Yorgos Iliopoulos

We studied wolfCanis lupus Linnaeus, 1758 — livestock conflict in central Greece by investigating patterns of 267 verified wolf attacks on livestock for 21 months. Wolves attacked adult goats 43% and cattle 218% more than expected, whereas sheep 41% less than expected from their availability. Wolves killed less than four sheep or goats in 79%, and...

In wolves, most offspring mortality occurs within the first 6–8 months of their life. As wolf pups pass this entire period at either the den or rendezvous sites, their selection by wolf packs may affect pup survival and recruitment. Rendezvous sites are important for pup survival as they are used during summer and early autumn, when intense human a...

Context: Mitigating wolf–livestock conflict is crucial for both wolf (Canis lupus) conservation and livestock farming. Wolf attacks at livestock gathering areas often result in surplus killing, severe economic losses and emotional distress for the farmers, and financial claims from compensation funds. They may also trigger retaliatory killing of wo...

Hunting dog depredation by wolves triggers retaliatory killing, with negative impacts on wildlife conservation. In the wider area of the Dadia-Lefkimi-Soufli Forest National Park, reports on such incidents have increased lately. To investigate this conflict, we interviewed 56 affected hunters, conducted wolf trophic analysis, analyzed trends for 20...

Wolf (Canis lupus) populations have recovered and expanded across many parts of the world thanks to conservation efforts, including improved legal status and restoration of their prey. Concurrently, public concerns regarding the risk of wolf attacks on humans and livestock are increasing as wolves occupy human-dominated landscapes. We examined a un...

Wolves have been expanded rapidly during the last decades following legal protection and restoration of their habitats. However, this expansion does also include areas close to human infrastructure, peri-urban areas and agricultural land with few, if not at all-natural prey. We studied ecology of wolves in the Axios river basin National Park (2000...

Open Access for 50 days: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1h2iJ1R%7EeSm9%7E Abstract Livestock depredation is the primary driver of wolf-human conflict worldwide, threatening wolf conservation and impacting human livelihoods. Most countries implement relevant compensation programs, which are however rarely accompanied by proactive husbandry practice...

In many early European cultures, humans shared an overall positive view of the wolf. But this changed with the anthropocentric view of nature brought about by Christianity as well as with the process of domestication and the advent of extensive animal husbandry. Wolves were then strongly persecuted, leading to their extirpation in almost all their...

Εκτενής ελληνική περίληψη αποτελεσμάτων έρευνας Τα περιστατικά επιθέσεων λύκων σε κυνηγετικά σκυλιά που καταγράφονται στην περιοχή του Έβρου καθώς και σε άλλες περιοχές τα τελευταία χρόνια αποτελούν ένα σημαντικό ζήτημα σύγκρουσης, ενώ σχετίζονται και με την προστασία απειλούμενων ειδών γυπών σε περίπτωση αντιδικίας με χρήση δηλητηριασμένων δολωμά...

Sharing space with large carnivores on a human-dominated continent like Europe results in multiple conflictful interactions with human interests, of which depredation on livestock is the most widespread. We conducted an analysis of the impact by all four European large carnivores on sheep farming in 10 European countries, during the period 2010-201...

The media widely covers large carnivores and their impacts on human livelihood and plays an important role in their conservation. Yet, we know little about how species identity affects news selection, framing, accuracy and information flow. We investigated the online coverage of two cases of attacks or alleged attacks on humans alternatingly attrib...

In human-dominated landscapes, connectivity is crucial for maintaining demographically stable mammalian populations. Here, we provide a comprehensive noninvasive genetic study for the brown bear population in the Hellenic Peninsula. We analyze its population structuring and connectivity, estimate its population size throughout its distribution, and...

The technical report includes data on livestock distribution in the Oiti National Park in Central Greece, and an evaluation of methods used by local livestock farmers to reduce livestock depredation from large carnivores (mainly wolf and brown bear).

Understanding the feeding habits of wolves is essential for designing and implementing fundamental management processes across the range of the species. This is even more important within human-dominated areas, such as southern Europe, and more especially Greece. In this context, we analyzed 123 scat samples, collected between 2010 and 2012, from a...

The illegal use of poison baits has been identified as one of the main causes of mortality and decrease of vulture populations across Europe, while the predator-human conflict is usually singled out as the most important driver behind it. Greece is no exception, where the practice is deeply rooted in the rural communities’ attitude and approach reg...

Livestock depredation is one of the main wolf-human conflict issues both in Europe and worldwide. The aim of the project is to study and evaluate wolf-livestock conflicts in Tzoumerka NP and to compare our findings with other protected areas in Greece. We have in particular set the following six research objectives: 1. To assess and describe tradit...

Study area 700km2 with relatively high density of small sized human settelments, dense deciduous forest cover and roading. • We installed 12 IR cameras using a (5km*5km) grid over a period of 5 consecutive months (4 survey periods) from July to December 2017. (fig. 2) • Each camera was rotated inside the same grid cell 4 times so as to maximize the...

Abstract: Data on survival, social reintegration, habitat use and overall rehabilitation success, after hard releasing severely injured and recovered golden jackals (Canis aureus) are scarce. We used VHF telemetry and camera trapping to document long-term survival of a young jackal in northern Greece released back to its natal territory, following...

Introduction/Aim: Livestock depredation by wolves is an important component of human-wolf conflicts, like in Greece. Wolf diet studies provide valuable data for the management of this livestock-wolf conflict. Under this context, we analyzed 49 scat samples, collected at Lake Kerkini National Park during winter 2013-2014. Methods: For each prey item...

Wildlife telemetry has become a very robust and reliable tool to track movements, activity levels and spatial behaviour of a large number of species for conservation purposes. In the frame of project LIFE15NAT/GR/001108 we used telemetry to monitor for the first time spatial behaviour and activity patterns of (4) adult male bears during the mating...

Livestock guarding dogs (LGDs) have been used for centuries for livestock protection from brown bear and grey wolf attacks. In Greece, there are three indigenous LGD breeds, whose preservation is undermined by the widespread illegal use of poisoned baits across the country. We conducted semi-structured interviews (n=78) with local shepherds to inve...

The present study describes the use of poison baits against so-called pest species in Greece and explores various aspects of this illegal practice. Data were collected from 2000 to 2016, and a total of 1015 poisoning incidents in rural areas causing the death of 3248 animals were examined. In 58.7% of investigated cases, the motives remained unknow...

ΑΞΙΟΛΟΓΗΣΗ ΤΗΣ ΑΠΟΤΕΛΕΣΜΑΤΙΚΟΤΗΤΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΧΡΗΣΗΣ ΤΩΝ ΥΠΟΓΕΙΩΝ ΔΙΑΒΑΣΕΩΝ ΤΟΥ ΑΞΟΝΑ Κ45 ΑΠΟ ΚΑΦΕ ΑΡΚΟΥΔΕΣ (Ursus arctos) ΣΤΗΝ ΠΕΡΙΟΧΗ ΤΗΣ ΚΑΣΤΟΡΙΑΣ Ο νέος αυτοκινητόδρομος ΚΑ45 (55χλμ) τέμνει το ενδιαίτημα της αρκούδας στην περιοχή της Καστοριάς. Στον άξονα υπάρχουν 134 τεχνικά περάσματα (~ κάθε 400m) αλλά παρόλα αυτά καταγράφηκαν 21 περιστατικά θανάτωσ...

Within the framework of the project ”Surveillance and assessment of the conservation status of mammals of Community interest in the Rhodope Mt National Park (NP)”, conducted from February until November 2015, camera-traps were used to record the presence of large mammals (Bear, Wolf, Lynx and of the Wildcat). Through the IR camera-traps network est...

In the frame of the national survey titled “Surveillance and evaluation of the conservation status of mammal species of Community interest in the Rodopi Mountain Range National Park”, (2015), thirty one (31) IR cameras were placed in thirty four (34) sampling stations over the total NP area (1750 km2). Their distribution was based on a 10X10 km gri...

Addressing human-wolf conflicts is a crucial part of protected area management. It is related with several ecological processes and promotes the acceptance of protected area management authorities by local communities. Wolves in Mt Oiti NP (10-14 individuals) recovered in the area during the ‘90s. We interviewed 39 owners of free-raising goat, shee...

In the framework of this research focusing on conservation status evaluation of wolves at a large spatial scale we used a) Presence data in the form of wolf attacks to livestock at a national scale (ELGA) and b) Direct field data (2006-2016) from 44 separate wolf territories, to estimate population size and distribution extent. We analyzed attack e...

The European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) is the only Cervidae species with a considerable range in Greece. Greek roe deer populations, however, display low densities and they are highly fragmented. Because of that, species’ local conservation status differs from the rest of Europe. Mountain Oiti and the neighboring mountains Vardoussia, Giona an...

Shape files of current and historical distribution maps of large carnivore species in Europe. Also available from http://datadryad.org/resource/doi:10.5061/dryad.986mp

The conservation of large carnivores is a formidable challenge for biodiversity conservation. Using a data set on the past and current status of brown bears (Ursus arctos), Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), gray wolves (Canis lupus), and wolverines (Gulo gulo) in European countries, we show that roughly one-third of mainland Europe hosts at least one larg...

The expansion of transportation networks is leading highways, roads and vehicle traffic as one of the most detrimental direct human related factor of animal mortality on continental ecosystems. The design and incorporation of wildlife crossing structures into highway construction is a method which can mitigate these anthropogenic negative effects o...

The goal of the present study was to investigate the parasitic fauna of wolves in Central Greece, in order to evaluate its possible role in the fitness of these animals and to assess its importance in the health status of other wild and domestic animals as well as humans. We examined 147 faecal samples from wolves, distinguished from those of sheph...

We studied wolf-livestock conflicts in Oiti National park (250 km2, altitudinal range: 600-2200m) during summer of 2012. Livestock farming is consisted by transhumance free-raising flocks grazing from May to late October. Wolf (92/43 habitats directive- annexes II, IV) has shown a remarkable recovery during the last 15 years. 6733 sheep, 2068 goat,...

Large carnivores (bears Ursus arctos, wolves Canis lupus, lynx Lynx lynx and wolverines Gulo gulo) are among the most challenging group of species to maintain as large and continuous populations or to reintegrate back into the European landscape. Political, socioeconomic and society changes challenge past management approaches in some of the large...

Data on wildlife response during construction phase of large linear infrastructures are relatively scarce but may reflect at some degree future response during operation phase and therefore permit timely adjustments on mitigation measures when necessary. We studied local wolf pack response in two areas A) Egnatia highway (4.1) construction area (25...

Sound management and conservation of endangered animal species requires accurate population size estimates at the individual level. In order to objectively identify individual brown bears (Ursus arctos) in Greece, a non-invasive method was developed based on their tracks. For these reasons, we measured 16 linear dimensions on 91 forefoot tracks fro...

Abstract Managers of recovering wolf (Canis lupus) populations require knowledge regarding the potential impacts caused by the loss of territorial, breeding wolves when devising plans that aim to balance population goals with human concerns. Although ecologists have studied wolves extensively, we lack an understanding of this phenomenon as publishe...