species’ habitat. Present wolf monitoring methodology consists of year-round observations of all traces of the wolf presence and simultaneous wolf snow tracking within areas of well separated forests all over the country. This method raises a number of concerns, regarding identification of individuals, packs and designation of their territories. In this paper I have compared distribution of territories and size of four wolf packs studied with use of telemetry with data provided by “Nationwide inventory of wolf and lynx in Poland” coordinated by Mammal Research Institute PAS (MRI PAS). Both schematic distribution of wolf pack territories and their size provided by MRI PAS differed significantly from that obtained by telemetry methods. According to the “National strategy of wolf conservation...” (Okarma et al. 2011) monitoring of the wolf numbers should be carried out on the basis of genotyping individuals from scats/urine samples collected all over the country every 5 years and species’ range would be determined on the basis of information on the presence/absence of wolves provided by the managers of hunting grounds. Herein I present preliminary results of study based on genetic analysis of 245 samples collected from wolf scats in the Bieszczady Mountains from 2008 to 2012. If the inventory covered the whole country it would be necessary to collect and examine 2000-4000 scat samples. The feasibility of collecting of such a large number of amples is very questionable. The proposed herein monitoring program of the wolf distribution and abundance is based on: 1) wolf presence/absence data provided annually by the nature conservation and forestry services, 2) complete inventories conducted with use of genetic identification of individuals, trap cameras, and snow-tracking on alternatively changing trial areas. On the national scale the assessment of the wolf population size would be carried out each year as an estimate based on the current distribution of the species and extrapolation of results of precise inventories obtained on trial areas.
Authors and Affiliations
Wojciech Śmietana
Keywords
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