Browsing by Author "Soyumert A."

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Camera-Trapping Two Felid Species: Monitoring Eurasian Lynx (Lynx lynx) and Wildcat (Felis silvestris) Populations in Mixed Temperate Forest Ecosystems
(2020-02-11) Soyumert A.
Documenting reliable and concrete data makes camera-trapping an appropriate tool for many secretive large mammals. Camera-trapping has been widely used for detecting the large mammal fauna of Turkey. However, systematic surveys and comprehensive assessments are still not sufficient for assessing wildlife populations in the country. In the present study, populations of Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) and wildcat (Felis silvestris) were monitored by systematic camera-trapping, and their co-existence was investigated with 70 camera-trap stations between 2014-2018 in northern Anatolia. Daily activity patterns and kernel density estimation were used to analyse and compare temporal patterns of target species. High temporal overlap (?4: 0.81) for Eurasian lynx and wildcat at the same study sites, and no alteration in wildcat activity pattern in the presence of Eurasian lynx, suggest that these two felid species can co-exist in the same habitats using the same period of the day. Domestic cat (Felis catus) was detected at 52.5% of the wildcat-positive stations indicating that there is hybridisation threat for the wildcat population in the region. The study reveals that systematic camera-trapping surveys are an applicable method for monitoring cryptic mammalian carnivores and provide useful insights into the threats on wildlife populations like hybridisation.
Camera-Trapping Two Felid Species: Monitoring Eurasian Lynx (Lynx lynx) and Wildcat (Felis silvestris) Populations in Mixed Temperate Forest Ecosystems
(2020-02-11) Soyumert A.; Soyumert, A
Documenting reliable and concrete data makes camera-trapping an appropriate tool for many secretive large mammals. Camera-trapping has been widely used for detecting the large mammal fauna of Turkey. However, systematic surveys and comprehensive assessments are still not sufficient for assessing wildlife populations in the country. In the present study, populations of Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) and wildcat (Felis silvestris) were monitored by systematic camera-trapping, and their co-existence was investigated with 70 camera-trap stations between 2014-2018 in northern Anatolia. Daily activity patterns and kernel density estimation were used to analyse and compare temporal patterns of target species. High temporal overlap (?4: 0.81) for Eurasian lynx and wildcat at the same study sites, and no alteration in wildcat activity pattern in the presence of Eurasian lynx, suggest that these two felid species can co-exist in the same habitats using the same period of the day. Domestic cat (Felis catus) was detected at 52.5% of the wildcat-positive stations indicating that there is hybridisation threat for the wildcat population in the region. The study reveals that systematic camera-trapping surveys are an applicable method for monitoring cryptic mammalian carnivores and provide useful insights into the threats on wildlife populations like hybridisation.
Current status, distribution, and conservation of brown bear (Ursidae) and wild canids (gray wolf, golden jackal, and red fox; canidae) in Turkey
(2016-01-01) Ambarli H.; Ertürk A.; Soyumert A.
Turkey has viable populations of many carnivore species of the Western Palearctic. Among those, ursids and canids are represented by brown bear (Ursus arctos) and 3 canid species, gray wolf (Canis lupus), golden jackal (Canis aureus), and red fox (Vulpes vulpes), respectively. Those species occur in major ecosystems of Turkey and experience a wide range of threats, and they are at the center of human-wildlife conflicts. However, due to a limited number of studies about their ecology and taxonomy, their current distributions, population sizes, and statuses are vague. In this study, we document the 4 species’ known data in terms of distribution range, population biology, phylogeography, threats and conflicts with people, and National Red List status in Turkey by reviewing the recent literature and national news about carnivores, data collection in field surveys, and interviews with local people, personnel of the Ministry of Forestry, and hunters in more than 50 provinces. Additionally, we also provide information about rabies cases in consideration with carnivore conservation. We finally recommend further studies to fill information gaps for wildlife conservation and management based on scientific evidence.
Fire-created habitats support large mammal community in a Mediterranean landscape
(2020-04-01) Soyumert A.; Ertürk A.; Tavşanoğlu Ç.
Large mammals play significant roles in shaping the trophic structure of terrestrial ecosystems and affect the form of vegetation growth in many habitats. We studied large mammal community in a Mediterranean habitat mosaic generated by fires originally dominated by pine forests. We conducted camera-trapping surveys in three study sites with different fire histories, and we recorded eight large mammal species including brown bear (Ursus arctos), caracal (Caracal caracal), and wild goat (Capra aegagrus), which are of conservation importance. The mammal community found in the study sites was functionally diverse, including herbivores, omnivores, carnivores, seed dispersers, soil diggers, main preys, and top predators. The site burned 13 years ago had higher species richness than can be expected from a random pattern, but this was not the case in 30- and >40-year-old sites, showing the importance of relatively younger sites for large mammals. Eurasian badger had more probability to have more abundance in places with more open vegetation while wild goat had higher abundance in more dense vegetation. Young individuals of wild goat, brown bear, and wild boar were also detected in the study sites. The results indicate that burned habitats harbor a phylogenetically and functionally diverse large mammal community in landscapes originally dominated by Mediterranean pine forests. Therefore, these forests continue to retain importance for the large mammals after the fire, and burned habitats should be taken into consideration for the conservation and management plans together with mature forests in Mediterranean ecosystems.
Seed dispersal by the brown bear in a mixed temperate forest: fruit type matters
(2021-01-01) Tavşanoğlu Ç.; Kazancı D.D.; Soyumert A.; Ertürk A.; Değirmenci C.Ü.
The brown bear (Ursus arctos L.) is an omnivorous large mammal that has an essential function in many ecosystems as a seed disperser. We studied the brown bear’s role as a seed dispersal agent in a mixed temperate forest in northern Anatolia, Turkey. We collected 197 fecal samples from the field during the brown bear’s active period for two consecutive years. We extracted seeds of 34 plant taxa from fecal samples. Among these taxa, 29 had intact seeds, whereas seeds of 5 were found to be entirely or mostly physically damaged. Damaged seeds belonged to fruits of acorn, capsule, nut, and drupe-like nut types, while no or few seeds from fleshy fruits such as berry, drupe, pome, and rosehip types had damage. Seeds from pome type fruits of Malus sylvestris and Pyrus elaeagnifolia had a higher germination percentage in feces than in the control (fresh seeds collected from the field), but that was quite the opposite in berries of Lonicera caucasica and Vaccinium arctostaphylos. No difference in germination percentage was found between feces and control groups in seeds from rosehips. Our results reveal that seeds of several species found in the study area are dispersed by the brown bear, especially those with fleshy fruits (e.g., Rosaceae members). In this study, we established the role of the brown bear as a seed dispersal agent in northern Anatolian mixed temperate forests. Our study suggests that fruit type is a determinant of the success of endozoochorous seed dispersal by the brown bear.
The importance of lagomorphs for the Eurasian lynx in Western Asia: Results from a large scale camera-trapping survey in Turkey
(2019-03-01) Soyumert A.; Ertürk A.; Tavşanoğlu Ç.
Explaining predator-prey relationship is crucial for implementing effective conservation practices on large mammals. The Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) preys on small ungulates such as roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) in Europe, and on hares (Lepus spp.) in more eastern longitudes, but there is lack of information on the southernmost populations of the Eurasian lynx in Turkey. This study explores the spatial and temporal relationship of the Eurasian lynx with its two main preys, roe deer and the brown hare (Lepus europaeus) in north-western Anatolia using long-term camera-trapping data. Camera-trapping surveys were held with 173 systematic camera-trap stations at 10 study sites between November 2007 and July 2016, and reached to 53,995 trap-nights in total. To analyse the camera-trap data, we used a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) assuming binomial error distribution for presence/absence data and general linear mixed model (LMM) for the relative abundance data. In both modelling approaches, we considered the study site as the random factor. We estimated the overlap of daily activity patterns of Eurasian lynx with roe deer and brown hare using kernel density estimation. Both GLMM and LMM analyses indicated a significant spatial relationship between the Eurasian lynx and the brown hare (χ 2 = 22.4, P < 0.0001 and Likelihood ratio = 4.8, P < 0.05, respectively), but not between the Eurasian lynx and roe deer (P > 0.05). The daily activity of Eurasian lynx highly overlapped with brown hare (Δ 4 = 0.81), but we found a lower overlap between Eurasian lynx and roe deer (Δ 4 = 0.62). The findings reveal that the presence of Eurasian lynx is temporally and spatially synchronized with the brown hare in northern Anatolia, and support that the brown hare, but not the roe deer, constitutes the main diet of Eurasian lynx in the study area.