Miha Krofel

University of Ljubljana · Biotechnical Faculty

The conservation of large carnivores is a formidable challenge for biodiversity conservation. Using a data set on the past and current status of brown bears (Ursus arctos), Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), gray wolves (Canis lupus), and wolverines (Gulo gulo) in European countries, we show that roughly one-third of mainland Europe hosts at least one larg...

Top-down suppression by apex predators can limit the abundance and spatial distribution of mesopredators. However, this phenomenon has not been studied over long time periods in human-dominated landscapes, where the strength of this process might be limited. Here, we used a multi-scale approach to analyse interactions between two canids in the huma...

Significance The cheetah is a prominent example for human–carnivore conflicts and mitigation challenges. Its global population suffered a substantial decline throughout its range. Here, we present an in-depth and new understanding of the socio-spatial organization of the cheetah. We show that cheetahs maintain a network of communication hubs distri...

Carnivore predation on livestock often leads people to retaliate. Persecution by humans has contributed strongly to global endangerment of carnivores. Preventing livestock losses would help to achieve three goals common to many human societies: preserve nature, protect animal welfare, and safeguard human livelihoods. Between 2016 and 2018, four ind...

Besides being one of the most charismatic animal species in the world, the lion is also among the best studied wild mammals. This largely results from our ability to directly observe them over extended periods, which is more an exception than a rule for large carnivores and is connected with lions’ preference for open habitats and their tolerance t...

Aim: The increasing availability of animal tracking datasets collected across many sites provides new opportunities to move beyond local assessments to enable detailed and consistent habitat mapping at biogeographical scales. However, integrating wildlife datasets across large areas and study sites is challenging, as species' varying responses to d...

Larger landforms such as valleys, ridges, or dolines can be easily detected with a number of already developed (semi-)automatic detection methods, while smaller features like rocky outcrops (i.e., cliffs, rocky blocks, rocky ridges, rock shelters, boulders, karrens and similar rocky features) are harder to detect. Field mapping or digitizing would...

Abstract: Larger landforms such as valleys, ridges, or dolines can be easily detected with a number of already developed (semi-)automatic detection methods, while smaller features like rocky outcrops (i.e., cliffs, rocky blocks, rocky ridges, rock shelters, boulders, karrens and similar rocky features) are harder to detect. Field mapping or digitiz...

Aim Physiological and metabolic performance are key mediators of the functional response of species to environmental change. Few environments offer such a multifaceted array of stressors as high‐altitude habitats, which differ markedly in temperature, water availability, UV radiation and oxygen pressure compared to low‐altitude habitats. Species th...

Integrating data across studies with traditional microsatellite genetic markers requires careful calibration and represents an obstacle for investigation of wide-ranging species where populations require transboundary management. We used the “yardstick” method to compare results published across Europe since 2002 and new wolf (Canis lupus) genetic...

Olfactory communication is important for many solitary carnivores to delineate territories and communicate with potential mates and competitors. Pallas’s cats (Otocolobus manul) are small felids with little published research on their ecology and behaviour, including if they avoid or change behaviours due to dominant carnivores. We studied their ol...

Estimating abundance of wild animal populations is crucial for their management and conservation. While spatial capture-recapture models are becoming increasingly common to assess the densities of elusive species, recent studies have indicated potential bias that can be introduced by unaccounted spatial variation of detectability. We used camera-tr...

COVID-19 lockdowns in early 2020 reduced human mobility, providing an opportunity to disentangle its effects on animals from those of landscape modifications. Using GPS data, we compared movements and road avoidance of 2300 terrestrial mammals (43 species) during the lockdowns to the same period in 2019. Individual responses were variable with no c...

Artificial feeding of wildlife is a widespread, but controversial, management practice with many positive and negative effects. Besides the effects on the target species, it can also affect other (non-target) species by modulating interspecific interactions. Previous research showed that the presence of artificial feeding sites for bears and ungula...

Golden jackal (Canis aureus) has dramatically increased its distribution and abundance in Europe. Expansion is now reaching parts of Central, Northern, and Western Europe, where jackal occurrences are mainly limited to vagrants or single territorial groups. Currently, it is hard to predict future development of jackal populations in these regions,...

Context Adjustments in habitat use by large carnivores can be a key factor facilitating their coexistence with people in shared landscapes. Landscape composition might be a key factor determining how large carnivores can adapt to occurring alongside humans, yet broad-scale analyses investigating adjustments of habitat use across large gradients of...

Report on monitoring of Eurasian lynx Dinaric-SE Alpine population for monitoring year 2021-2022

Mesopredators abundance is often limited by top‑order predators and also by key food resources. However, the contribution of these bidirectional forces to structure carnivore community is still unclear. Here, we studied how the presence and absence of an apex predator which is currently recovering its former distribution range, the Iberian lynx (Ly...

Kill rates are a central parameter to assess the impact of predation on prey species. An accurate estimation of kill rates requires a correct identification of kill sites, often achieved by field‐checking GPS location clusters (GLCs). However, there are potential sources of error included in kill site identification, such as failing to detect GLCs...

Globally, fragmented landscapes and other anthropogenic pressures are causing declines in large carnivore populations. Conservation organizations are working to counteract these trends through the translocations of large carnivores, for example by reintroducing them to their historic ranges or by reinforcing existing populations to promote gene flo...

Translocations of individuals for reintroductions and population reinforcements have been increasingly used in carnivore conservation. Movement is the first behavioural response of reintroduced animals to ‘forced dispersal’ in a new habitat and our study investigated space use and movement patterns of six male Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) translocated...

In many early European cultures, humans shared an overall positive view of the wolf. But this changed with the anthropocentric view of nature brought about by Christianity as well as with the process of domestication and the advent of extensive animal husbandry. Wolves were then strongly persecuted, leading to their extirpation in almost all their...

The arrival of a new carnivore can have important effects on local communities. While several effects of introduced alien species have been well documented, few studies have reported the ecological consequences of an expanding native species. Golden jackals (Canis aureus) are rapidly expanding their distribution in Europe, far beyond their historic...

Automatic methods for detecting and delineating relief features allow remote and low-cost mapping, which has an outstanding potential for large-scale spatial analysis and calculation of morphometric characteristics of karst depressions in remote, forested and hard to cross areas. Besides geomorphology, detection methods can be also useful for wildl...

SLO: Plenjenje evrazijskega risa (Lynx lynx) in mikrohabitatne reliefne značilnosti: primer analize morfometrije in morfologije vrtač kot lokacij uplenitev parkljarjev Plenjenje je temeljna ekološka funkcija plenilcev. Ključnega pomena je razpoložljivost plena, na uspešno uplenitev pa lahko vplivajo tudi značilnosti habitata in mikrolokacije. Name...

Plenjenje evrazijskega risa (Lynx lynx) in mikrohabitatne reliefne značilnosti: primer analize morfometrije in morfologije vrtač kot lokacij uplenitev parkljarjev Plenjenje je temeljna ekološka funkcija plenilcev. Ključnega pomena je razpoložljivost plena, na uspešno uplenitev pa lahko vplivajo tudi značilnosti habitata in mikrolokacije. Namen pris...

The book Preteklost in prihodnost ('The past and the future') is the sixteenth volume in the GIS v Sloveniji (GIS in Slovenia) book series and commemorates its 30th anniversary. The goal of the volume is to present the wide variety of research findings on geographical information systems in Slovenia in recent years. Powerful geoinformatic tools and...

Automatic methods for detecting and delineating relief features allow remote and low-cost mapping, which has an outstanding potential for large-scale spatial analysis and calculation of morphometric characteristics of karst depressions in remote, forested and hard to cross areas. Besides geomorphology, detection methods can be also useful for wildl...

The ecology and evolution of reproductive timing and synchrony has been a topic of great interest in evolutionary ecology for decades. Originally motivated by questions related to behavioural and reproductive adaptation to environmental conditions, the topic has acquired new relevance in the face of climate change. However, there has been relativel...

Bears are the largest terrestrial carnivores, and most bear species can be characterized as opportunistic omnivores. An infrequent foraging tactic for bears is cannibalism, where a bear consumes a conspecific individual, either through scavenging or following intraspecific predation. Although several reports of cannibalism events are known, no atte...

Selecting appropriate candidates for genetic rescue mostly relies on previous genetic research and monitoring, while ecological and behavioural traits of the remnant and source populations are rarely considered for such conservation measures. Because of their slow recovery, Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx populations in Central and Western Europe have been...

The project focuses on interactions among wild felids in Europe and Africa, but also includes research on other aspects of felid ecology in other parts of the world. Project aims • Study patterns of avoidance and attraction among the selected species of cats in space and time • Obtain novel insights into indirect communication among different cats...

ContextBehavioral adjustments by large carnivores can be a key factor facilitating their coexistence with people in shared landscapes. Landscape composition might be a key factor determining how large carnivores can adapt to occurring alongside humans, yet broad-scale analyses investigating adjustments of habitat use across large gradients of human...

Aim: Macroecological studies that require habitat suitability data for many species often derive this information from expert opinion. However, expert-based information is inherently subjective and thus prone to errors. The increasing availability of GPS tracking data offers opportunities to evaluate and supplement expert-based information with de...

The grey wolf (Canis lupus) persists in a variety of human-dominated landscapes and is subjected to various legal management regimes throughout Europe. Our aim was to assess the effects of intrinsic and methodological determinants on the hair cortisol concentration (HCC) of wolves from four European populations under different legal management. We...

Mammalian communities inhabiting temperate grasslands are of conservation concern globally, and especially in Central Asia, where livestock numbers have dramatically increased in recent decades, leading to overgrazing and land‐use change. Yet, how this pervasive presence of livestock herds affects the community of wild mammals remains largely unstu...

Movement is a fundamental process in animal ecology. For many species, such as large carnivores, movement patterns are greatly shaped by a combination of ecological and anthropogenic factors. Understanding how these factors impact the roaming capacity of large carnivores is essential to forecast risks and design long‐term conservation strategies. T...

Regular assessments of species’ status are an essential component of conservation planning and adaptive management. They allow the progress of past or ongoing conservation actions to be evaluated and can be used to redirect and prioritise future conservation actions. Most countries perform periodic assessments for their own national adaptive manage...

Habitat selection is a multi-scale process driven by trade-offs between benefits, such as resource abundance, and disadvantages, such as the avoidance of risk. The latter includes human disturbances, to which large carnivores, with their large spatial requirements, are especially sensitive. We investigated the ecological processes underlying multi-...

Automatic methods for detecting and delineating relief features allow remote and low-cost mapping, which has an outstanding potential for wildlife ecology and similar research. We applied a filled-DEM (digital elevation model) method using LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data to automatically detect dolines and other karst depressions in a rugg...

The snow leopard Panthera uncia is an elusive and globally-threatened apex predator occurring in the mountain ranges of central Asia. As with other large carnivores, gaps in data on its distribution and abundance still persist. Moreover, available density estimates are often based on inadequate sampling designs or analytical approaches. Here, we us...

Successful conservation depends on accurate taxonomy. Currently, the taxonomy of canids in Africa, Eurasia and Australasia is unstable as recent molecular and morphological studies have questioned earlier phenetic classifications. We review available information on several taxa of Old World and Australasian Canis with phylogenetic uncertainties (na...

Introduction to the broad public of the InterMuc Project in Namibia

Species assemblages often have a non‐random nested organization, which in vertebrate scavenger (carrion‐consuming) assemblages is thought to be driven by facilitation in competitive environments. However, not all scavenger species play the same role in maintaining assemblage structure, as some species are obligate scavengers (i.e., vultures) and ot...

What would successful deer management look like in Scotland? To some, flourishing populations of native wild deer represent success. But to others, negative impacts such as damage to woodlands and peatlands, agricultural and forestry losses, deer- vehicle collisions, and facilitating Lyme disease spread represent failure. Conflicting interests and...

Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx was reintroduced to the Dinaric Mountains in 1973 to bring back an extinct autochthonous keystone species, but also to enrich the hunting grounds. The institutions involved in the reintroduction were aware of the danger of genetic isolation and warned about the importance of connectivity between the lynx populations in the D...

Globally, fragmented landscapes and anthropogenic pressures are causing steep declines in large carnivore populations. Conservation organizations are working to counteract these trends through the reintroduction of large carnivores and translocations within existing populations to promote gene flow and resilience. This study analyzes a dataset we g...

The project Status and Conservation of the Alpine Lynx Population SCALP is an ongoing programme aiming to coordinate the Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx monitoring, conservation and management activities in the Alps, but the monitoring approach has recently been expanded to the neighbouring Dinaric and Jura Mountains. The long-term goal of the SCALP is to...

This summary reports the results from the »Spremljanje stanja ohranjenosti volkov v Sloveniji v sezoni 2020-2021« Project (Monitoring of Conservation Status of Wolves in Slovenia in 2020-2021 season). This is the fourth such project financed by the Slovenian Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning. The methods used in the project were deve...

In countries such as Mongolia, where globalization of the cashmere market has spurred herders to massively increase their livestock numbers, an important conservation concern is the effect of livestock encroachment on wildlife. This is especially important inside protected areas (PAs), which often represent the last refugia for threatened large mam...

Governments around the world invest considerable resources to reduce damages caused by large carnivores on human property. To use these investments more efficiently and effectively, we need to understand which interventions successfully prevent such damages and which do not. In the European Union, the LIFE program represents by far the largest fina...

Organisms face numerous environmental stressors, which can affect developmental precision, including symmetry of various physical characteristics. Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) has therefore been suggested as a simple and efficient tool for assessing sub-lethal stress levels. We analyzed FA in two sympatric lizard species (Iberolacerta horvathi and Po...

Governments around the world invest considerable resources to reduce damages caused by large carnivores on human property. To use these investments more efficiently and effectively, we need to understand which interventions successfully prevent such damages and which do not. In the European Union, the LIFE program represents by far the largest fina...

Worldwide, unsustainable use of nature threatens many ecosystems and the services they provide for a broad diversity of life, including humans. Yet, governments commonly claim that the best available science supports their policies governing extraction of natural resources. We confront this apparent paradox by assessing the complexity of the inters...

Snow leopards (Panthera uncia) are apex predators in Asian mountainous ecosystems, mostly hunting wild and domestic ungulates up to three times their size. Here we report on a predation event of a male snow leopard killing a semi-domestic adult yak (about five times the body weight of the predator) from the Altai mountain range in Mongolia. We used...

Scent-marking is a predominant form of communication among felids, with urine spraying having a key role. Detectability and longevity of scent marks are recognized as crucial for efficiency of scent-marking, but there is limited research that has tested scent persistence with respect to various environmental factors. We used an experimental framewo...

The Horvath’s rock lizard Iberolacerta horvathi (Méhely, 1904) is an understudied lacertid species, which is geographically isolated from its congeners and currently classified as Near Threatened under IUCN red listing criteria. Due to its limited distribution and narrow environmental preferences, we expect that the species had been affected by pas...

While scavenging has been repeatedly reported for several felid species, surprisingly little information is available on scavenging behavior of the European wildcat (Felis silvestris). To fill this knowledge gap, we used camera traps to document scavenging behavior at the 48 experimentally-set deer carcasses at random locations throughout the year....

The encounter rates carnivores have with prey are dependent on spatial and temporal overlap, and are often highest with their preferred prey. Sumatran tigers Panthera tigris sumatrae are critically endangered and dependent on prey populations, but little is known about their prey preferences. We collected 7 years of camera trapping data from Bukit...

Grey wolf (Canis lupus) populations are expanding across Europe, which leads to increase in their interactions with people and domestic animals, including dogs. Attacks on hunting dogs are becoming a major cause for conflicts between wolves and hunters in many countries, including Croatia, where this conflict has increased dramatically in recent ye...

Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) is a crepuscular-nocturnal carnivore and mostly spends daytime resting. Although resting sites represent an important part of the lynx habitat and can be negatively affected by human activities, it is still poorly known how lynx select these sites, especially in regions with rugged topography characteristic for much of the...

Aim The recent recovery of large carnivores in Europe has been explained as resulting from a decrease in human persecution driven by widespread rural land abandonment, paralleled by forest cover increase and the consequent increase in availability of shelter and prey. We investigated whether land cover and human population density changes are relat...