what have we learned?
Nina Ražen (Author), Žan Kuralt (Author), Urša Fležar (Author), Matej Bartol (Author), Rok Černe (Author), Ivan Kos (Author), Miha Krofel (Author), Roman Luštrik (Author), Aleksandra Majić Skrbinšek (Author), Hubert Potočnik (Author)

Abstract

Evidence-based management of large carnivores is a crucial step towards their effective conservation. However, monitoring of these populations is demanding and generally requires substantial fieldwork effort. Lately, citizen science has become an increasingly important part of wildlife monitoring, but can that endanger studied species? In this paper, we describe our experiences with recruiting and involving volunteers in annual howling surveys of grey wolf (Canis lupus) population in Slovenia and present the framework about the use of citizens for collecting data. Huge effort of participants in a 7-year-long monitoring at a national scale has yielded a total of 116 wolf vocal responses, including 53 confirmed litters. Annually, between 5 and 12 reproductive packs were detected and an increasing trend in wolf population throughout the study period was observed. Volunteer-based howling surveys proved to be a cost-effective method for detection of reproductive packs on a large spatial scale, offering an insight into wolf population trends across a longer time period and we provide some recommendations for organisation and coordination of surveys. We also discuss ethical issues raised from our experience in using citizen science for this purpose.

Keywords

monitoring;izzivanje tuljenja;volk;Canis lupus;velike zveri;državljanska znanost;acoustic survey;grey wolf;large carnivore;citizen science;

Data

Language: English
Year of publishing:
Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization: UL BF - Biotechnical Faculty
UDC: 630*15
COBISS: 18488835 Link will open in a new window
ISSN: 1612-4642
Views: 763
Downloads: 253
Average score: 0 (0 votes)
Metadata: JSON JSON-RDF JSON-LD TURTLE N-TRIPLES XML RDFA MICRODATA DC-XML DC-RDF RDF

Other data

Secondary language: Slovenian
Secondary keywords: monitoring;izzivanje tuljenja;volk;Canis lupus;velike zveri;državljanska znanost;
Type (COBISS): Article
Embargo end date (OpenAIRE): 2021-06-03
Pages: 9 str.
Volume: ǂiss. ǂ3
Issue: ǂarticle ǂ45
Chronology: 2020
DOI: 10.1007/s10344-020-01383-0
ID: 11807764