Diet and wild ungulate preferences of wolves in northwestern Anatolia during winter.

摘要: The gray wolf (Canis lupus) is making a comeback in many habitats central Europe, where it has been once extirpated. Although densities are still low to moderate, this already raises management concerns. In Anatolia, the one of most common predator species occupying almost all kind habitats. its numbers were reduced some parts country, never extirpated and lived sympatry with humans. study we investigated, for first time, winter diet wolves north-west multispecies wild ungulate community occurs high density livestock. We selected two geographically close but different (steppe forest) prey availabilities compositions. both areas contribution biomass was more than 90%. Wolf pack size (four eight wolves) higher area livestock human disturbance lower available. areas, boar (Sus scrofa) main preferred food item (Chesson's α = 0.7 - 0.9) occurred at smaller. could not find preference α = 0.3) predation pressure on reintroduced Anatolian sheep (Ovis gmelinii anatolica) population that covered by steppe vegetation. Contribution categories other ungulates stayed low. Wolves can help mitigate human-wildlife conflict regulating numbers, conflict-causing Anatolia. Instead managing dominated landscapes, recommend reintroduction they became locally extinct replaced