Authors: Kudrenko, Svitlana; Vyshnevskyi, Denys;Zedrosser, Andreas;Selva, Nuria;Heurich, Marco;

Large carnivores are the first species to be lost from fragmented landscapes, which in turn causes disruption of food chains from the top down and thus causing cascading effects. Wolf, lynx, and brown bear were once widely distributed throughout the Palearctic and Nearctic biogeographical areas, yet their former ranges reduced drastically during the last centuries. Studies on large carnivores are heavily biased toward developed countries or countries with charismatic and endangered species. One of the “blind spots” is Polesia region (Ukraine, Belarus) where there is substantial uncertainty about large carnivore distributions, densities and how different landscape features may affect their habitat use, movements, and dispersal. Parts of Polesia were under formal protection yet the protected system did not ensure adequate protection. Since July 2020, camera traps were systematically applied for large mammals’ monitoring in the Ukrainian part of Polesia (181 locations) and for lynx monitoring in Chornobyl Exclusion Zone (67 locations, 2020-2021). Collected data enabled to map regional distribution for large mammals and revealed the impact of environmental and anthropogenic factors on the occurrence on large terrestrial mammals in areas with different levels of protection (exclusion zone, reserves, national parks, and expansion zones).