Journal
MAMMAL RESEARCH
Volume 65, Issue 3, Pages 615-619Publisher
SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
DOI: 10.1007/s13364-020-00496-w
Keywords
Disturbance; Hunting; Vulpes vulpes; Predator control; Seasonal behaviour; Wildlife camera trap
Categories
Funding
- State Ministry of Rural Affairs and Consumer Protection (MLR Baden-Wurttemberg
- Germany)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Mammals display a great variety of activity patterns. Although red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) are generally well studied, differences in their activity patterns related to seasonality and anthropogenic impacts remain not well known. Hunting is a major anthropogenic influence on fox populations across the globe. In this paper, we assess how circadian activity patterns of red foxes in a central European montane forest change throughout the year and test whether activity patterns differ between areas with different culling regimes. We found pronounced activity peaks around dawn and particularly dusk and high levels of activity throughout the night. Foxes generally avoided daylight hours, except in wintertime, potentially indicating an avoidance of human presence. The onset and cessation of activity tracked changes in day length. Circadian activity patterns were highly similar at sites with and without targeted culls during all seasons, not suggesting a direct reaction of red foxes to hunting. Red fox activity patterns in our study were thus overall comparable with those in other environmental contexts.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available