Suzanne van Beeck Calkoen

Technische Universität Dresden | TUD

In the Alpine region, the use of herd protection measures is assumed to not be reasonable in many places due to geographical, technical and economic limitations. In line with EU regulations , securing compensation for livestock damage or losses necessitates evidence of the feasibility of these measures. The aim of this study was to establish a scie...

Wolves (Canis lupus) are recolonizing Germany and confront pastoral farmers with the potential threat of livestock depredation. Protection measures such as wolf-deterring fences are considered indispensable for preventing carnivore attacks on livestock but require pro-active implementation by farmers. Drivers of farmers’ intention to adopt protecti...

Hunting triggers behavioral responses in wildlife that may have important consequences for conservation and wildlife management. We studied movement and habitat selection in 51 global positioning system-collared red deer (Cervus elaphus) in response to 63 large-scale (x̄= 18.8 km 2) drive hunts conducted in 2015-2022 on a military training area in...

Behavioral analysis of animals in the wild plays an important role for ecological research and conservation and has been mostly performed by researchers. We introduce an action detection approach that automates this process by detecting animals and performing action recognition on the detected animals in camera trap videos. Our action detection app...

Terrestrial ecosystems are shaped by interacting top‐down and bottom‐up processes, with the magnitude of top‐down control by large carnivores largely depending on environmental productivity. While carnivore‐induced numerical effects on ungulate prey populations have been demonstrated in large, relatively undisturbed ecosystems, whether large carniv...

Because animal carcasses often serve as reservoirs for pathogens, their location and removal are crucial in controlling the spread of diseases. During carcass decomposition, heat is emitted due to microbial activity and the development of maggots. Recent studies have shown that infrared sensors can be used to locate animal carcasses, but little is...

Hunting and its impacts on wildlife are typically studied regionally, with a particular focus on the Global South. Hunting can, however, also undermine rewilding efforts or threaten wildlife in the Global North. Little is known about how hunting manifests under varying socioeconomic and ecological contexts across the Global South and North. Herein,...

Antipredator behaviors allow prey to mitigate the impacts of their predators. We investigated antipredator responses of two herbivore species, roe deer and European hare, and one mesopredator, red fox, toward predation risk imposed by lynx and wolf. We collected data (using camera traps) on visitation frequency and vigilance behavior to olfactory p...

The zip-file ” Mammal responses to predator scents across multiple study areas_data, scripts and outputs.zip” contains raw data, scripts and outputs (with explanations) for the paper: P. Sunde, F. Böcker, G-R. Rauset, P. Kjellander, M. Chrenkova, T. M. Skovdal, S. van Beeck Calkoen, M. Mayer & M. Heurich (2022). Mammal responses to predator scents...

The recolonization of human-dominated landscapes by large carnivores has been followed with considerable scientific interest; however, little is known about their interactive effect on ungulate foraging behavior. This study compared the risks imposed by humans and lynx on ungulate foraging behavior by examining the effects of browsing intensity (at...

This study examined the effect of perceived predation risk imposed by lynx (Lynx lynx) and wolf (Canis lupus) on red deer (Cervus elaphus) foraging behavior under experimental conditions. We hypothesized that in response to large carnivore scent red deer would increase their vigilance, although reducing the frequency and duration of visits to forag...

Increasing deer populations in many temperate regions can affect tree regeneration, resulting in severe long-term impacts on forest structure, composition and diversity. Of the most common deer species in Europe-red deer (Cervus elaphus) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus)-roe deer are generally thought to have the highest impact on palatable tree s...

Pellet counts are widely used to monitor ungulates but rely on the assumption that pellets of different species are correctly identified in the field. Recent studies question this assumption using DNA barcoding techniques to check field identification rates. For Europe, which is undergoing a rapid shift towards more diverse ungulate assemblages, su...

Large carnivores can be a key factor in shaping their ungulate prey's behavior, which may affect lower trophic levels. While most studies on trade-offs between food acquisition and risk avoidance by ungulate prey species have been conducted in areas with limited human impact, carnivores are now increasingly returning to highly anthropogenic landsca...