Nature Conservation Research

2–12

Authors: Nenov D.I., Zlatanova D.P., Stoynov E.H., Peshev H.V., Grozdanov A.P.

A group of griffon vultures in Kresna Gorge was studied for its visit on the feeding station next to Rakitna Village after being reintroduced in the area. A camera trap method was used for a better understanding of the breeding behaviour of the griffon vulture, including the intra- and inter-species relations. A statistically significant difference was found between the independent feeding events during the pre-incubation and incubation periods of vultures. The duration of those events also differs, the ones in the second period being longer. Furthermore, a statistically significant difference was observed between the number of vultures per photo for the two sample periods, as a result of a different number of unmarked wild birds and different activity patterns of the nesting pairs. In spite of the fact that the terrestrial predators are also active during the night, their daytime presence leads to a high enough overlap between the two ecological groups, showing that the carnivores are a disturbance factor for the scavengers. The raven is the most abundant species at the feeding site and thus is a food competitor to the griffon vulture. The two species have adapted their behaviour to use the feeding station more successfully during the different biological periods. A significant decrease in the activity overlap between the individuals of the successfully nesting pairs was observed on the feeding station after the beginning of the incubation period. On the other hand, the activity overlap of the unsuccessfully nesting pairs increased in the second sample period. Camera traps can be used in further studies of the mating ecology for individual breeding pairs, when a direct observation on the nest is hard or impossible. This can be a cheap alternative of the time-consuming field observations.

26–35

Authors: Ngama S., Korte L., Johnson M., Vermeulen C., Bindelle J.

In Central Africa, Gabon is a forested country with a rich biodiversity where conflict between wild animals and humans is common and causes innumerable damage to crops. The worst crop raiders are elephants, which can destroy an entire crop in a single night. These raids threaten people's livelihoods as well as elephants because angry farmers often retaliate with killing campaigns against crop raiding elephants. To keep elephants out of farms the use of chilli pepper is recommended as a non-lethal method. But only a few studies have tested methods to use chilli pepper to deter elephants in Gabon. Results from this study give a starting point for understanding how forest elephants react to devices using chilli pepper as a deterrent based on sequential camera trap photos. A chilli pepper device that resulted in splashing concentrate on the elephant face proved to be the most effective at deterring elephants. Surprisingly, chilli pepper concentrate directly applied to mango fruits did not deter elephants from eating the fruits, although it probably caused some discomfort. To make effective deterrent devices with chilli pepper future works need to focus on exploring practices to reach the elephant face with the least, safe quantity of chilli pepper and which will have enough strong deterrent effect.

47–56

Authors: Sidorchuk N.V., Rozhnov V.V.

The European badger's (Meles meles) daily activity was studied in two regions of European Russia with camera traps. The results of the study show that the daily activity of the European badger on settlements does not differ in the compared populations inhabiting Darwin Reserve and Meschera National Park. The badger appears on surface often during the daylight contrary to the classical idea of nocturnal activity of the species. More than half of all animal registrations occur at daylight during the summer. The moderate climate of the study areas and low level of human persecution are considered among the possible reasons of this type of activity. The daily activity of the European badger undergoes markedly seasonal changes in both populations. Badgers more often came out from their setts during daylight in summer and at night in autumn. The results have practical application in the organisation of the census of badgers by means of camera traps.

68–88

Authors: Ogurtsov S.S., Zheltukhin A.S., Kotlov I.P.

Here are presented the results of the analysis of daily activity patterns obtained from the data of camera traps for five large mammals (elk Alces alces, wild boar Sus scrofa, brown bear Ursus arctos, grey wolf Canis lupus, Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx) and three medium ones (European badger Meles meles, raccoon dog Nyctereutes procyonoides, mountain hare Lepus timidus) for the territory of the Central Forest Nature Reserve, Valdai Upland, Russia. Data were collected in the period 2010–2017 and the trap effort was 30 158 camera days from 21 locations. Most of the mammals surveyed showed activity at night and twilight hours (71% of the pictures). The hare was most active among all and dominant at night. In many respects it is similar to the activity of a raccoon dog, which type can be defined as nocturnal too. Unlike a hare, a raccoon dog has a weak peak in the daytime and less activity in the night. Badgers movements are confined to the twilight and nighttime. The share of nocturnal activity of large ungulates such as elk and wild boar was approximately the same and amounted to about 45% of all registrations. The wild boar is slightly more active during the day and in the evening and is not active at all in the morning. The elk is active in the morning, and in the daytime and to a lesser extent in the evening. The lynx and the bear have similar cathemeral activity patterns: almost half of all their meetings occurred at daylight hours and only slightly – less than 40% – at night. The brown bear had the maximum number of registrations in the daytime among all the studied species. Despite the fact that the main object of lynx feeding in the reserve is the hare, there was no high degree of overlap between them (γˆ = 0.75). In the group of large carnivores, the wolf was noticeably distinguished, more than half of its registrations were at night, and a third – on daytime. Daily activities of the wolf and its main prey elk showed a large overlap (γˆ = 0.89). The seasonal variations of daily activity of all species were also shown. According to the results of factor analysis, each of the studied species was divided into one of three separate groups. The first group included species with a tendency to nocturnal activity (wolf, elk, hare, badger, and raccoon dog), the second group – cathemeral animals (bear and lynx). In the third group was only the wild boar, whose activity was associated with the evening hours. This is the first long-term continuous camera trap survey in Russia and it provides detailed daily activity patterns for multiple large and medium-sized sympatric mammals.

100–103

Authors: Samsonov S.V., Makarova T.V., Shitikov D.A.

The study was conducted in the southern part of the «Russky Sever» National Park during 2016–2017 as a part of the research on the life history and demography of songbirds breeding in abandoned fields. The nest fate was established by using motion-sensing trail cameras. Among 87 controlled nests, 36 were depredated and revealed at least seven predator species. Almost all predators were mainly attracted by nests with nestlings. But not all predation events led to fully depredated nests. Our data suggest that the local populations of ground-nesting passerines in national park «Russky Sever» are under the influence of several groups of nest predators.