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Landscape settlement and parameters of Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) home ranges in the Czech Republic

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Abstract

Over the last few decades, the beaver has settled most of the European continent including the Czech Republic. Until recently, it was a species typically found in lowland floodplain forests. However, as the population grew, it began to spread into the agricultural landscape, where it has less favorable living conditions. In the Czech Republic, beavers were known to concentrate especially in large forest complexes; little information is so far available about their settlement of the agricultural landscape. At the same time, beaver management in the Czech Republic is applied according to zones with different levels of protection for this species; therefore, the assessment of beaver populations in different environmental conditions is essential. The article focuses on beaver population density, home range length, distribution, and dispersion in the four main types of environments, as well as on differences in food selection. Beaver population density is the highest in forest localities with small streams; the beaver finds the most suitable living conditions there. On average, the agricultural landscape is less populated. While population density in large rivers in the agricultural landscape is comparable to that in large rivers in the forest due to environmental conditions that can be similar, small streams in the agricultural landscape are inhabited 3.3 times less than small streams in forests because they are generally unsuitable environments with limited resources. The lengths of home ranges depend on the environment, the density of beavers, and especially on the availability of food resources. Likewise, the distances that beavers search for food differ, thus affecting their spatial activity.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Matthew Nicholls for revising the English and anonymous reviewers for comments. Research was supported by the Specific University Research Fund of the FFWT Mendel University in Brno (VT_2018007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forest Protection and Wildlife Management, Mendel University, Zemědělská 3, 613 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Mikulka Ondřej, Kamler Jiří, Drimaj Jakub & Plhal Radim

  2. Department of Biology and Ecology, University of Ostrava, 30. Dubna 22, 701 03, Ostrava, Czech Republic

    Pyszko Petr

  3. Department of Forest Management and Applied Geoinformatics, Mendel University, Zemědělská 3, 613 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Patočka Zdeněk

  4. Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Květná 8, 603 65, Brno, Czech Republic

    Homolka Miloslav

  5. Department of Ecology, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 165 21, Prague, Czech Republic

    Korbelová Jana

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  1. Mikulka Ondřej
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  2. Pyszko Petr
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  7. Homolka Miloslav
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Ondřej, M., Petr, P., Jiří, K. et al. Landscape settlement and parameters of Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) home ranges in the Czech Republic. Eur J Wildl Res 69, 7 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-022-01624-4

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