Bulletin of Forestry Science / Volume 6 / Issue 2 / Pages 161-173
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Artificial nest predation investigations at a varied habitat in Somogy County, Hungary

Ferenc Jánoska, Péter Kemenszky, Attila Farkas, József Varju & Zsolt Horváth

Correspondence

Correspondence: Jánoska Ferenc

Postal address: H-9400 Sopron, Bajcsy-Zsilinszky E. u. 4.

e-mail: janoska.ferenc[at]nyme.hu

Abstract

We made artificial ground nest predation investigations at a varied habitat in Somogy County, Hungary. During the investigation we were interested in determining which predator species pose a potential risk for the nests of small game species (pheasant and grey partridge) in a territory, where the habitats are suitable for both small game and big game. We monitored 20-20 artificial ground nests in April and May. In each nest we put 2 chicken eggs, 1 wax egg and 1 plasticine egg, respectively. We placed the artificial nests at the edge zones of different habitats and checked the predation every 4 days. We found the Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) (51%) and the Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) (37%) to be the most common predator species. We found in April the highest predation at the edges between the Alder forests and crop fields and the Alder forests and pastures and in May at inner micro edges of young afforestation, the differences were significant. The predation risk was also very high for artificial nests left at inner micro edges of young afforestation for 2 months, but the differences between the study periods were not significant.

Keywords: artificial ground nest, predation, Red Fox, Wild Boar, edge effect

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    Cite this article as:

    Jánoska, F., Kemenszky, P., Farkas, A., Varju, J. & Horváth, Zs. (2016): Artificial nest predation investigations at a varied habitat in Somogy County, Hungary. Bulletin of Forestry Science, 6(2): 161-173. (in Hungarian) DOI: 10.17164/EK.2016.013

    Volume 6, Issue 2
    Pages: 161-173

    DOI: 10.17164/EK.2016.013

    First published:
    27 September 2016

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