From the reduction of damage causing game populations to the multilateral management of herbivore-vegetation systems
Abstract
Defining the role of ungulates in forest ecosystems is strongly unbalanced, mostly negative in Hungary. The prevailing concept about this issue ignores to consider the complex plant-herbivore interactions in forest ecosystems, which hinders the success of adequate conservation measures, as well. Ungulates (red deer, Cervus elaphus; wild boar, Sus scrofa) are ecosystem engineers, having several positive and negative regulatory effects in the forest ecosystems. Their positive ecological role could become much more obvious in case of close to nature forest management. Efficiency of strict population control of ungulates, as a universal solution to game-related problems, depends on forest naturalness, the forest and landscape mosaicity, the relative quality of habitat patches (e.g. the availability of preferred food plants) and their relative utilization. We urge to apply an ungulate impact monitoring system helping conservation and management decisions in Hungary, which predicts the relative overabundance of ungulate species and the overutilization of forest vegetation based on ecological indicators.
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