Ábrahám Levente (szerk.): Válogatott tanulmányok IX. - Natura Somogyiensis 24. (Kaposvár, 2014)

Szűcs D. - Kitti Horváth K. - Horváth Gy. F.: Comparing small mammal faunas based on barn owl (Tyto alba) pellets collected in two different lowland landscapes

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Fig. 8: Average niche overlap (Pianka-index) between three sample pairs

Discussion

In the framework of the National Biodiversity Monitoring System (NBMS) introduced recently in Hungary, special attention is focused on small mammal species (Csorba & Pecsenye 1997, Fodor et al. 2007), since some of them are protected, they are important indicators of environmental changes and their populations have been thoroughly studied in many ecological aspects during the past 40 years (Ieradi et al. 1998, Schweiger et al. 1999, Jorgensen et al. 2002, Leis et al. 2008). As part of the NBMS, small mammal monitoring based on countrywide owl pellet collection is planned to be introduced in the form of a separate sub-project. Based on data of this project it is possible to compare and evaluate the composition of small mammal assemblages between landscapes of different spatial scales (Horváth et al. 2005, 2008).

In recent years publications became more frequent evaluating the changes in structural elements of landscapes based on the abundance of prey detected from owl pellets Bősé & Guidali 2001, La Pena et al. 2003, Andries et al. 1994). Love et al. (2000) and Askew et al. (2006) reported further results about the diet of the bam owl. Horváth et