Teodora Sin

Association for the Conservation of Biological Diversity · Wildlife Conservation

Inbreeding depression poses a severe threat to small populations, leading to the fixation of deleterious mutations and decreased survival probability. While the establishment of natural gene flow between populations is an ideal long‐term solution, its practical implementation is often challenging. Reinforcement of populations by translocating indiv...

Translocations are central to large carnivore restoration efforts, but inadequate monitoring often inhibits effective conservation decision-making. Extinctions, reintroductions, poaching and high inbreeding levels of the Central European populations of Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) typify the carnivore conservation challenges in the Anthropocene. Recen...

Rehabilitation of injured or immature individuals has become an increasingly used conservation and management tool. However, scientific evaluation of rehabilitations is rare, raising concern about post-release welfare as well as the cost-effectiveness of spending scarce financial resources. Over the past 20 years, events of juvenile Eurasian lynx p...

The Carpathian Mountains have been constantly inhabited by grey wolves and present one of the largest distribution areas in Europe, comprising between 2300 and 2700 individuals in Romania. To date, however, relatively little is known about the Romanian wolf population. We aimed to provide a first assessment of genetic diversity, population structur...

The population of Eurasian lynx in the Carpathian Mountains is one of the largest in Europe, with a total population size of ~2,100–2,400 individuals. However, the status of the species in the Carpathians was based solely on “expert opinions”, while relevant scientific data were restricted. Recent research indicated that these figures are not relia...

Background Understanding the processes that lead to hybridization of wolves and dogs is of scientific and management importance, particularly over large geographical scales, as wolves can disperse great distances. However, a method to efficiently detect hybrids in routine wolf monitoring is lacking. Microsatellites offer only limited resolution due...

Background Understanding the processes that lead to hybridization of wolves and dogs is of scientific and management importance, particularly over large geographical scales, as wolves can disperse great distances. However, a method to efficiently detect hybrids in routine wolf monitoring is lacking. Microsatellites offer only limited resolution due...

The Romanian wolf population, one of the largest in Europe, occupies a total home-range of 154500 km² and is spread across a variety of landscapes–from anthropized hills and plateaus to remote, densely forested mountains. However, this population is markedly understudied, and even basic knowledge of the species’ feeding habits is deficient. Wolf di...

Temporal segregation is common amongst coexisting species, but rarely studied in multi-predator – multi-prey systems in Europe. The Romanian Carpathians provide a good opportunity for studying such mechanisms, as three apex predators and several wild ungulate species naturally co-occur. Our study aimed to assess diel activity overlap of i) wolf vs....

The study of habitat selection of a given species, in a different environmental context, represents a major step to enhance the knowledge of that species ecology. Although grey wolf (Canis lupus) and Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) ecology has been largely studied across Europe, to date, no systematic study has been done in Romania. This study, entirely...

Camera trapping requires extensive effort to gather meaningful data, especially for large carnivores. Understanding which factors affect capture rates can have a positive effect on the amount of information collected. In the present pilot study, as part of the WOLFLIFE project (LIFE13 NAT/RO/000205), we aimed to describe the effects of camera place...

The wolf has one of the widest distributions among terrestrial mammals. Flexible and opportunist, it is well adapted to the different types of habitats, therefore, complex predator-prey interactions occur throughout its entire range. Understanding the extent of these interactions can be achieved through an exhaustive analysis of an adequate number...

Modern molecular genetic methods have revolutionized wildlife research and monitoring within past years. High-resolution marker systems such as microsatellites and SNP-genotyping technology in combination with the use of non-invasively collected environmental samples allow to count individuals, assess population connectivity, reconstruct family str...

Currently, because of the rapid environmental changes, one of the biggest challenges in Nature Conservation is to decrease the loss of biodiversity and to prevent the extinction of species whose dynamic is strongly influenced by human activities. Conservation objectives can be difficult to reach if the management measures are not supported by robus...

The Romanian wolf population, one of the largest in Europe, occupies a total home-range of 90000 sqkm and is spread across a variety of landscapes - from highly anthropized hills and plateaus to remote, densely forested mountains. However, up to now there are no reliable studies to document the feeding habits of the species. From November 2013 to O...

The relationship between wolf (Canis lupus) and lynx (Lynx lynx) in the Romanian Carpathians is still unclear. To date, no studies have been made but, due to the high cost of radio tracking, preliminary studies based on signs of presence can provide useful information. This study, located in the Eastern Carpathian Mountains (Romania), was carried o...

The aim of this study is to present preliminary results achieved during a winter session of camera trapping carried out by the WOLFLIFE project (LIFE13NAT/RO/000205). The study area is 1200 km2 and located in the Eastern Carpathians, Romania. 14 camera trapping stations were chosen opportunistically and determined by the spatial distribution of wol...

At European level, wolf diet has been subject to numerous studies, and local and regional variations have been observed. Understanding wolf’s feeding habits is of highly importance, especially for proper substantiation of management measures. Although the Carpathian mountains are home-range to one of the greatest wolf populations in Europe, reliabl...

The political and socio-economical aspects of European countries led, over time, to particular wildlife management approaches, with a high impact on the range and viability of European large carnivore populations (LCp). Currently, Romania plays an essential role in the process of ensuring long-term conservation of LCp in Central-Eastern Europe. The...