Ecological Studies,

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Ecological Studies, Vol. 135

Analysis and Synthesis

Edited by

M. M. Caldwell, Logan, USA

G. Heldmaier, Marburg, Germany

0. L. Lange, Wiirzburg, Germany

H. A. Mooney, Stanford, USA

E.-D. Schulze, Bayreuth, Germany

U. Sommer, Kiel, Germany

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Ecological Studies

Volumes published since 1992 are listed at the end of this book.

Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH

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Predation

in Vertebrate Communities

The Bialowieia Primeval Forest as a Case Study

With 251 Figures and 103 Tables

~ Springer

B. Jędrzejewska W. Jędrzejewski

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Dr. BoGUMILA J:~DRZEJEWSKA

Dr. Wt.ODZIMIERZ J:~DRZEJEWSKI

Mammal Research Institute Polish Academy of Sciences Ul. Gen. Waszkiewicza 1 17-230 Bialowieza, Poland

ISSN 0070-8356 ISBN 978-3-642-08384-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

J~drzejewska, B. (Bogumita), 1959- . Predation in vertebrate communities: the Bialowieza Primeval Forest as a case study I B. j~drzejewska, W. J~drzejewski. p. em. - (Ecological studies; vol. 135) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.

ISBN 978-3-642-08384-6 ISBN 978-3-662-35364-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-662-35364-6

I. Predation (Biology) - Bialowieza Forest (Poland and Russia) 2. Population biology - Bialowieza Forest (Poland and Russia) 3. Vertebrates - Ecology - Bialowieza Forest (Poland and Russia) I. )~drzejewski, W.

(Wlodzimierz), 1961- . II. Title. Ill. Series: Ecological studies; v. 135. QL758.)44 1998 596.153-dc21 98-2772 CIP

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcast- ing, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH.

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Acknowledgements

Our work on this book and the 10-year study on Bialowieza's predators were, in some ways, the result of team work, and it is a pleasure to acknowledge the help of many friends, colleagues, and teachers. Jacek Goszczynski, Joan- na Gliwicz, and Marek Keller, our professors at the Forestry Faculty of War- saw Agricultural University, fostered our scientific interest in vertebrate ecology and - for years after we had graduated - encouraged and helped us through advice, constructive criticism and discussions. We are grateful to Professor Zdzislaw Pucek, the Director of the Mammal Research Institute (Polish Academy of Sciences) in Bialowieza, for his unfailing support for our wide-scale research programme, scrupulous reading and correcting of our scientific texts, and encouragement during the work on this book.

Since 1985, when we began the investigations, the research couple has grown into a research team, the Group of Predator Ecology, a group of en- thusiasts. Many people who joined us, for shorter or longer periods of cooperation, have contributed enormously to the data synthesised in this book.

We thank our colleagues-researchers, Andrzej Zalewski, Krzysztof Schmidt, Henryk Okarma, Rafal Kowalczyk, and Leszek Rychlik, and graduate stu- dents, Marcin Brzezinski, Wojciech Nowakowski, Alicja Morylewska, Janusz Kupis, and Marco Musiani. We are very grateful to the technicians who worked on our projects in 1985-1996: Irena Szpakowicz, Nadzieja Wojcie- szuk, Swietlana Bogdanska, Alicja Buszko, Edyta Bajko, Jerzy Siemieniuk, Miroslaw Szlachciuk, Marek Swic, Eugeniusz Bujko, Stefan Buszko, Maksymi- lian Szuma, Arkadiusz Arasim, Stanislaw Sniezko, and the late Leonidas Sie- mieniuk. Their jobs included caring for laboratory rodents and predators, snow tracking, live trapping of animals, radio-tracking, laboratory analysis of scats and pellets, computer work and much more. We are particularly in- debted to Lucyna Szymura and Karol Zub for their tremendous work. Lucy- na put most of the data into computer files, helped in organising field cen- suses, and prepared microscope slides of mammalian hair recovered from predator scats and pellets. Karol identified a large part of the prey remnants (especially birds, amphibians, and insects), analysed graphically the intricate data on space use by radio-tracked carnivores, and prepared infinite num- bers of figures in the computer programme CorelDraw. We thank them for a creative attitude to all tasks they were fulfilling. We are grateful to all other workers of the Mammal Research Institute, who helped us in many ways.

We appreciate the financial and technical assistance from Earthwatch (USA) and the work of Earth Corps volunteers on our project. Thanks are extended to Linda Wallace-Frjedland, Bill Smith, Marylouise Morgan (USA), Don and Betty

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VI Acknowledgements

Wood (Australia) and other people for helping us in various ways. We also thank many other volunteers from Poland and other countries, for whom no fieldwork was too hard and no time spent in the forest was too long.

The development of our long-term study on predators in Bialowieia Forest brought us closer to other investigators and fostered very useful and satisfacto- ry cooperation with Drs. Andrzej L. Ruprecht, Malgorzata Krasinska (Mammal Research Institute), Zbigniew A. Krasinski (Bialowieia National Park), Marcin Brzezinski (Warsaw University), Lech Milkowski (Bialowieia State Forestry District), Arkadiusz Szymura (Forestry High School, Bialowieia), Eugeniusz Pugacewicz (North-Podlasie Society for Bird Protection), Aleksei N. Bunevich (State National Park Belovezhskaya Pushcha, Belarus Republic), Vadim E. Si- dorovich and Mikhail M. Pikulik (Institute of Zoology, Belarussian Academy of Sciences, Minsk). We thank them all for inspiration and sharing their experi- ence and knowledge with us.

Several zoologists have made their yet unpublished findings available for in- corporation in this book. They include Drs. Zdzislaw Pucek, Marcin Brzezinski, Vladimir A. Dackevich, Aleksei N. Bunevich, Lech Milkowski, Vadim E. Sidor- ovich, Mikhail M. Pikulik, and Wieslaw Walankiewicz. To all these people we are grateful for their help. We thank Lech Z. Nowacki, the author of line draw- ings, and the photographers whose pictures of wildlife and Bialowieia Forest enliven this book.

The birth and growth of many ideas presented in this book were stimulat- ed by numerous discussions - in personal contacts and letters - with Drs.

Zdzislaw Pucek, Jacek Goszczynski, Joanna Gliwicz, Ludwik Tomialojc, To- masz Wesolowski, Wieslaw Walankiewicz (Poland), Burton L. Gordon, George Batzli, (USA), Lennart Hansson, Sam Erlinge (Sweden), Ilkka Hanski, Hannu Ylonen, Erkki Korpimaki (Finland), Eivind Ostbye, Nils C. Stenseth, Geir A. Sonerud (Norway), and Carolyn King (New Zealand). Drs. Mikael Sandell (Sweden), Urs Breitenmoser (Switzerland), and L. David Mech (USA) taught us how to capture and radiotrack carnivores.

Finally, we express our gratitude to managers and employees of the following institutions that permitted our access to the study area and helped in various ways: Bialowieia National Park (Dr. Czeslaw Okol6w, Director, and Prof. Ja- nusz B. Falinski,. Chairman of the Scientific Council), State National Park Belo- vezhskaya Pushcha (Mr. Vasilii P. Zhukov, General Director, Dr. Vyacheslav V.

Semakov, Director of the Science Department), State Forestry Districts of Bialowieia (Mr. Stanislaw Ignatiew), Hajn6wka (Mr. J6zef Fularczyk), and Browsk (Mr. Andrzej Jaworski), and the Forestry High School in Bialowieia.

The work on this book was financed by the grant KBN 4 4416 91 02 from the Committee for Scientific Research (Poland) and the budget of the Mam- mal Research Institute.

Many individuals and institutions contributed to the good points in this book. For the weak points, the responsibility is ours.

Bialowie:ia, April 1998 _B.JJ?DRZEJEWSKA

W. JJ?DRZEJEWSKI

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