Deer monitoring as part of the prey-predator-human activity study at Stelvio Park, Italy
The study aimed at understanding prey-predator dynamics that we had discussed in March 2023 (Action C3), continues in Stelvio National Park in Lombardy, Italy.
The activities take place in the Valfurva study area, located within the Stelvio National Park in the province of Sondrio in the central Italian Alps.
Between February and March 2024, 4 adult deer, 2 females and 2 males, were fitted with radio collars. By using “corrals”, wooden locking fences inside which hay is placed as an attractant for the animals, it was possible to capture and place GPS collars on 3 of them, while one male was recovered and fitted with a collar after becoming entangled in a fence. Biometric measurements for health assessment were conducted to all animals before being promptly released into the wild.
Information transmitted from GPS devices attached to deer is used, together with phototrapping data and environmental variables, to analyze the space and time use of deer, a prey species of wolves in the Valfurva study area.
From 2019 to date, park operators have fitted 13 deer with GPS collars , whose movements have contributed to a deeper understanding of the ecological interactions between predated species and wolves.
More captures are being planned to equip new deer with GPS collars.
