The golden jackal has rapidly expanded across Europe in recent decades and was one of the first to reappear in Hungary. Using hunting bag data from the National Game Management Database from 1995 to ...2021, we examined the spatial expansion of the species and its population dynamics. Our findings reveal an exponential increase in the golden jackal population since the mid-1990s, with an average annual growth rate of 40% in the hunting bag and an occupancy of 86% of the country. The average speed of the range expansion was 536.9 km 2 year -1 until 2007 and increased to an average of 5,289.1 km 2 year -1 during the second part of the expansion process. The density of shot golden jackals also shows an increasing trend with a substantial presence of outliers, indicating that nearly 10% of the hunting bag demonstrates exceptionally high numbers, particularly in southwestern Hungary. The spread originated in the southwest and extended towards the northeast and northwest. However, the increase of the hunting bag slowed down and the expansion rate has decreased in the previous two years, leading us to anticipate that the golden jackal population will stabilize soon, as the expansion has reached its maximum in Hungary. This indicates that from the initial settlement to the stabilization of the population, the time span can be two to three decades.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The myxoma virus species jump from European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) to Iberian hares (Lepus granatensis) has raised concerns. We assess the decline suffered by Iberian hare populations on the ...Iberian Peninsula and discuss the association between the effect of myxomatosis and the average abundance index, which we estimated by using hunting bags.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The purpose of this study was to understand the contribution of each performance indicator to evaluate match performance of football referees. Thirty-four elite Referee Match Observers (RMOs) from ...the Portuguese FA participated voluntarily in the study. From the official assessment sheet of each game, the referee’s game score was categorized in two groups according to referee’s game score: i) Referees with a Low Score (LFS) and ii) Referees with High Score (HFS). A multivariable binary logistic regression model was used to assess the relationship between the Performance Indicators (PIs) of the dimensions i) game difficulty and game intervention and ii) disciplinary actions and game management in relation to the referee’s match assessment score. The model proposed revealed that only the PIs negative application of the laws of the game and referee teamwork, from the dimension disciplinary actions and game management, significantly defined the final game referee’s assessment score. This study suggests that the PIs scored by the RMOs contributed in a different way to the referee’s game score. The model explains 60.4% of the referee’s game score based on the variables referee teamwork and negative application of the laws of the game.
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Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Alien mammal species have a very long history of anthropogenic introductions and have been extensively studied due to their severe impact on native biodiversity and ecosystems. One of the most ...detrimental species is the sika deer (Cervus nippon), a native Asian deer that has settled in several districts of the Czech Republic and has widely colonized the area with increasing population numbers. In this study we aimed to investigate the trend of the number of sika deer culled in the country between 1994 and 2018, and to highlight limits and flaws in the current management and hunting strategy. We identified three hunting subpopulations based on both the official hunting records and the environmental and urban features of the Czech Republic. The analyses of the subpopulations over the period between 1994 and 2018 revealed very different trends, some of which are alarming. The average annual increase in culling was 7.4% for Subpopulation 1 (SP1), 1% for Subpopulation 2 (SP2), and 3.7% for Subpopulation 3 (SP3). Considered the increased percentages of culled deer, and the environmental features of the country, we evaluated the central subpopulation (SP2) as the easiest to manage due to its small area of extension, the scarcity of forested regions and, as possible contribution, the natural occurrence of predators. Being the other two subpopulations spread across larger forested areas and hosting a higher number of deer, we concluded that an increasing effort, and a more well-designed strategy to ensure accuracy of hunting plans seems to be impelling for the country.
Football is central to the lives of countless individuals around the globe. While most of the attention of those passionate about the sport is focused on the players, football referees are often just ...as important in shaping the outcome of the games. Therefore, research is increasingly examining the role of referees. Even so, our understanding of the factors that create an excellent football referee is still scarce.
Based on our analysis of the opinions of 24 football experts, we demonstrate the multidimensionality of excellence in the performance of football referees. From a Categorical Principal Components Analysis (CatPCA), we were able to pinpoint that football referee excellence is shaped by three distinct dimensions: individual preparation, game preparation and game management. Additionally, we were able to see if these perceptions were different from individuals "within" the game versus those "outside" the game. Namely, we used CatPCA to graphically display the main correlations between the latent dimensions of football refereeing performance and the "inside" and "outside" perspective of the game. The findings of our work contribute towards the knowledge of the factors that shape football referee excellence, while also highlighting areas in need of additional research attention.
Referees face various challenges in officiating games as there is no consensus on the complexity of tasks and the approaches that guarantee optimum performance. Most researchers and sports ...administrators agree that the best way to cope with these challenges is consistent decision making and efficient communication with the players. This holistic approach to refereeing is referred to as game management. However, existing models only give few insights into how referees can utilise game management. This paper introduces a decision-flow model that explains the different stages a referee must consider when implementing game management, namely the fast, intuitive decision in-game, the deliberate evaluation of this decision, and the chosen compensation if the evaluation regards the decision as an error. We argue that compensations need to be implemented differently depending on the severity of misjudgement and its impact on the game. Furthermore, we conclude that our decision-flow model applies to every decision that a referee makes when applying game management. Therefore, optimum game management is a continuous evaluation and compensation process in which the judgment scale is adjusted based on the evaluation of the previous decision.
Wild rabbit is a relevant species in the Iberian Peninsula due to its ecological and economic roles. Conservationists and game managers therefore have a shared interest in assuring the existence of ...resilient and sustainable populations. Although management principles and guidelines are mostly known and understood, often the results are not as good as expected. Local abundance can vary significantly even in short periods, while the colonisation of adjacent territories is uncommon, probably due to the territorial behaviour of the species. Aware that the foundation of nuclei requires interaction among individuals, we hypothesised that rabbit abundance plays a significant part in population connectivity. In order to find out whether the population size affects nuclei connectivity, we conducted a graph theory-based connectivity analysis. The results confirm that connectivity grows with rabbit abundance, but only to a certain degree, and there is a spatial separation of the nuclei regardless of the population size. These outcomes suggest that a comprehensive wild rabbit population increment plan should address both the abundance and spatial distribution, but should not aim at achieving a continuous distribution of wild rabbit with constant or similar abundance. Regarding specific management actions, we argue that in restocking operations new nuclei should be located within dispersal range from the existing ones to promote inter-nuclei connectivity, but not too close, as the nuclei segregation tendency is likely to persist due to the species’ territoriality.
Hybridisation and gene introgression are important sources of diversification, the relevance of which in the evolutionary processes is well recognised. Their fitness consequences in animal ...populations, however, are not sufficiently well understood, despite hybridisation rates becoming increasingly important worldwide following human‐related activities such as domestication, game management and habitat alteration.
In Europe, the density and distribution of native ungulates have largely been influenced by humans since pre‐historic times. This, alongside the introduction of non‐native and domesticated species, may bear major consequences at the genetic and population levels. We provide an updated overview of recent hybridisation events in wild European ungulates; we describe their ecological drivers, extent, current distribution, potential consequences and proposed management strategies.
We reviewed the scientific literature published between 2000 and 2018 and found that confirmed hybridisation was described in 75 of the 89 references we included, involving nearly all the species that we investigated. Most researchers relied on genetic information for hybrid identification, which often involved a domestic counterpart. However, introductions and translocations also led to crossbreeding between wild ungulate (sub)species. Only 43 papers provided management recommendations, mostly focused on preventing hybridisation and removing hybrids.
Hybridisation proved to be relatively common in several ungulate taxa in Europe. Despite reported changes in phenotype and fitness‐related traits in some species, the consequences of hybridisation for adaptation, life history, and evolutionary potential remain largely unknown. The current conservation paradigm aims to prevent the spread of domestic or non‐native genes in native populations; accordingly, conservation plans should: 1) determine the genetic origin of possible source populations; 2) protect native populations from the risk of crossbreeding with non‐native ones, and 3) establish permanent monitoring.
The Iberian hare (Lepus granatensis) is an important small game species endemic to the Iberian Peninsula for which the incidence of roadkill is unknown. We surveyed Iberian hare-vehicle accidents on ...road networks in southern Spain, focusing on roads that mainly run through favorable habitats for this species: Mediterranean landscapes with plots of arable crops, olive groves, and vineyards. We recorded roadkills over a 5-month period, estimated hare accident densities on roads, and compared these numbers to hare hunting yields in adjoining hunting estates. We also analyzed the spatial patterns of and potential factors influencing hare roadkills. We detected the existence of black spots for hare roadkills in areas with high landscape heterogeneity that also included embankments and nearby crossroads and had high traffic intensity. Hare roadkill levels ranged from 5 to 25% of the annual harvest of hares killed on neighboring hunting estates. We suggest that road collisions should be considered in Iberian hare conservation in addition to hunting, since they may represent an additive source of mortality. Game managers should address the issue of hare roadkill in harvest planning to compensate for hare accidents, adjusting hunting quotas to account for this unnatural source of mortality. Our results suggest future directions for applied research in road ecology, including further work on demographic compensation and roadkill mitigation.
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•Ungulate feeding affects the movement ecology of non-target species.•GPS- and snow-tracked bears encounter ungulate feeding sites more often than expected.•There is a link between ...bear activity in winter and frequent use of feeding sites.•Conservation should focus also on preserving natural behavior, not only on numbers.•We call for a reevaluation of wildlife feeding practices.
Food availability plays a key role in animal movements. Anthropogenic provisioning of food to wildlife is a common practice of unprecedented magnitude worldwide and is of increasing conservation concern. Ungulate supplementary feeding is widespread in game management; however its effects on non-target species have received little attention. Here, we investigate how ungulate feeding affects the movement behavior of a non-target species, the brown bear (Ursus arctos). We tracked bear movements in the Northeastern Carpathians (1500km2) and inventoried 212 ungulate feeding sites. We analyzed encounter rates of nine GPS-collared bears with ungulate feeding sites (1658km, n=49 tracks) and compared them with the corresponding encounter rate of simulated tracks. We also estimated the encounter rate with feeding sites using snow-tracking of unknown bears (232km, n=40 tracks). GPS-tracked bears encountered feeding sites three times more frequently (mean±SE=0.154±0.022 per km travelled) than would be expected if they were moving randomly (0.054±0.0010 per km random walk). The rate was even higher for snow-tracked bears, which visited on average 0.926±0.271 feeding sites per kilometer travelled. This suggests a link between the winter activity of some individuals and their frequent use of feeding sites. Bears seemed to rely on spatial memory and patrol known sites, independent of whether food was available at the feeding sites. This alteration of the natural behavior of species with behavioral flexibility, such as brown bears, could be interpreted as a sign of environmental degradation. Our results demonstrate an important effect of ungulate feeding on the movement ecology of non-target species. We warn of the impacts of this practice on species and ecosystems and highlight the need to preserve natural movement behaviors and urgently reevaluate management practices involving food provisioning to wildlife.
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