Another round of field research on wolf diet
And the sixth round is behind us!
Since December 2023, we have been conducting another series of surveys related to the analysis of wolf diet composition and prey abundance in the areas we monitor.
This time, in addition to our regular veteran volunteer Aśka, we were visited as volunteers by guests from abroad – Jonas from Belgium and Adam from the UK. The guys were very brave and did a great job in sometimes really tough terrain!
The first 2 days together we took down the photo traps hung during the previous round in March, in the Siekierno forests near Skarżysko-Kamienna. The trail cameras recorded forest life, but what interested us most were recordings of wild ungulates – roe deer, wild boar and red deer, which our Świętokrzyskie wolves are most likely to feed on. With the recordings and the distance sampling method, we hope to estimate the population sizes of these species and, combined with data from wolf poop analysis, assess exactly what local wolves’ culinary preferences are.
After the collection stage, we moved to another forest complex located near Kielce. For four days we hung up the previously collected photo traps and at the same time explored the beauty of the area. Many thanks to the Complex of Świętokrzyskie and Nadnidziański Landscape Parks and especially to Ms. Beata for their extremely kind cooperation and assistance in our research!
During the tour, which lasted 1.5 weeks, we took a day off to show our volunteers the most interesting corners of the Świętokrzyska Forest and to train them in wolf telemetry. On the last day, we also took them to a very interesting exhibition at Geonature Kielce – Geoeducation Center. We were extremely lucky, because we just happened to hit the beginning of the rock grinding workshops taking place there! Each of us got a piece of local stone and had the opportunity to polish it with our own hands, and then take it with us as a souvenir. A very interesting experience, we recommend and encourage you to visit Geonatura!
And the next round of research is just ahead.