O. Gy. Dely szerk.: Vertebrata Hungarica 22. (Budapest, 1984)

Demeter, A.: Recent records of rare or non-residental large carniovores in Hungary 65-72. o.

VERTEBRATA HUNGARICA TOM. XXII. 1984 p. 65-71 Recent records of rare or non-resident large carnivores in Hungary By A. DEMETER (Received July 25, 1984) Abstract. Recently obtained specimens of wolf (Canls lupus)

, golden Jackal (

C

.aureus)

, racoon-dog (

Nyctereutes procyonoldes

), brown bear (

Ursus arctos

) and lynx (

Fells lynx) are reported from Hungary. The present status of these species and the conservation measures recently enacted to protect them are discussed. Present-day Hungary Is densely populated and her landscape Is Intensively managed for agriculture and sylviculture. Forests cover about 17 % of the land and are mainly found In the hilly and mountainous regions of northern and western Hungary. Altogether 5 % of the area of the country receives legal protection in the form of national parks, nature reserves and landscape protection areas (KOPASZ 1976). Likewise to the habitats, the hunted game species of the wildlife heritage of the country are also intensively managed. Hunting clubs, state game farms, state hunting reserves and agricultural cooperatives hold the legal right over the shooting of the game species listed In the hunting regulations, even in protected areas. As a result, the large carnivores have become either extinct, or non-resident with occasional vagrant individuals entering from the neighbouring countries that are soon killed in Hungary. Prior to 1983 they had received no legal protection at all because were included neither In the list of hunted species, under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, nor in the list of protected species Issued by the National Environmental and Nature Conservation Authority. A series of recent events, records of species normally absent in Hungary indicate, however, that the situation may be changing. LIST OF RECORDS Wolf (Cants lupus L.) Specimens. - HNHM reg. no. 84.1.1., o*, skull (skin in the possession of the collector), Háromhuta, Zemplén Mts, 3 September, 1983. Coll.: I. NOVAK. - without number, d", skin and skull In the possession of the collector, Bélapátfalva, 26 November, 1982. Coll.: D. KORMOS. Wolves have not been resident in Hungary for many decades but there are fairly frequently vagrant Individuals which become established for variable lengths of time before being killed

.During the last decades the most numerous records have come from the mid-1960s, when there were espe6 5