Research

An overview of current and past research projects.

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Brown bear

Bear caught on camera on a feeding site for deer in Trento province, Italy. Photo credit: Fondazione Edmund Mach

AlpBearConnect

My PhD project:

1. Effect of human outdoor activity
2. Human disturbance drives bear’s realized niche
3. Collaboration with […] research groups
4. Collaboration with the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team - USGS

Depredation risk analysis

Led by Adrienne Gastineau, PhD, the work aims at identifying factors associated with depredations on livestock by brown bears in Western Europe, specifically on Pyrenean and Alpine bears.

As part of her PhD, Adrienne has studied brown bear damage events on livestock in the Pyrenees, France (see the article published on Biological Conservation). The work aimed at going beyond the primary vulnerability analysis of pastoral areas and to undertake a spatially explicit study at different spatial (landscape, individual home range) and temporal scales (intra- and inter-annual variations). The current research aims to study the pattern of spatiotemporal depredation for both Pyrenean and Alpine bears.

BearConnect Consortium

The BearConnect project aims at studying the functional connectivity and ecological sustainability of European ecological networks, brown bear as a case study.

Together with my PhD supervisors, we are collaborating with data and expertise in two studies within the BearConnect project:

1. “Direct and indirect impacts of climate change and land use change over biodiversity: a case of study with the brown bear in Europe”. Led by Pablo Lucas. Check the abstract here.

2. Dispersal within a reintroduced brown bear population in Trentino, Italy. Led by Femke Pflüger

Grey wolf

WOLFLIFE project

The WOLFLIFE project (LIFE13 NAT/RO/000205) was co-funded by the European Commission through the LIFE+ Nature program and was carried out between July 2014 and April 2018. The project’s aim was to implement best practices for in-situ conservation of the species Canis lupus in the Eastern Carpathians.

The project was implemented by Romanian Environmental Protection Agencies (Vrancea, Covasna, and Harghita) in partnership with ACDB (The Association for the Conservation of Biological Diversity). The project area covered 6 counties (Vrancea, Covasna, Harghita, Bacău, Neamţ, Mureş) and 18 Natura 2000 sites in Romania ‘s Eastern Carpathians.

Thanks to an Erasmus+ Traineeship Mobility grant, I joined ACDB in 2014 to do my Master Thesis. Then I was hired as a biologist/field technician in 2015, after a year as a field assistant, and continued to live and work in Romania until the end of the monitoring (2017).

Over the course of 3 years we carried out a multitude of activities within the framework of the project:

• Survey on wolf distribution and abundance in the Eastern Romanian Carpathians, using a non-invasive integrated sampling design (snow tracking, genetic analysis; developed with Senckenberg lab (Frankfurt, Germany), camera trapping, wolf howling);
• Project database management (data entry, database maintenance, scheduled backup and monitoring data usage);
• Scientific material production and participation in national and international conferences;
• Stakeholder involvement (hunters, foresters, shepherds and local population);
• Interviews to shepherds to assess livestock/large carnivores conflict.

The methodology applied, as well as the scientific materials produced, can be found in ResearchGate.

ACHIEVEMENT

• The project had a significant impact on wolf conservation in Romania- see news by European Commission.
• The methodology developed and applied in the WOLFLIFE project (2014-2017) has been accepted by the Ministery of the Environment and has become the first National action plan on wolf in Romania!
• the WOLFLIFE project has been listed among the most innovative, inspirational and effective LIFE projects in nature protection in Europe!

wolfdiet

The grey wolf (Canis lupus) has one of the widest distributions among terrestrial mammals. Flexible and opportunist, it is well adapted to the different types of habitats, therefore, complex predator-prey interactions occur throughout its entire range. Understanding the extent of these interactions can be achieved through an exhaustive analysis of an adequate number of existing studies on wolves’ feeding ecology. Access to those studies is often hindered by, among other factors, language barriers, and overcoming such factors would ensure the premises for knowledge development concerning the wolf’s foraging behaviour. Consequently, this information could support other research areas such as human-wildlife conflicts, disease transmission, and game management.

We present an Open Access spatial database that contains bibliographic information on wolf’s diet throughout the species range. The database is developed in PostgreSQL and is currently being enhanced and updated. The diet information is freely accessible in R, Excel, or GIS environment.

The aim is to encourage researchers to engage in data collection, foster collaboration, and emphasize the knowledge about wolf foraging habits. Ultimately, we want to make it available in other languages (e.g. Chinese, Russian, Hindi) to facilitate knowledge sharing worldwide.

Any researcher interested in collaborating could directly contact the authors via ResearchGate or email us

Eurasian lynx

EUROLYNX

Partecipants at the first EUROLYNX meeting in the Bavarian Forest National Park, Germany. Photo credit: EUROLYNX

The EUROLYNX consortium is an open, bottom-up scientific network to promote collaborative science based on knowledge and data sharing to investigate the ecology of the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx). 23 research groups are currently collaborating and sharing a wide range of data (GPS data, activity, population, camera trapping) for research purposes.

Within the network, with a work led by PhD student Teresa Oliveira, we are developing a database to study lynx’s feeding ecology and effects of kleptoparasitism on lynx predation.

Romanian lynx

The lynx data collected during the WOLFLIFE project (genatic samples, tracks, and videos) was taken into account during the LIFELYNX project planning (in which I am unfortunately not involved as I moved to Trento after securing the PhD scholarship). Furthermore, the same spatial information have been used to assess habitat selection and the spatial interaction with wolf in the Romanian Carpathians.

Other research projects

Migration across scales

Led by PhD student Steffen Mumme, the project aims at characterizing individual and population movement patterns comparing elk and red deer migration across Europe and the Greater Yellowstone. The project is based on animal biotelemetry data that was collected within the EUREDDEER consortium and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The first manuscript is in preparation.

Roe deer connectivity in the Alps

Led by PhD student Gieole Passoni, the work (within the larger project on animal connectivity) aims to investigate movement and ecological connectivity for roe deer in the Alps. The project uses the movement data within the EURODEER consortium and the manuscript is currently in preparation.

mecoco

The mecoco (method comparison collaboration) initiative is a collaborative project which aims at developing quantitative analyses in ecology, evolution and related research fields.

I am participating in the ame1 project with my colleagues in the Edmund Mach Foundation. This project focus on methods to quantify home range and activity for roe deer, based on animal biotelemetry data that was collected within the EURODEER consortium. About 25 research teams joined the ame1 project and it is expected to be finalized in 2021.

Scientific Memberships

• IBA - International Association for Bear Research and Management (USA)
• EUROLYNX - Collaborative science for movement ecology of Eurasian lynx (EU)
• IRSAE - International Research School in Applied Ecology (Norway)
• International Bio-logging Society (UK)
• NGAT - Next Generation Animal Tracking (Belgium)