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Giacomo Gervasio

  • Biodiversity Journal, 8 (3): 855-860

    Giacomo Marzano, Francesca Crispino, Michela Rugge & Giacomo Gervasio
    The Wolf, Canis lupus Linnaeus, 1758 (Mammalia Canidae): recolonization is still ongoing in Southern Italy: a breeding pack documented through camera traps in the Salento Peninsula

    ABSTRACT
    The authors report the presence of the wolf in the Salento Peninsula (southern Apulia) after more than a century of the absence of sightings. New data for this area resulted from the analysis of video-photographic material provided by various collaborators (referring to the three-year period 2014-2017), as well as from camera trapping activities carried out by the authors in 2017 which revealed the presence of a breeding pack. These data help to update our knowledge of the presence of the wolf in Apulia and they extend the distribution range of the species ca. 100 km southward, making this area the extreme eastern limit of the Italian populations. The investigations were also part of a project commissioned to the authors by the “Costa Otranto Leuca e Bosco di Tricase” Regional Natural Park in March 2016, whose subject was “A preliminary study of wildlife or stray animals potentially harmful to crops and breeding stocks in the Protected Area”.

  • Biodiversity Journal, 12 (2): 0379-0384

    Francesca Crispino, Martina Costanzo, Angelo Lucia & Giacomo Gervasio
    Early and double breeding in a pack of hybrid wolves in Calabria (Southern Italy)
    https://doi.org/10.31396/Biodiv.Jour.2021.12.2.379.384

    ABSTRACT
    Some anomalies in the breeding cycle of a pack of wolf-dog hybrids in a semi-anthropized area in the central-western part of Calabria are described. The data were collected between October 2019 and March 2021 by direct observations and video-camera trapping. In addition to recording anomalous morphological and phenotypic traits present in varying degrees in some individuals of the pack, we documented for two consecutive years the breeding of a subordinate female that was about three months early compared with the normal wolf breeding cycle. Moreover, in spring 2020, it was possible to observe double breeding within the same pack, due to the regular reproduction of the dominant female.

  • Biodiversity Journal, 10 (2): 093-094

    Giacomo Gervasio, Antonino Siclari, Sergio Tralongo, Salvatore Urso & Francesca Crispino
    Presence of the European polecat, Mustela putorius Linnaeus, 1758 (Mammalia Mustelidae), in Aspromonte National Park, Italy
    https://doi.org/10.31396/Biodiv.Jour.2019.10.2.93.94

    ABSTRACT
    In the recent past, the presence of the European polecat, Mustela putorius Linnaeus, 1758 (Mammalia Mustelidae), in the Aspromonte National Park (Italy) appears to be uncertain due to the lack of objective data and specific studies. In 2017–2018, the Park Authority carried out a project to monitor seven species of mesocarnivores whose status is poorly known even at the local level. Monitoring was performed by means of camera trapping, a technique particularly suitable for the detection of very elusive species. During the second year of activity, the presence of the European polecat was recorded in two different areas of the north-eastern side of Aspromonte National Park, the southernmost part of its Italian distribution.