Stefano Grignolio

University of Ferrara | UNIFE · Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnologies

Animal populations are under mounting stress from the dual threats of climate change and rapid global human population growth, raising significant concerns about declining wildlife and the rising risk of zoonotic diseases. In many species, social interactions can be a highly plastic suite of behaviours that are responsive to these disturbances and...

Wildlife tagging provides critical insights into animal movement ecology, physiology, and behavior amid global ecosystem changes. However, the stress induced by capture, handling, and tagging can impact post-release locomotion and activity and, consequently, the interpretation of study results. Here, we analyze post-tagging effects on 1585 individu...

Aiming to shed light on the biology of wild ruminants, we investigated the gut microbiome seasonal dy- namics of the Alpine ibex (Capra ibex) from the Central Italian Alps. Feces were collected in spring, sum- mer, and autumn during non-invasive sampling campaigns. Samples were analyzed by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, shotgun metagenomics, as well...

Hybridization between native and introduced species is one of the most important reasons underlying the impact on biodiversity exerted by biological invasions and also one of the hardest to be detected. The East-Asian sika deer Cervus nippon has been introduced to several European countries, where it is known to generate fertile offspring with the...

Flexibility in activity timing may enable organisms to quickly adapt to environmental changes. Under global warming, diurnally adapted endotherms may achieve a better energy balance by shifting their activity towards cooler nocturnal hours. However, this shift may expose animals to new or increased environmental challenges (e.g. increased predation...

Human‐dominated environments are growing worldwide, forcing animals to adapt to new conditions characterized by increased risks and/or anthropogenic resources availability. While numerous studies have compared behavioural patterns of rural and urban populations, little is known about plastic behavioural responses to temporal variations in human pre...

Behavioural syndromes theory predicts animals will exhibit sets of correlated risk-taking behaviours, with individuals displaying a constant willingness to take risks across different situations. Because this phenomenon has mostly been investigated under artificial experimental conditions, we aimed to establish whether wild animals spontaneously ex...

The conflict between free-ranging livestock and wildlife is a serious conservation concern across rural communities worldwide. Livestock may affect wild herbivores via direct competition for resources due to spatial and diet overlap or via behavioural interference. It is imperative that we disentangle the effects of livestock on wildlife behaviour...

Animal weapons are one of the most studied morphological traits, particularly in Artiodactyla. Since in polygynous species males with larger weapons tend to be more successful in gaining access to females, researchers have traditionally focused on horn size. However, in species with limited horn size, weapon size has been assumed to have a reduced...

2 The chamois Rupicapra spp. is the most abundant mountain ungulate of Europe and the Near East, where it occurs as two species , the northern chamois R. rupicapra and the southern chamois R. pyrenaica. Here, we provide a state-of-the-art overview of research trends and the most challenging issues in chamois research and conservation, focusing on t...

The chamois Rupicapra spp. is the most abundant mountain ungulate of Europe and the Near East, where it occurs as two species, the northern chamois R. rupicapra and the southern chamois R. pyrenaica. Here, we provide a state‐of‐the‐art overview of research trends and the most challenging issues in chamois research and conservation, focusing on taxo...

Settlements are usually shared at different times by semi-fossorial mammals. Porcupine reproductive pair shows high den-site fidelity, but no data are available on the spatio-temporal inhabitation of settlements. In this investigation, the spatio-temporal inhabitation of settlements by crested porcupine families was investigated using camera-trappi...

An increase of nocturnal activity of ungulate species may represent a compensatory opportunity for energy intake, when activity in daylight is hindered by some disturbance events (e.g. hunting or predation). Therefore, mostly-diurnal and crepus-cular species may be active in bright moonlight nights whereas others may shift their diurnal activity to...

On a population-level, individual plasticity in reproductive phenology can provoke either anticipations or delays in the average reproductive timing in response to environmental changes. However, a rigid reliance on photoperiodism can constraint such plastic responses in populations inhabiting temperate latitudes. The regulation of breeding season...

The aoudad (Ammotragus lervia Pallas 1777) is an ungulate species, native to the mountain ranges of North Africa. In the second half of the twentieth century, it was successfully introduced in some European countries, mainly for hunting purposes, i.e. in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Italy, and Spain. We used neutral genetic markers, the mitochondri...

Over the past few years, research on remote monitoring of animal behaviour by means of accelerometers integrated in GPS collars considerably increased. Use of accelerometers allows for long-term fine-scale behavioural measurements, which are extremely useful to study activity patterns. As the values generated by accelerometers are strongly affected...

Interspecific interactions are key drivers in structuring animal communities. Sympatric animals may show such behavioural patterns as the differential use of space and/or time to avoid competitive encounters. We took advantage of the ecological conditions of our study area, inhabited by different ungulate species, to investigate the spatial and tem...

The general aim of this guidance is to review the methods for estimating relative abundance and density in wild ruminant species and give insights on how to obtain reliable estimations by using those methods. The results are a possible guideline on best practices to improve the accuracy and comparability of density methods. For these purposes, we r...

The increased diffusion of the so-called novel psychoactive substances (NPS) and their continuous change in structure (and, conceivably, activity) has led to the need of a rapid screening method to detect their biological effects as early as possible after their appearance in the market. This problem is very felt in forensic pathology and toxicolog...

Protected areas are often blamed for offering refuge to pest species populations, giving rise to the so-called “reserve effect”. Nevertheless, this major conservation side effect has seldom been investigated or verified on a local scale. Along the borders of two protected areas of different size, we modelled wild boar individual likelihood of being...

Forest development is a complex phenomenon which, for the number of actors involved and the response time expressed by forests, is difficult to understand and explore. Forests in Italy, as in several areas of Europe, are experiencing intensive management and recently, an increasing impact by ungulates. The effects on forest development of these two...

Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) is the most abundant cervid in Europe and, as such, has a considerable impact over several human activities. Accurate roe deer population size estimates are useful to ensure their proper management. We tested 3 methods for estimating roe deer abundance (drive counts, pellet-group counts, and camera trapping) during tw...

Predators may influence their prey populations not only through direct lethal effects, but also by causing behavioural changes. The natural expansion of the wolf (Canis lupus) into the Alps provided the rare opportunity to monitor the responses of a prey species to the return of a large predator. Density effects have rarely been considered in the s...

Avoiding hyperthermia entails considerable metabolic costs for endotherms. Such costs increase in warm conditions, when endotherms may trade food intake for cooler areas to avoid heat stress and maximize their energy balance. The need to reduce heat stress may involve the adoption of tactics affecting space use and foraging behaviour, which are imp...

Although the proliferation of the wild boar in Europe makes capturing and handling necessary for both management and research, the behavioural responses of this species to capture are still unknown. We evaluated how capture affects wild boar behaviour during the first 30 days after the release, focusing on the animals’ total activity, mobility and...

The Dinaric region is the natural habitat of the Alpine chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra rupicapra) and Balkan chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra balcanica). Recently confirmed, these two subspecies hybridize in the contact zone on Mts. Velebit, coastal Croatia. Patterns of horn development in chamois can differ within populations and subspecies, and are mos...

Different species exhibit individual daily and annual activity patterns in response to a range of intrinsic and extrinsic drivers. Historically, research on the activity budgets of large wild animals focused on daylight hours due to the logistical difficulties of observing animals at night. Thanks to recent advances in animal-attached technology, h...

The roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) is considered a special case of territorial ungulate. This study aimed to contribute to the knowledge of male roe deer territoriality by exploring its spatial use and activity patterns. We divided the territorial period (March–August) into three two-month sampling periods and found that the home range (HR) size of...

The wild boar (Sus scrofa) is an ungulate of major management concern, often controlled only by indiscriminate, recreational hunting, which represents its main cause of death. Several studies have dealt with the effects of hunting on wild boar populations, pointing out controversial changes in spatial behavior and habitat use related to it. However...

The range-shifts of many species are lagging behind climate change, meaning that those species are likely to experience increases in average ambient temperature. Heat-sensitive species may experience increasingly precarious trade-offs between investment in ther-moregulation versus other key processes as the climate warms. We investigated the potent...

Over the last century, the wild boar (Sus scrofa) has become an important wildlife species in both economic and ecological terms. Considered a pest by some and a resource by others, its rapid increase in population and distribution has raised management concerns. Studies on activity rhythms may provide useful insights into its overall ecology and h...

Activity rhythms play an important role in the ecological relations of a species and form part of its evolutionary adaptation. Such rhythms are strongly synchronised with the annual cyclic changes by environmental stimuli, the so-called zeitgebers. Animals’ reliance on environmental stimuli is highly species-specific and allows behavioural adjustme...

Wild boar management in Italy

The importance of capturing wild animals for research and conservation projects is widely shared. As this activity continues to become more common, the need to assess its negative effects increases so as to ensure ethical standards and the validity of research results. Increasing evidence has revealed that indirect (physiological and behavioural) e...

The importance of capturing wild animals for research and conservation projects is widely shared. As this activity continues to become more common, the need to assess its negative effects increases so as to ensure ethical standards and the validity of research results. Increasing evidence has revealed that indirect (physiological and behavioural) e...

The fine-scale genetic structure of mammal populations arises from the social and spatial behaviour of individuals. In wild ungulates gene flow is usually mediated by males, being the dispersing sex. The roe deer Capreolus capreolus represents an exception: males and females disperse in similar proportions as juveniles, but are subsequently mostly...

Although numerous studies have reported reproductive senescence in wild animal populations, we still know very little on inter-individual differences in rates of ageing and on the factors accounting for these differences. To investigate age-related variation in breeding success in a natural population of Alpine chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra), we use...

Many studies comparing the behaviour of individ- uals of different genders or species showed that animal body mass and forage quality/quantity are key elements of the foraging ecology of herbivores. Since body mass could also influence the animal’s sensitivity to predation risk, its vigi- lance behaviour should consequently be affected. Alpine ibex...

This volume reports the data contained in the 3rd Report of the Habitat Directive, for the period 2007-2012, including all the assessments made on the conservation status of the species and habitats of community interest recorded in Italy. The report is freely accessible at the Central Data Repository (http://bd.eionet.europa.eu/activities/Reportin...

& Introduction Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) browsing pressure on vegetative regeneration of Turkey oak (Quercus cerris) and chestnut (Castanea sativa) and roe deer use of coppiced areas were investigated. & Methods In the Apennines, Central Italy, six experimental areas were chosen, where fenced (ungulate access excluded, protected P) and non-fen...

We investigated the activity patterns of a European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) population living in a forested Apennine area in central Italy, in order to shed light on the environmental and biological factors that were expected to account for the observed activity patterns on daily and yearly bases. Daily and seasonal activity patterns of 31 r...

Ecological factors such as environmental and climatic conditions affect the growth of ornaments in ungulates. Studies about their influence can reveal key information on individual life histories and detect the events that can have important evolutionary consequences. Among the ecological factors commonly thought to play a role in such ecological p...

Alpine rock partridge is a game species with a southern European distribution. It is of special conservation concern by living in high altitude areas subjected to harsh weather conditions, to habitat loss due to abandonment of agricultural practices and also to disturbance due to leisure activities. Listed in the Bird Directive (2009/147/EC), its e...

Introduction Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) browsing pressure on vegetative regeneration of Turkey oak (Quercus cerris) and chestnut (Castanea sativa) and roe deer use of coppiced areas were investigated. Methods In the Apennines, Central Italy, six experimental areas were chosen, where fenced (ungulate access excluded, protected P) and non-fenced...

This book considers a number of problems posed by ungulates and their management in Europe. Through a synthesis of the underlying biology and a comparison of the management techniques adopted in different countries, the book explores which management approaches seem effective - and in which circumstances. Experts in a number of different areas of a...

The impact of hunting on wildlife is a complex phenomenon which varies in space and across time, and yet limited knowledge is available on it. This is especially the case of the indirect effects of hunting on the behaviour of target as well as non-target species. Here we analyze how hunting affected the spatial behaviour of 62 radiocollared roe dee...

Mammalian females change their behavior during the last stages of pregnancy and during the weaning as a response to new energetic requirements and antipredator behavior. From March 2001 to December 2004, we studied the effects of parturition and weaning on home-range sizes and habitat selection in 28 female Alpine ibex (Capra ibex) in a 1,700-ha fr...

Social dominance is a fundamental aspect of male evolutionary ecology in polygynous mammals because it determines access to estrous females. As it is rarely possible to monitor marked individuals of known morphology, little is known about the determinants of male dominance. We studied the social structure of Alpine ibex males in Gran Paradiso Natio...

The spatial behaviour of female Alpine ibex Capra ibex ibex L. 1758, was analysed in Gran Paradiso National Park (Italy). Data were collected on 14 radiocollared females from September 2000 to August 2002, using radio-tracking and direct observations. Seasonal spatial behaviour was influenced by environmental conditions, in particular climatic fact...

In many ruminant species, males dramatically reduce forage intake during the rut. To date, different hypotheses have been suggested to explain this rut-induced hypophagia. To assess the predictions of the main hypotheses, we analysed Alpine ibex (Capra ibex) activity budget and compared the behaviour of males and females before, during, and after t...

We analysed space use, habitat selection and activity patterns in female mouflons using radio tracking during lambing. During the birth period, mothers increased their home ranges to reach birth places suitably covered by Mediterranean scrubland. During lactation, mothers used Mediterranean scrubland more than non-mothers. Mothers decreased the use...

We studied the effect of predation risk on grouping pattern and whistling behaviour in a free-ranging mouflonOvis aries Linnaeus, 1758 population in Sardinia. Direct observations were carried out from July 2005 to June 2007 (n groups=881,n mouflon=3477). In our study site, the rut occurred in October and November, when social sexual segregation dis...

We analysed the influence of light/dark cycle, temperature, sex, season, and reproductive status on the daily activity patterns of 26 radiocollared mouflons (17 females, 9 males) in Sardinia. Data on their daily activity were collected from January 2006 to August 2007. Activity levels showed a 24-h bimodal pattern characterized by periodic cycles w...

This study investigated the anti-predator strategies adopted by 19 radio-collared female roe deer during the fawning season by monitoring their spatial behaviour and habitat selection by means of radio-tracking. The study was carried out in a forest area of the Apennine Mountains (central Italy), where wolves are natural predators of roe deer and i...

Observations of the flight response in mammals are commonly used to test the behavioural response to predation risk. Such a response is likely to be stronger in more sensitive individuals such as females, and females with offspring in particular, as well as during such periods as the birth season. From August 2005 to July 2006 we recorded the fligh...

Alpine ibex (Capra ibex) are polygynous ungulates that exhibit extreme sexual dimorphism and segregation. To test the hypothesis that risk of predation plays a key role in the development of sexual segregation (habitat segregation) in this species, compositions and locations of groups of ibex were recorded from February 2003 to October 2004. Indivi...

È stato analizzato il comportamento spaziale e la selezione dell?habitat di quindici femmine di stambecco alpino (Capra ibex ibex) dotate di radiocollare; l?area di studio è situata nel vallone di Levionaz (Valsavarenche, AO) nel Parco Nazionale del Gran Paradiso. Per ogni individuo sono state raccolte almeno 12 localizzazioni mensili dall?estate d...

Durante il periodo riproduttivo del 2000, 2001 e 2002, sono state effettuate delle osservazioni comportamentali su un campione (n=42) di maschi di stambecco (Capra ibex ibex) riconoscibili individualmente, all?interno del Parco Nazionale del Gran Paradiso. Le osservazioni di ciascun maschio sono state distribuite uniformemente nel corso del periodo...

During a two year preliminary study, the spatial organization of a group of male Alpine ibexCapra ibex ibex Linnaeus, 1758 was examined in the Gran Paradiso National Park, Western Italian Alps, Italy. From December 1995 to January 1998 we measured annual, seasonal home range and home range during the rut, plus altitudinal migration of 13 radio-coll...

Habitat use and selection of 14 Alpine ibex males were studied in the Gran Paradiso National Park. Alpine meadows were always overused and positively selected, because this habitat constituted an important food resource for the ibex. Even if rocks (30%) and stone ravines (22%) were the most frequented habitats in the study area, their use was lower...