Katarzyna Bojarska

Georg-August-Universität Göttingen | GAUG · Faculty of Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology

Biotic interactions are expected to influence species' responses to climate change, but they are usually not included when predicting future range shifts. We assessed the importance of biotic interactions to understand future consequences of climate and land use change for biodiversity using as a model system the brown bear (Ursus arctos) in Europe...

Large mammals have been colonising urban areas throughout the world. This process is often accompanied by genetic and behavioural changes, and as a result, urban populations may form distinct entities within continuous range of the species. In this paper, we present the results of an analysis of the spatial distribution of genetic variation in urba...

As the wolf Canis lupus populations continue to recover across Europe, livestock depredation becomes increasingly challenging for their effective conservation. We aim to (1) analyze the spatiotemporal variation in wolf attacks on livestock in relation to the landscape structure, livestock species, and the phase of wolf expansion in Poland and (2) d...

Bird collisions with glass are a major source of avian mortality, killing billions of birds each year worldwide. Likely, the crucial step to prevent bird-glass collisions is understanding spatial and temporal bird-glass collision patterns. As more and more glass-made constructions appear in public spaces, it becomes essential to identify main drive...

Predator-prey interactions and human presence are among the key factors shaping large mammal activity patterns. In human-dominated landscapes, large carnivores must balance their activity rhythms between optimizing their feeding opportunities and avoiding encounters with humans. In north-eastern Turkey, the Caucasian lynx (Lynx lynx dinniki), a thr...

We investigated winter selection of resting sites by wolves in a commercial pine forest to test if roads, settlements , and type of forest influenced the resting behaviour of wolves during the day and at night. At the landscape scale, wolves selected resting sites that were farther from settlements, public roads and high-traffic forest roads than r...

Knowledge about breeding biology is often incomplete in species with complex reproductive strategies. The brown bear Ursus arctos is a polygamous seasonal breeder inhabiting a wide variety of habitats and environmental conditions. We compiled information about brown bear breeding season dates from 36 study areas across their distribution range in t...

Spatial ecology of red deer Cervus elaphus is shaped by both natural and anthropogenic factors. We used radio telemetry to investigate factors affecting habitat selection on two spatial scales, home range sizes and migratory behaviour of red deer (N = 8 individuals) in two mountain ranges of the western Carpathians in 2004–2007. The two study areas...

W najnowszym numerze czasopisma Mammalian Biology publikujemy wyniki naszych badań nad wykorzystywaniem dróg leśnych przez wilki w Borach Dolnośląskich. Ten jeden z największych zwartych kompleksów leśnych w Polsce, jest w dużej części plantacją sosny, założoną przez niemieckich leśników w 19 wieku. Aby ułatwić sobie hodowlę i eksploatację lasu, po...

The wolf Canis lupus population occupying the lowlands of central Europe is divided into two management units: the Baltic population east of the Vistula river and the Central European population to the west. We re-evaluated arguments for this division in the context of the ongoing wolf recovery and its usefulness for wolf management in Poland. To d...

We investigated by snow tracking and GPS telemetry how wolves Canis lupus used a dense (4 km/km2) network of forest roads for travel and scent marking. Forty-six percent of wolf trails but only 4.6% of telemetry locations were on forest roads. Wolves used forest roads to travel fast and far across their home ranges but spent relatively little time...

Summary Between early May 2018 and end of April, we systematically recorded signs of wolf presence all over the monitored area (about 4500 km2) around the border between the Świętokrzyskie and Mazowieckie provinces. We monitored 11 forest complexes and recorded wolf presence in all of them. In 2018, we confirmed reproduction in 7 forest complexes....

Human dimensions are a critical part of large carnivore conservation. We investigated how the historical presence of wolves (Canis lupus) influences public attitudes toward the carnivore and its management in rural areas of Poland. From March 2016 to March 2017, we used a self-administered questionnaire to assess attitudes of rural residents (n = 2...

Obecnie wilki występują na około jednej piątej powierzchni Polski (60 000 km 2). Nie jest prowadzony regularny, ogólnokrajowy monitoring liczebności, ale jeśli założymy średnią wielkość terytoriów watah 150 km 2 i ich średnią liczebność 5 osobników, to otrzymana liczba 2000 wilków na pewno nie będzie przesadnie duża. Jednocześnie średnie zaludnieni...

Climate change and anthropogenic food subsidies affect wildlife everywhere in the world. We used a 30-year set of data on winter observations of brown bear Ursus arctos to investigate the effects of weather and supplementary feeding on bear winter activity in the Polish Eastern Carpathians. The probability of observations of bears and their signs w...

Extra-pair copulation can increase genetic diversity and offspring fitness. However, it may also increase intra-nest variability in avian hosts of brood parasites, which can decrease the discrimination ability of host parents towards the parasite. In New Caledonia, the Fan-tailed Gerygone (Gerygone flavolateralis), which is parasitized by the Shini...

Information on 141 samples of 127 Fan-tailed Gerygones (29 breeding pairs and their 69 offspring, 36 breeding attempts) in New Caledonia. ID: ID of individual, nest: nest number, breeding attempt: number of breeding attempt, status: parent or nestling, sex: F = female, M = male, habitat: type of habitat surrounding the nest, brood polymorphism: 0 =...

Several animal species have adapted to urban environments, but still little is known about their ecology in these anthropogenically modified habitats. The aim of this study was to investigate the patterns of habitat use by wild boars Sus scrofa in the city of Kraków. Our objective was to determine which habitats are most important for wild boars in...

Non-invasive sampling by hair-trapping is increasingly used worldwide in wildlife research. Despite this rise and the potential of hair samples for ecology and conservation studies, the relative performance of hair collection devices has been rarely tested. Here, we compare the effectiveness of five types of hair traps for brown bears Ursus arctos...

Hair-trapping data. (XLSX)

Results of the survey of five types of hair traps (corral, path-trap, smola tree-trap, turpentine tree-trap, natural rub), conducted from March to December 2010 in the Northeastern Carpathians, SE Poland, showing the number of traps, total number of field inspections, number of positive inspections (i.e. with at least one sample collected) and the...

Summary of model selection explaining the variation in the probability of bear hair-trapping (1/0) in relation to the type of trap (Type), bear activity season (Activity), the time elapsed since trap installation (Days), the tree diameter at breast height (DBH), and tree species (Species) for all-traps surveyed in 2010 and rub-trees surveyed in 201...

Food availability plays a key role in animal movements. Anthropogenic provisioning of food to wildlife is a common practice of unprecedented magnitude worldwide and is of increasing conservation concern. Ungulate supplementary feeding is widespread in game management; however its effects on non-target species have received little attention. Here, w...

Selection of kill sites is an important part of predation. In human-modified habitats, anthropogenic landscape features may increase or decrease hunting efficiency of predators. We investigated which habitat attributes increase predation success in wolf Canis lupus hunting for ungulates in an intensively managed forest of western Poland. We used GP...

Correction factors that relate the dry mass of food items consumed by brown bears (Ursus arctos) to the volume of the corresponding residue in the feces have been determined for various foods consumed by brown bears in North America, but the values of some important foods used by European populations remain unknown. We estimated the correction fact...

Background Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins constitute an essential component of the vertebrate immune response, and are coded by the most polymorphic of the vertebrate genes. Here, we investigated sequence variation and evolution of MHC class I and class II DRB, DQA and DQB genes in the brown bear Ursus arctos to characterise the le...

Table S3. The average pairwise nucleotide and amino-acid distances (A), dN and dS for brown bear MHC class I sequences (B).

Table S1. Primer sequences for MHC class I and MHC class II in the brown.

Supplementary information. Mammalian MHC sequences used to obtain the brown bear sequences used to design primers.

Table S2. The number of MHC class I alleles detected in genomic DNA (gDNA) and transcribed alleles (cDNA).

Nucleotide sequences of MHC class II DRB genes in the Scandinavian brown bear.

ABSTRACT1 We reviewed worldwide spatial patterns in the food habits of the brown bear Ursus arctos in relation to geographical (latitude, longitude, altitude) and environmental (temperature, snow cover depth and duration, precipitation, primary productivity) variables. 2 We collected data from 28 studies on brown bear diet based on faecal analysis,...

We reviewed 28 studies on brown bear Ursus arctos diet to examine the dietary patterns of the species across its range in relation to geographical and environmental factors. At local scale, we investigated the seasonal variation in bear diet in the eastern Polish Carpathians at individual and population level based on the analysis of ca 1000 scats....