Pablo Ferreras

Spanish National Research Council | CSIC · IREC, Spanish Game Research Institute

Carnivores are elusive, nocturnal and scarce, hence, their detection is difficult. Camera trapping has become a powerful non-invasive technique for collecting information on such elusive species. Some of its major applications are species inventories and community monitoring. Some efforts have been recently devoted to standardize protocols for moni...

The Egyptian mongoose ( Herpestes ichneumon ) is considered a generalist and opportunistic predator whose European distribution is restricted to Iberia. However, all the previous studies on the Egyptian mongoose’s diet in the Iberian Peninsula have been performed in Portugal and Doñana National Park (southwestern Spain), covering a small region of...

Tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium bovis and other related mycobacteria has been reported in a wide range of mammals worldwide. In the case of the Herpestidae family, Mycobacterium mungi and M. bovis, both belonging to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex, have been reported in banded mongooses (Mungos mungo) in Africa and in Egyptian mongooses...

Public surveys can be valuable tools to collect information on wildlife distribution. Our objective was to improve the knowledge on the distribution and expanding areas of the Egyptian mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon) in central Spain by using an on‐line questionnaire to hunters. We assessed the reliability of information that hunters provided by com...

Carrion is a valuable food source for predators, but its role for specialist predators has received little attention. We recorded the unnoticed scavenging behavior of the endangered Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) on wild ungulate carcasses in a reintroduced lynx population of central Spain. Seven of the 13 carcasses experimentally placed (54 %) were...

Appendix A and Supplementary Tables from article "Agriculture intensity and landscape configuration influence the spatial use of wildcats across Europe"

Land use intensification is increasing worldwide and affects wildlife movements, particularly of specialist carnivores. Resource availability and anthropogenic activities drive the extent and shape of home range size. Wildlife may respond to decreased resource availability under intensification scenarios by increasing their home ranges; however the...

Although hunters often blame predators for the decline of the red-legged partridge, predation is just one of a number of possible causal factors. The main mammalian predators of partridges are those associated with humanized environments (feral dogs and cats). Other partridge predators include raptors, carnivores, rodents, insectivores and wild boa...

Population size is one of the basic demographic parameters for species management and conservation. Among different estimation methods, spatially explicit capture-recapture (SCR) models allow the estimation of population density in a framework that has been greatly developed in recent years. The use of automated detection devices , such as camera t...

Wildlife trapping and handling entails multi-level consequences on captured individuals. These impacts may be expressed at the physiological and behavioural levels, starting at capture and potentially waning post-release over a variable period. We investigated the impact of trapping and handling on the physiological parameters of 6 species of south...

Hybridisation between domestic and wild taxa can pose severe threats to wildlife conservation, and human induced hybridisation, often linked to species' introductions and habitat degradation, may promote reproductive opportunities between species for which natural interbreeding would be highly unlikely. Using a biome specific approach, we examine t...

La nueva revolución en inteligencia artificial, liderada por los modelos de aprendizaje profundo, promete ayudar en multitud de tareas complejas que realizan los humanos. El fototrampeo es una de las herramientas no invasivas más utilizadas para el seguimiento de las especies animales, especialmente para los mamíferos terrestres. Debido a la elevad...

The conservation of animal populations often requires the estimation of population size. Low density and secretive behaviour usually determine scarce data sources and hampers precise abundance estimations of carnivore populations. However, joint analysis of independent scarce data sources in a common modeling framework allows unbiased and precise e...

Wildlife trapping and handling entail multi-level consequences on captured individuals. These impacts may be expressed at the physiological and behavioural levels, starting at capture and potentially waning post-release over a variable period. We investigated the impact of trapping and handling on the physiological parameters of 6 species of southw...

The Egyptian mongoose Herpestes ichneumon (Linnaeus, 1758) is the only species of family Herpestidae that occurs naturally in Europe. It was restricted to SW Iberian Peninsula from where it seems to be expanding in the last decades. However, information on mongoose distribution and recent trends in some areas, such as central Spain (e.g. Castilla -...

Context. Some prey species can shift their daily activity patterns to reduce the risk of encountering predators, and, in turn, predators develop strategies to increase their chances of meeting prey. European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is a key species in Iberian Mediterranean ecosystems. It is the main prey for many vertebrate predators. It is...

Humans have transformed most landscapes across the globe, forcing other species to adapt in order to persist in increasingly anthropogenic landscapes. Wide-ranging solitary species, such as wild felids, struggle particularly in such landscapes. Conservation planning and management for their long-term persistence critically depends on understanding...

Knowing the distribution of expanding carnivore species is paramount for identifying and addressing potential human–wildlife conflicts. Occupancy models are useful tools to estimate the distribution and the probability of detection of wildlife species. In this study, we used these models with an empirical dataset to compare different survey methods...

Carrion is a valuable resource exploited not only by obligate scavengers but also by a wide variety of facultative scavengers. These species provide several important ecosystem services which can suffer if the scavenger community composition is altered, thus reducing the services provided. We studied the response of the Mediterranean facultative sc...

GECISO Manual proposes a conceptual framework to develop: The Technical Standard (TE) GECISO®. GECISO® is a technical standard for the territorially-based certification of game management by companies accredited by ENAC, the Spanish national entity for accreditation. GECISO provides detailed regulatory specifications for the certification of susta...

GECISO® is a technical standard for the territorially-based certification of game management by companies accredited by ENAC, the Spanish national entity for accreditation. GECISO provides detailed regulatory specifications for the certification of sustainable management, and it is beginning to be translated into practice on hunting grounds in Spai...

Context. The use of baits for reducing the populations of harmful animal species, eradicating invasive species, vaccination, contraceptive or producing conditioned aversion, is widespread worldwide. However, baiting programs are often not successful enough and affect non-target species, requiring new approaches for baiting methods. Aims. Here, we e...

Optimal foraging theory predicts that in situations of high prey abundance, predators will select the largest ones if the cost of capture is similar. This relationship is not clear in species of large owls. We aimed to evaluate the selection by the Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo) of different body sizes of a profitable prey, the European Rabbit (Oryctolagus...

It is given recent and novel information about the distribution and population of mammalian carnivores in the natural park of “Los Alcornocales” (Cádiz province, S. Spain). The study was made in a period of two years, from 2018 to 2020. The photos were made with camera traps, that were distributed in 113 control stations. An UTM grid of 10x10km was...

It has been suggested that conditioned food aversion (CFA) could be a potential non-lethal intervention by which to deter attacks on livestock by large carnivores. CFA occurs when an animal associates the characteristics of a food with an illness, thus rejecting that food in subsequent encounters. CFA can be associated with an artificial odour duri...

Abstract The physiological significance of biometric body condition indices (bBCI) is poorly understood. We hypothesized that bBCI are composite metrics of nutritional physiology, physical fitness and health. To test this hypothesis, we first compared the performance of eight bBCI, using 434 Southern European carnivores from six species as a model...

Predation is a key factor in prey population dynamics and could impact population recovery. One common means employed to recover prey populations is that of translocations, but most fail owing to high predation during the early stages. We tested whether conditioned odor aversion can reduce predation during animal translocations by using the predati...

The use of scats is a widespread non-invasive method in ecological studies of mammalian carnivores. However, their low detectability and the incorrect species assignment may be important sources of bias. We aimed to optimize the detection and identification of scats of Egyptian mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon), using the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) as a...

The Egyptian mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon L.) is a medium-size carnivore widely distributed in Africa and in a small part of southern Europe, the Iberian Peninsula, where mongoose populations have recently expanded. The mongoose is relatively easily detectable because of its diurnal habits and because it is the only species of Herpestidae occurrin...

Competition is a widespread interaction among carnivores, ultimately manifested through one or more dimensions of the species' ecological niche. One of the most explicit manifestations of competitive interactions regards spatial displacement. Its interpretation under a theoretical context provides an important tool to deepen our understanding of bi...

Background: The conflict between predators and humans for resources such as game species or livestock is an ancient issue, and it is especially sharp in the case of medium-large wild canids. In order to manage this conflict, lethal control methods are often used, which can sometimes be illegal such as poisoning. As an alternative, conditioned food...

Populations of many ground-nesting bird species have declined substantially due to several factors, and pre-dation can be a leading contributor to these declines. As a method for reducing the nest predation on ground-nesting birds, we tested whether conditioned food aversion (CFA) can reduce red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa) nest predation by r...

Assessments of terrestrial carnivore diet are often required for ecological management and conservation purposes. Analysis and identification of food remains in scats is an important method often employed for these objectives. Proportions of consumed biomass estimated from scat samples may provide an accurate approximation of the actual diet when c...

Corrigendum to "Generalized spatial mark–resight models with incomplete identification: An application to red fox density estimates"

The role that apex predators play in ecosystem functioning, disease regulation and biodiversity maintenance is increasingly debated. However, the positive impacts of their presence in terrestrial ecosystems, particularly in human-dominated landscapes, remain controversial. Limited experimental insights regarding the consequences of apex predator re...

In the last decades, the populations of the two main species of small game of the Iberian Peninsula, the European wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and the red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa), have been reduced in a generalized manner. To improve these populations, predator control and translocations are one of the most used hunting management...

The study of people’s knowledge through interviews and questionnaires can provide a good picture of the composition of mammal communities. However, there is considerable potential for error and bias in these surveys, including some associated with the familiarity of respondents with wildlife. Our main goals were: 1) to assess mammal community compo...

Worldwide, predators and humans are in conflict for resources such as game species or livestock, especially in the case of wild canids. One non-lethal method to reduce predation is conditioned food aversion (CFA), in which animals learn to avoid a food due to the illness after ingestion, caused by the addition of an undetected chemical compound. CF...

• The estimation of abundance of wildlife populations is an essential part of ecological research and monitoring. Spatially explicit capture–recapture (SCR) models are widely used for abundance and density estimation, frequently through individual identification of target species using camera‐trap sampling. • Generalized spatial mark–resight (Gen‐S...

Lista de revisores de la revista ECOSISTEMAS durante el bienio Lista de revisores que han completado revisiones durante el bienio 2019-2020. La labor de los revisores es fundamental para que una publicación científica realice su actividad de manera adecuada y cumpla con sus objetivos de calidad. Todos estos investigadores contribuyeron generosament...

• Accurate analyses of the diets of predators are key to understand trophic interactions and defining conservation strategies. Diets are commonly assessed through analysis of non‐invasively collected scats, and the use of faecal DNA (fDNA) analysis can reduce the species misidentifications that could lead to biased ecological inference. • We review...

Context. Camera trapping is commonly employed for studying carnivores because it provides better data than do other methods, and with lower costs. Increasing the probability of detecting the target species can reduce parameter uncertainty and survey effort required to estimate density and occurrence. Different methods, including attractants and bai...

The interactions between animals and their environment vary across species, regions , but also with gender. Sex-specific relations between individuals and the ecosystem may entail different behavioral choices and be expressed through different patterns of habitat use. Regardless, only rarely sex-specific traits are addressed in ecological modeling...

Las interacciones entre los animales y su ambiente varían según las especies y regiones, pero también con el sexo. Las diferencias sexuales en estas relaciones pueden afectar a numerosos parámetros poblacionales y expresarse a través de los patrones de uso del hábitat. A pesar de ello, estas diferencias sexuales raramente se abordan en los enfoques...

Predator control has traditionally been used to solve the conflict between wild carnivores and humans for resources, leading many carnivore species to the brink of extinction. We are assessing the use of conditioned taste aversion (CTA) as a tool to reduce predation by wild canids. Firstly, we performed an experiment with penned dogs to identify su...

Since prehistoric times, wild carnivores have suffered from the conflict with humans for resources. Predator control has been used to solve this conflict, leading many carnivore species to the brink of extinction. A change of paradigm is necessary, from predator control to predation control. In this sense, we are exploring the use of conditioned ta...

Las comunidades de carnívoros de la Península Ibérica están habitualmente constituidas por especies de tamaño medio (“mesocarnívoros”), que tienen generalmente requerimientos ecológicos próximos. La finalidad del estudio fue evaluar los factores ecológicos (segregación trófica, espacial y temporal) que permiten la coexistencia de estas especies en...

Cage-Trapping is one of the control methods frequently used by hunters to remove red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in Spain, although its low efficiency and selectivity have been frequently reported. We tested the effect of the combinations of two bait types (live/ dead) and two scent attractants (fox urine/valerian extract) in order to improve the efficie...

The structure of mesopredators’ communities is complex and results from a multidimensional web of interactions such as top-down and bottom-up regulation or intraguild interactions. However, these interactions may change geographically along species’ distribution ranges. The pine marten (Martes martes) and stone marten (Martes foina) are 2 similar-s...

How foraging behaviour of predators is influenced by prey abundance is often not clear. Predators may behave as generalist or specialist depending on the relationship between the predator feeding behaviour and prey abundance, known as functional response. The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is a key species for most Iberian vertebrate preda...

This article is a comprehensive summary of the PhD presented by Pedro Monterroso at the University of Oporto, Portugal, on december 17th, 2013, under the supervision of Dr. Paulo C. Alves and Dr. Pablo Ferreras. The thesis was awarded by the Spanish Society of Mammalogist (SECEM) in 2014, as the best thesis about iberian mammals. DOI: 10.7325/Galem...

Resumen Uno de los principales conflictos entre humanos y carnívoros silvestres resulta de la depredación sobre ganado y especies cinegéticas. Como consecuencia, muchas poblaciones de carnívoros se ven sometidas a control mediante distintos métodos, incluyendo algunos nada selectivos como el veneno. Una herramienta para evitar el uso de estos métod...

Daily activity patterns in mammals depend on food availability, reproductive stage, habitat selection, intraspecific interactions and predation risk, among other factors. Some mammals exhibit behavioral plasticity in activity patterns, which allows them to adapt to environmental changes. A good example of this can be found in the red fox Vulpes vul...

Capsule Feeding habits of the Black-billed Magpie are of interest for researchers, conservationists and hunters since magpies are considered as predators of eggs and chicks of both songbirds and gamebirds. Aims To characterize the feeding habits of magpies during their breeding season in agricultural environments of central Spain, and to assess the...