"In this exploratory study, we focused on one main questions: How does the presence of a large carnivore, specifically the grey wolf, affect the temporal distribution of its prey species in the presence of human disturbance in a temperate forest in Central Europe?
Abstract
The link between large- and middle-sized mammals in forest habitat is understudied in Central Europe; meanwhile these animals could have important effects on their habitats. In our study, we analysed camera trapping data obtained from May 2015 to September 2021 on 29 different sites in a temperate forest at the Bükk Mountain, Hungary. We investigated the temporal activity of ungulates (red deer, roe deer, wild boar) and predators (red fox and grey wolf), together with their response to human disturbance. We calculated temporal overlap value (Δ4) and occurrence dynamics with multi-state modelling (msm). The results suggest that human activity was higher at daytime, while the mammals were more active at night. Multi-state modelling (msm) grouped animals and humans separately. Ungulates chose nighttime, when predators were also active, while they avoided daytime and human disturbance. Grey wolf were mostly co-occurred with its main food source, the red deer. Red fox overlapped the most with roe deer, suggesting that fox prey upon deer fawns. We found that human disturbance has a significant impact on the activity of forest mammals, whereas the expected avoidance of predators by ungulates does not appear to be evident. To better understand the effect of prey–predator behavioural responses in the presence of human disturbance, more field studies are needed in the region."