Baixo Sabor: Iberian Wolf (Canis lupus) [Sign surveys] - Construction and Reservoir Filling Phases [2010-2014]

Sampling was designed to cover the whole valley of the lower Sabor river, its tributaries and rivers Maçãs and Angueira, with particular emphasis on spots of confirmed or potential occurrence of the Iberian Wolf. A total of 44 transects was established in the study area (one per 5x5 km square). Each transect was performed on foot or by car, at a speed of 10 km/h, always using a minimum of 2 observers. Transects were mainly established along dirt roads, both along ridges at higher elevation and areas near the Sabor river. Since road crossings are a favorite place of scat deposition for the Iberian Wolf, they were thoroughly inspected on foot on each occasion, with a minimum length of 50 m on each directions. All scats found were identified in the field, if possible, or taken to the laboratory to further analysis. However, since the scats attributed to the wolf were not validated with molecular tools to screen for possible confusion with those of domestic dogs, their taxonomic identification in this dataset is presented at the genus level.