Table 1 General description of the different anthropogenic food sources (AFSs; n = 45) used by common ravens Corvus corax, in the Austrian Alps and the resource types they were grouped in for the analyses based on similarities in site descriptions. Site descriptions for game parks (n = 3) and refuse sites (n = 18) were obtained from Google Earth satellite imagery (Additional file 2). Site descriptions for huts (n = 24) were obtained from field site visits (n = 9) and Google Earth (n = 15)
Resource type | AFS | Description |
|---|---|---|
Game parks (n = 3) | Game parks (n = 3) | Game parks have animal enclosures (e.g., wild boars, fallow deer, wolves, bears) with daily food supply for captive animals |
Refuse sites (n = 18) | Compost sites (n = 11) | Contain long, tall (~ 1.5 m) rows of household and organic waste matter, mixed with woodchips and sawdust |
Waste management centres / dumps (n = 7) | Combine both organic and non-organic material. Non-organic waste included bales and large piles of plastics | |
Huts (n = 24) | Ski huts, hotels, restaurants (n = 18) | Particularly active during winter tourism, many sites dispose kitchen scraps/garbage in the forest next to the main building (some illegally) |
Farms (n = 5) | Some farms were found to have small composting area close to buildings where barnyard animal waste is processed. At the end of winter, when animals are moved out to the fields, the barn compost is often raked out to compost in warming weather Other farms had offal piles and other waste available for ravens to scavenge, increasing in abundance over the hunting season | |
KLF aviary (n = 1) | A spacious outdoor aviary (80m2) at the Konrad Lorenz Research Station where meat scraps are placed for a few weeks after the release of captive-bred individuals |