Ábrahám Levente: Biomonitoring a Dráva folyó magyarországi szakasza mentén 2000-2004 - Natura Somogyiensis 7. (Kaposvár, 2005)
Heltai, Miklós, Szemethy, László, Szabó, László - Szőcs, Emese: Small and medium sized predators monitoring along River Dráva - Kis- és közepesméretű ragadozó emlősök monitoringja a Dráva mentén
Natura Somogyiensis 7 157-167 Kaposvár, 2005 Small and medium sized predators monitoring along River Dráva HELTAI MIKLÓS, SZEMETHY LÁSZLÓ, SZABÓ LÁSZLÓ and Szőcs EMESE St. István University, Department of Wildlife Biology and Management, H-2103 Gödöllő Páter К. u. 1.; e-mail: Heltai.Miklos@vvt.gau.hu HELTAI M., SZEMETHY L., SZABÓ Е., SZŐCS E.,: Small and medium sized predators monitoring along River Dráva. Abstract: We have been working on the small and medium sized predator species' monitoring since 1999, within the framework of Monitoring River Drávás nature conservation area. The monitoring is carried out with live trapping. In the first two years of our work the methods were finalized. In our work, given valuable results since 2001 we have caught 86 individuals of seven predator species (red fox, polecat, weasel, stone and pine marten, wild cat, domestic cat) so far, during the 26 848 trap-nights. The average catch effectiveness was 0.317 captures/ 100 trap-nights. We could prove the presence of the ermine and the otter on the research area with additional methods. The wild cat, and the pine marten turned out to be the most frequent predator. Both species have narrow-bearing, and find human disturbance hard to bear. These qualities give the ability to these species to be the indicators of the changes in living places of the territory by follow the changes of their population with attention. Key words: predator monitoring, live trapping, stone marten, wild cat Introduction Hungary is one of the most richest area in natural values in Europe and most of the predator species, that can be found on the Continent appear here too. Only with the exception of those rare, narrow-bearing species, with relatively small spreading area even in Europe, like the brown bear {Ursus arctos), the wolverine (Gulo gulo), the common genet (Genetta genetta), the European mink {Mustela lutreola) and the American mink {Mustela vison), or the marbled polecat {Vormelaperegusna). In the second part of the 20 th century some native predator species returned and created increasing populations, like the wolf {Canis lupus), the lynx {Felis lynx) or the golden jackal {Canis aureus), which became extinct from the territory of Hungary long before. Besides some invasive species appeared, which are also spreading in Europe, and are considered as non indigenous species, like the raccoon {Procyon lotor) and the raccoon dog {Nyctereutes procionoides) (HELTAI 2002). Despite of this, the national research of these species is surprisingly trifling compared with other groups, such as song birds, small rodents or amphibians, while internationally is quite scanty. There were quite few publications about the nationwide spreading and the changes in populations of one or other predators in the past decades.
