Many animal species are more and more likely to live in settlements and other anthropologically altered habitats, which often results in various conflict situations. Such conflicts can affect the society, activities and interests of people, and can provoke a negative attitude towards wildlife and even violent interventions against it. Therefore, it is very important to find integrated solutions for game management in non-hunting areas. In order to better understand the problematic and to facilitate the active management of game species in the urban environment, we analysed all cases of reported damages in non-hunting areas, i.e. for all game species and several different types of damages caused in the period 2008–2018. In this period, there was a total of 1,570 reported conflict events caused by the following game species: red deer (N=410, 26%), wild boar (N=297, 19%), red fox (N=209, 13%), roe deer (N=193, 12%), stone marten (N=179, 12%), and Eurasian jay (N=130, 8%); moreover, several conflicts were caused also by hooded crow, brown hare and European badger, and a sporadic damage cases were related to edible dormouse, fallow deer, pheasant and mouflon. Regardless the species, most of the damage was done on crops (N=846, 54%), followed by livestock and pets (N=285, 18%), objects and materials connected to agriculture (N=177, 11%), real estate (N=148, 9%), plants (N=79, 5%), and vehicles (N=26, 2%), respectively.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 5460134The consequences of intensive urbanization are reflected in the increase in the size of the urban and semi-urban landscape and thus the reduction and fragmentation of traditional wildlife habitats. Due to the simultaneous overgrowing of the agricultural landscape, the contact zone between urban areas and natural habitats of wildlife has been increasing. As a result, many animal species (including wildlife/game species) are increasingly living in settlements and other anthropogenically altered habitats, so interactions with humans are becoming more frequent, often leading to a variety of conflict situations. Such conflicts can affect society, activities and interests of people, and are most often reflected in damage to property (buildings, gardens, orchards, agricultural areas, domestic animals), as an increased risk in road traffic, contribute to disease transmission or may even be in the form of direct attacks on humans and domestic animals. The number of conflicts is influenced by the availability of food in the natural habitat, especially the amount of mast tree fruitification, and the weather, e.g. duration of summer drought periods and snow cover. Anthropogenic disturbances in the forest also have a significant impact, as they force wild animals to retreat elsewhere, including to agricultural areas, where they cause damage.
B.04 Guest lecture
COBISS.SI-ID: 5374118Across its pan-European distribution, roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) faces a wide diversity of environmental and climatic conditions, therefore several factors shape its life-history traits and cause significant variability in parameters of fitness. However, the effect of genetics (e.g., heterozygosity) on fitness and reproductive performance of roe deer has been understudied so far. Therefore, we aimed to determine throughout Slovenia: (i) spatial distribution of neutral and immunogenetic variation, (ii) connection between neutral vs. adaptive potential and environmental conditions, (iii) effect of genetic variation on body mass and reproductive ability (measured by the presence and number of corpora lutea in ovaries) of yearling roe deer does. Genetic analysis was performed on 15 neutral loci (microsatellites) and adaptive major histocompatibility complex (MHC; DRB exon 2) using the next generation approach. Our results show a positive relationship between mean microsatellite heterozygosity, standardized body mass and reproductive ability (potential litter size) of primiparous does. This suggests that genetic diversity has an important influence on fitness and increment rates in roe deer. Moreover, our data also confirm that gene flow plays a prominent role in shaping MHC polymorphism across large spatial scale, while the interplay between gene flow and selection is stronger in connected populations.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 1541586372