Stefano Filacorda

• PhD
• Researcher at University of Udine

Capsule: The movements and spatial ecology of non-breeding Eurasian Griffon Vultures Gyps fulvus in northern Italy, Croatia and Austria do not seem to be affected by feeding station use. Aims: The purpose of this study was to assess how the creation of a feeding station at the Riserva Naturale Regionale del Lago di Cornino (Forgaria nel Friuli, nor...

Following historical restrictions to isolated and patchy populations, large carnivores like the brown bear Ursus arctos are recolonizing areas of their historical range in Europe. This process is of particular interest in the Alps and the Dinaric Mountains in Central Europe, the largest mountain range in the continent and of transboundary conservat...

Conflicts between large carnivores and human activities undermine both the maintenance of livestock practices as well as the conservation of carnivores across Europe. Because large carnivore management is driven by a common EU policy, the purpose of this research was to assess stakeholders’ perception towards bears and wolves at an EU level. We con...

Measurements of cortisol levels in hair are a non-invasive method to study potential chronic stress that may affect carnivores’ welfare. Using hair from 15 frozen and 18 taxidermied road-kill individuals, we aimed to provide information on the long-term physiological response of European wildcats (Felis silvestris silvestris) to habitat fragmentati...

Cortisol is the main glucocorticoid hormone commonly measured to assess adrenocortical activity in vertebrates in response to potential stressors. Competition and habitat quality may act as chronic stressors leading to an increase in cortisol accumulation. Moreover, chronic cortisol concentrations may seriously hamper the reproductive potential, he...

Three‐quarters of the planet's land surface has been altered by humans, with consequences for animal ecology, movements and related ecosystem functioning. Species often occupy wide geographical ranges with contrasting human disturbance and environmental conditions, yet, limited data availability across species' ranges has constrained our understand...

Three-quarters of the planets land surface has been altered by humans, with consequences for animal ecology, movements and related ecosystem functioning. Species often occupy wide geographical ranges with contrasting human disturbance and environmental conditions, yet, limited data availability across species ranges has constrained our understandin...

Understanding the spatial ecology and habitat requirements of a colonizing species is the main step to gain information on the species’ behaviour which is useful to delineate adequate management and conservation strategies. The golden jackal (Canis aureus) has been showing a notable expansion in Europe over the last five decades and, in Italy, the...

Due to the rapid urban expansion and the exploitation of territories and resources, animal species find themselves having to face a continuous reduction in their habitat and its fragmentation, which prevents their movement and dispersion. It follows that it becomes essential to identify those areas that still guarantee a certain degree of connectiv...

Irrigation channels are a priority linear infrastructure for society, but nevertheless they represent a great threat for wildlife. Like other types of linear infrastructure, such as roads and highways, irrigation canals result in habitat fragmentation, act as barriers to animal movement thus hindering the gene flow and are a cause of non-natural mo...

The Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra Linneaus, 1758) is a medium-sized piscivorous mustelid inhabiting freshwater streams across Europe and Asia. As an apical predator of aquatic and riparian ecosystems, it is an important flag and keystone species for these environments. Widely distributed in Italy at the beginning of the ‘900, the population collapsed...

Attacks on livestock threaten grazing practices in mountainous regions, necessitating effective management interventions for human–carnivore conflict mitigation and coexistence enhancement. From June to October 2023, 58 out of 149 stockmen practicing summer grazing on the alpine pasture of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region (North–Eastern Italy) were...

‘Agricultural pests’ is a locution used to indicate those wild species considered as dangerous to crops. The crested porcupine Hystrix cristata is a semi–fossorial rodent considered as one of the main agricultural pests by farmers in Italy. Assessing the role of agriculture in shaping the porcupine’s space use is of great importance to develop prop...

Report of two reproductive events of Golden Jackal (Canis aureus, Linnaeus, 1758) in the province of Venice The Golden Jackal is an interesting species for the management and conservation in relation to its recent expansion into unoccupied areas, such as Italy and other Central and Western European countries, Northern Europe, and the Baltic Sea are...

Hunting is a method commonly used in several European countries to reduce crop damages by wild boar Sus scrofa. However, results are still controversial and poorly treated. Using data on official claims (i.e., damages to crops) and wild boar local counts and hunting bags collected from 2019 to 2022, the purpose of this work was to evaluate the effe...

Determination of parentage provides valuable information for the conservation of wild populations, for instance, by allowing the monitoring of breeding success and inbreeding. Between 1999 and 2002, nine brown bears ( Ursus arctos ) were translocated to augment the remnant population of a few surviving individuals in the Italian Alps, but only part...

The wolf , after having disappeared for over 100 years ; is recently recolonizing the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region (North East of Italy); in this area the golden jackal has been present since the mid 80’s, thanks to the expansion of the Balkan population; this process poses important ecological and management issues. In order to understand the rela...

The European wildcat is an elusive small carnivore species whose distribution, behavioural ecology and interactions with domestic cats are scantly known. However, the use of camera-trapping is steadily increasing in wildlife studies as well as citizen science, with the latter setting the basis for a large source of robust data. Here we provide an o...

nthropogenic activities over the years have caused a progressive release into the environment of heavy metals and metalloids whose persistence and potential for bioaccumulation have adverse effects on humans and wildlife. The latter has been shown to be sensitive to the presence of pollutants and to react by changing its distribution and presence....

Anthropogenic activities over the years have caused a progressive release into the environment of heavy metals and metalloids whose persistence and potential for bioaccumulation have adverse effects on humans and wildlife. The latter has been shown to be sensitive to the presence of pollutants and to react by changing its distribution and presence....

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...

report on the distribution of coypu in Friuli Venezia Giulia Region and its impact on human activities

Radiotelemetry represents a key tool to study the behavioural ecology of wild species. However, trapping systems and the history of collared animals (as well as the predisposition of the collar itself), could influence the lifecycle and behaviour of the individuals. The purpose of this study is to compare the life expectancy and spatial behaviour o...

Purpose/Objective In the last decades, GPS collars have been frequently used by researchers to investigate the ecology and behaviour of cryptic species, including carnivores. However, in Europe few telemetry studies have been conducted on the golden jackal (Canis aureus), a species that has been showing a notable expansion in the last decades. The...

Purpose/Objective The golden jackal (Canis aureus) (hereafter, jackal) is among those species facing road mortality risk, mainly because of its scavenging behaviour on carcasses close to roads, use of human-altered areas and home-range size. The purpose of this study is to assess the main environmental/ecological factors affecting the road mortalit...

Purpose/Objective The current literature report the presence of wild ungulates in the diet of the golden jackal (Canis aureus) (hereafter, jackal) in Europe. However, most authors ascribe these cases to the opportunistic behaviour of jackals (i.e., scavenging on either carcasses or remains left by hunters). Active predation on ungulates, on the oth...

Nell’Italia nord-orientale, la ricolonizzazione del territorio da parte dell’orso bruno (Ursus arctos) e, più recentemente, del lupo (Canis lupus) è causa di crescenti conflitti con le attività antropiche, legati in particolare alle predazioni ai danni del bestiame allevato al pascolo. Utilizzando i dati raccolti a livello comunale tra il 2012 e il...

ABSTRACT: The Coypu (Myocastor coypus) is an herbivorous rodent native of South America, which after escapes and releases from fur farms spanned widely across Europe. It is considered as an Invasive Alien Species by the European Union, for which eradication or numerical control is planned. The University of Udine was authorized to capture and keep...

Context Anthropogenic structures have considerable effects on ecosystems, disrupting natural population processes and representing a serious risk in terms of vehicle collisions. The golden jackal (Canis aureus) is a mesocarnivore species whose range is expanding in Europe. Roadkills are one of the main human-induced mortalities in Italy to the spec...

Widespread in Italy in the early 1900s, the Eurasian otter subsequently underwent a dramatic decline that led to its local extinction in many administrative regions, with the exception of a small residual nucleus in southern Italy. For a few years now, the Austrian and Slovenian populations adjacent to north-eastern Italy have been increasing sharp...

Understanding the spatial ecology and habitat requirements of a colonizing species is the main step to gain information on the species’ behaviour which is useful to delineate adequate management and conservation strategies. The golden jackal (Canis aureus) has been showing a notable expansion in Europe over the last five decades and, in Italy, the...

Introduction – The theory of social learning represents a cognitive process that takes place in a social context through observation or direct learning, even in the absence of direct reinforcement. This theory shows that learning is not only based on direct contact with objects, but also on indirect experiences gained by observing other conspecific...

ABSTRACT: The Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) was once spread throughout Italy, but during the late 900’ Century the species gone extinct from all the north and central Regions, mainly due to river pollution, habitat loss and poaching. In recent years, the legal protection of the species as well as habitats in which it lives, allowed a recovery in Eu...

Knowledge of genetic diversity is important to wildlife conservation because genetically depleted populations experience an increased risk of extinction. Mammalian carnivores are characterized by small and fragmented populations and low dispersal, so that genetic erosion can lead to the fixation of deleterious genes relatively quickly, leading to m...

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...

Wildlife abundance estimation is one of the key components in conservation biology. Bayesian frameworks are widely used to adjust the potential biases derived by data collected in the field, as they can increase the precision of model parameter as a consequence of the combination of previous pieces of knowledge (priors) combined with data collected...

The combined use of different monitoring techniques for wildlife studies (with particular attention dedicated to felids) assumes remarkable importance to the knowledge of all those ecological and physiological variables which may affect the welfare of the target species. The quantification of glucocorticoid metabolites in hair is a non-invasive too...

Proceedings of "Fauna 2020", the Italian conference on the European wildcat dedicated to the memory of Prof. Bernardino Ragni

Golden jackal (Canis aureus) is a carnivore species that is naturally expanding its distribution range from Eastern Europe to north-eastern Italy and it is protected by Italian law (L157/92). Jackal populations are well established in the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region and are expanding into other Italian territories. A total of 34 jackals (12 males,...

Due to the importance of four countries for existence of the Alpe-Adria subpopulation of Griffon vultures, it is advisable that any measures taking for birds in any of four countries should be coordinated transboundary, between experts from all four countries. Changes in subpopulation in one country can cause significant changes in others too. For...

This section, dedicated to the co-existence between man and nature within the Natura 2000 network, was developed during the dramatic SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Such a premise is of paramount importance because there is one word that more than any other links the co-existence between man and nature and the fight against a virus, the word "awareness". Only...

Two sub adult females, born in the Parco Natura Viva, have been released into the National Park Poloniny, provided with collar VHF/GPS/UHF), were monitored in an intensive way at all steps post release. One of this animal was recaptured after twenty days and the second bison has joined the pack of wild animals after 11 days and was monitored for th...

The role of Natura 2000 Areas (N2A) for species conservation has been frequently considered, despite the results obtained are sometimes controversial. The role of such areas is even more important for those most conflictive protected species (i.e., large predators) whose survival is compromised due to conflict with livestock systems. The depletion...

In the avian world, site fidelity may be considered as the tendency of individuals to remain in the same area during breeding season. The Corncrake (Crex crex) is a polygynous species, with some males moving considerable distances to new singing areas. The aim of this study was to quantify site fidelity of male Corncrakes during one breeding season...

Pubblicazione pubblicata nell'ambito del Programma di cooperazione Interreg V-A Italia-Slovenia 2014-2020, finanziato dal Fondo europeo di sviluppo regionale. Publikacija izdana v okviru Programa sodelovanja Interreg V-A Italija-Slovenija 2014-2020, ki ga financira Evropski sklad za regionalni razvoj. The publication was prepared within the Coopera...

This guide is aimed to raise people’s awareness of the species monitored and on the cross-border cooperation within Nat2Care project. These species are important as they represent the characteristics of the mountainous territory situated on the border between Italy and Slovenia. As such, they deserve everyone’s attention. In the guide, you will f...

This short technical report contains a link to WebGIS, where you can find interactive maps created within the Nat2Care project. 1. INTERACTIVE ATLAS OF SPECIES The interactive atlas (WebGIS) shows the data relating to the presence of species collected during monitoring activities of the Interreg Nat2Care project. The data are represented on a 100...

Questo relazione tecnica a breve contiene un link a WebGIS, dove si possono trovare mappe interattive create nell'ambito del progetto Nat2Care. 1. ATLANTE INTERATTIVO DELLE SPECIE L’atlante interattivo (WebGIS) rappresenta i dati di presenza delle specie raccolti durante le attività di monitoraggio del Progetto Interreg Nat2Care. I dati sono rappre...

To kratko tehnično poročilo vsebuje povezavo do interaktivnih kart na WebGIS. 1. INTERAKTIVNI ATLAS VRST Interaktivni atlas (WebGIS) vsebuje podatke o prisotnosti vrst, ki so bili zbrani med izvajanjem aktivnosti monitoringov Interregovega projekta Nat2Care. Podatki so prikazani na mreži kvadrantov univerzalnega koordinatnega sistema UTM velikosti...

The quantification of glucocorticoid metabolites in hair is a non-invasive tool that provides important information regarding the endocrine status and represents a valuable method for studying potential stressors that may affect carnivores under both natural and non-natural conditions. Cortisol is the main glucocorticoid hormone of the hypothalamic...

Le pratiche zootecniche estensive in aree alpine, oltre a rappresentare un patrimonio culturale e tradizionale, svolgono un ruolo fondamentale in termini di servizi ecosistemici offerti. Uno dei principali svantaggi legati a suddette pratiche deriva dalla potenziale interazione negativa con i predatori che vivono sul territorio. Il conflitto tra ca...

In group-living animals, social context is known to modulate physiology, behaviour and reproductive output as well as foraging and nutritional strategies. Here we investigate the digestive efficiency of 38 individuals belonging to different social categories of a semi-feral and individually marked flock of greylag geese (Anser anser). During 9 cons...

Introduction The Italian Karst hills in the southeaster part of Friuli Venezia Giulia is home of a consolidated population of golden jackal since 1996 (estimated density in 2017: 1.1 heads/100ha). From the 2013 jackals sporadically attacked two flocks. During 2015-2016, was started a collaboration with a local breeder to monitor predations on his...

Introduction With the data collected from acoustic stimulation, it is possible to develop a Distance Sampling model in order to estimate the density and the number of individuals. We have tested a three days stimulation protocol in order to collect a sufficient number (80-90) of responses. We have compared the difference in response rate between th...

The golden jackal (Canis aureus), although in many respects understudied, is one of the most widely distributed canid species. Its vocalization can be used to monitor their population density and distribution. However, little is known of the behaviour and communication of this species. We aimed to understand whether we could contribute to the devel...

The Eastern Alps is a sink area for Brown bear (Ursus arctos), between the Dinaric-Pindos and Trentino populations: the study of the behaviour and of habitat use of bears that living in this area represents an important conservation issue. We have studied the behaviour of 12 male bears, on the basis of 800 videos obtained with camera trapping, GPS...

Information concerning livestock depredation by Eurasian brown bear in the Eastern Alps, and technical proposals to reduce depredation events and to promote the establishment of bear Alpine-Dinaric-Pindos metapopulation.

Data about some cases of illegal poisoning of Canis aureus in NE Italy

Brown bear is a flagship species whose conservation needs international efforts. Today, in Europe brown bears live in 10 fragmented populations due to habitat loss and historical human persecution. A reintroduced brown bear population in Central Italian Alps presently numbers 52-63 individuals. This population risks loss of genetic variability due...

life dinalp bear - action a3 Action A3: Analysis of spatial connectivity and preparation of environmental impact assessment guidelines 1 Methodological design (but for section 2.7), conducted the analyses, interpreted the results, and wrote the report. 2 Methodological design for section 2.7, interpreted the results, and commented on the report.

The golden jackal (Canis aureus), listed in annex V of Habitat Directive, represents a new species for Italy and for the Alpine areas: feeding behaviour and the impact on livestock activities are controversial and the conservation status are different in European countries. The first individuals from the Dalmatian and Pannonian populations arrived...

Population density of European roe deer Capreolus capreolus was estimated in six forest areas of North-Eastern Italy through the use of different methods. The most effective method to estimate a population density is always case-dependent and, thus, varies across study areas. Particularly, drive count and vantage point count estimates (i.e. counts...

Hair glucocorticoid metabolite quantification is a non-invasive tool that provides important information concerning endocrine status, and is a valuable method for studying potential stressors that may affect wildlife under both natural and artificial conditions. Hunting season may represent a stressful event which could lead to an increased adrenoc...

Anthropic activities in human dominated landscapes, is causing widespread biodiversity loss and declines in ecosystem condition worldwide. The intensification of agricultural and silvicultural practices, land abandonment and other land uses such as recreation and hunting, represent potential threats which may lead to conflicts between stakeholder l...

To promote the coexistence between large carnivores and livestock activities it is necessary to understand the interactions, and apply innovative technical solutions, that can reduce the risk of predation, and in the same time, are economical and technically sustainable. The establishment of a Dinaric-Pindos and Alpine brown bear metapopulation wil...

Livestock predations are the main sources of conflict between jackals and breeders and can lead to a negative perception of the species by the human population and in cases of poaching. The italian Karst hill in the southeastern part of Friuli Venezia Giulia is home of a consolidated population of golden jackal since 1996 with a density of 1.1 head...

Acoustic stimulation is widely used for monitoring canids distribution (such as wolf, coyote and jackal). This method is based on the induction of the response of the animals through the emission of a pre-recorded howl with a speaker. We tested the impact of the standard monitoring protocol and that of an over-stimulation protocol in order to anal...

Distribution and interaction among wolf and golden jackal in Friuli Venezia Giulia

the digestibility depends from the role of the social context

The Karst near Gorizia, in the southeastern part of Friuli Venezia Giulia, is home of a consolidated population of Golden jackal since 1996. This species, native from the Balkans, is present in Italy since 1984 and is still subject to expansion. In 2015 a monitoring study by the University of Udine using the Jackal Howling technique has allowed to...

The Eastern part of the Alps is a sink area for Brown bear (Ursus arctos), between the Dinaric and Trentino populations: the study of the behaviour and of habitat use of bears that living in this area represents an important conservation issue. We have studied the behaviour of bears, on the basis of 300 videos obtained with phototrapping (on 10 dif...

In different parts of Europe the wildcat population have decreased and experienced considerable fragmentation. Acknowledged threats are persecution, habitat loss, and hybridization with domestic cats. However, the importance of other factors of decline have been so far neglected. In particular, an increasing concern exists about the role of infecti...

Hair cortisol analysis is a complementary method for monitoring HPA axis activity, capturing systemic cortisol exposure over longer periods of time. We have tested the hair cortisol concentration on 16 specimens of Golden jackal (Canis aureus moreoticus): 5 from frozen animals, 10 from stuffed animals and 1 taken from injured animal during recovery...

The knowledge of the habitat uses from a species are essential to understand his requirement and potential expansion in an area. However, about the jackals we have only few information about locally habitat use, so this study wants to fill this gap. The jackals have a high plasticity for food and habitat resources requirements. There are population...

Acoustic surveys are widely used on wild canids studies (such as grey wolves, jackals and coyotes) since many years. This method presents some disadvantages and limitations especially when used on newly established populations or when the target of the research includes young individual in dispersion, however, the data potentially collectable from...

Four metabolisability trials on captive Wigeons were conducted comparing a complete pelleted diet with others where Taraxacum officinalis and Zostera noltii were added. The daily dry matter (DM) intake of Wigeons varied from 54.4 to 65.5 g/day and the amount of nutrients received from the four diets was similar. The nitrogen (N) content of dropping...

The golden jackal (Canis aureus) utters complex howls that can be used to monitor their population density and distribution in a specific area. However, little is known of the vocal behaviour of this species. In the present paper, we show the first results of the acoustic analysis that followed the acoustic monitoring of the golden jackal in Friuli...

Human-bear conflicts arethe single most important threat to long-term conservation of brown bear in Europe. Increasing conflicts and inefficient conflict resolution also increase fear for personal safety among local people and increase loss of their property. Therefore effective conflict resolution is of top priority for bear management and conserv...

To assess the status of lynx we analysed lynx signs of presence within the range of the Italian Alps from 2005 to 2009. A total of 268 signs have been collected, compared to 411 signs during the previous pentad. The distribution of the confirmed signs of lynx presence is confined to three concise areas: the Northeastern Alps of Friuli VG, the Trent...

Use of habitat and resources of large carnivores living at the expansion front of a population can differ considerably from those living in core areas. Using GPS (global positioning system) telemetry, we studied movements of male brown bears living in the northwest edge of the Alpine–Dinaric–Pindos population in Slovenia and Italy, 2005–08. Because...

To assess the status of lynx we analysed lynx signs of presence within the Ital- ian Alps from 2000–2004. A total of 411 signs of lynx presence have been collected, compared to 261 signs during the previous pentad. Lynx tracks were the most frequent sign of presence, followed by prey remains and direct observations. Livestock depredation has so far...

To introduce a new method, derived from the Glaucoma Staging System (GSS), for classifying glaucomatous visual field defects. Four sample groups composed respectively of 471 (sample #1), 128 (sample #2), 185 (sample #3), and 131 (sample #4) patients with either ocular hypertension or chronic glaucoma were considered. The GSS 2 uses both the MD and...