In Slovenia, the main predators of wild ungulates are the wolf (Canis lupus) and the
Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), which, due to their different hunting strategies, can have a
different impact on the populations of large ungulates. The sex and age structure and the
physical condition of the wild ungulate populations are also strongly influenced by
anthropogenic causes, mainly shooting, and to a lesser extent by being run over. We
collected samples of dead ungulates in Slovenia, including lynx and wolf prey, natural
deaths and animals killed by anthropogenic causes in the regions where lynx and wolves
regularly occur, i.e. in the Dinarides and the Alps. The most commonly used method of
evaluating the physical condition of ungulates at the time of death is the body condition
index based on the fat content in the bone marrow of long bones, which, in addition to
the visual determination of bone marrow thickness and colour, was also used in our
research. For the needs of managing populations of free-living ungulates, the visual
index according to Neiland (1970) can be defined as a sufficiently reliable and at the
same time robust method of determining body condition. Using this method, we found
that the lynx preys on ungulates in better physical condition than the wolf, which is most
likely the result of the difference in their hunting method. The results of our research
agree with the observation lynx preferentially preys on smaller ungulates (roe deer),
while no such prey selection was observed in wolf kill. As the main cause of mortality
of European ungulates, shooting accounted for the largest part of the collected samples.
The latter also proved to be the most
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