Developement of a method to gain reliable estimates of fox densities in the caperpaillie areas of the Black Forest

Description of the project:
The significant increase in fox densities is suspected to be one of the main causes, besides changes in habitat, disturbance and climate change, for the decrease of grouse densities in Central Europe. The goal of this project is to describe, explain and predict red fox population densities in the Black Forest and to estimate its impact on the capercaillie population. Different areas in the north, east and south of the Back Forest will be investigated with complementary methods to achieve this. There are many sources of errors - which are not necessarily obvious - in every attempt to estimate population densities of wild animals. Therefore, we want to apply different methods (e.g. spotlight transect surveys and faeces counts) simultaneously to maximize reliability of the results.

contact person: Denise Güthlin
Phone: 3668
Email: denise.guethlin@wildlife.uni-freiburg.de
Runtime:
Start of project: 01.11.2008
End of project: 31.05.2013
Project Management:
Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg
Storch I
Professur für Wildtierökologie und Wildtiermanagement
Prof. Dr. Storch
Tennenbacher Str. 4
79106 Freiburg
Germany

Phone: + 49 (0) 761 203 - 3663
Fax: + 49 (0) 761 203 - 3667
http://www.wildlife.uni-freiburg.de
Actual Research Report
Financing: