Small and médium sized predators monitoring along River Dráva

Abstract

We have been working on the small and medium sized predator species’ monitoring since 1999, within the framework of Monitoring River Dráva’s nature conservation area. The monitoring is carried out with live trapping. In the first two years of our work the methods were finalized. In our work, given valuable results since 2001 we have caught 86 individuals of seven predator species (red fox, polecat, weasel, stone and pine marten, wild cat, domestic cat) so far, during the 26 848 trap-nights. The average catch effectiveness was 0.317 captures/ 100 trap-nights. We could prove the presence of the ermine and the otter on the research area with additional methods. The wild cat, and the pine marten turned out to be the most frequent predator. Both species have narrow-bearing, and find human disturbance hard to bear. These qualities give the ability to these species to be the indicators of the changes in living places of the territory by follow the changes of their population with attention.