Acta Theriologica 44 (4): 429^42, 1999. PL ISSN 0001-7051 Feeding habits and trophic niche overlap in a Carnivora community of Hungary József LANSZKI, Sandor KÓRMENDI, Csaba HANCZ and Andrzej ZALEWSKI Lanszki J., Kórmendi S., Hańcz C. and Zalewski A. 1999. Feeding habits and trophic niche overlap in a Carnivora community of Hungary. Acta Theriologica 44: 429-442. The seasonal feeding habits of the red fox Vulpes vulpes (Linnaeus, 1758), the stone marten Marłeś foina (Erxleben, 1777), the stoat Mustela erminea Linnaeus, 1758, the badger Meles meles (Linnaeus, 1758) and the otter Lutra lutra (Linnaeus, 1758) were studied in south-west Hungary, in the course of four years. The habitat conditions, because of human influences, were different in the first and second two years. Diet was examined by scat analysis (238, 262, 67, 50 and 1033 samples, respectively). Small mammals, mainly rodents, were the most important prey for foxes, stone martens and stoats in winter and spring. In summer and autumn insects and fruit were added to fox and marten diet, while birds were added to stoat diet. The badger's main food resources were invertebrates (mainly insects) and maize and, in autumn, rodents. Domestic animals (mainly poultry and rabbit) occurred in the diet of the foxes and martens in all seasons, carcasses (mainly Cervidae) in the diet of these predators and in that of the badgers. The predominant prey of otters was fish, but when the abundance of fish declined, the consumption of amphibians increased. Predation on game birds and hare was not significant. In all seasons, niche overlap was high between foxes, martens and stoats. Niche overlap between these species and the badger increased from spring to autumn. Niche overlap between terrestrial predators and the otter was low. The diet of predators were different between the 1st and 2nd periods. Pannon Agricultural University, Faculty of Animal Sciences, P.O. Box. 16., 7401 Kaposvar, Hungary, e-mail: lanszki@atk.kaposvar.pate.hu (JL, SK, CH); Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, 17-230 Białowieża, Poland (AZ) Key words: Carnivora, diet, niche overlap, habitat change, Hungary Introduction Food is a crucial resource for animals and its partitioning among species is important to understand interactions between coexisting species (Schoener 1974, Taper and Marquet 1996). Food partitioning can vary with changes in prey abundance (Goszczyński 1986) or habitat (Clode and Macdonald 1995) or in different geographic sites. In Europe, food, habitat and niche overlap of predators have been investigated in different habitats: boreal (Erlinge 1969, Lindstrom 1989), temperate deciduous forests (Jędrzejewski et al. 1989, Jędrzejewska and Jędrzejewski 1998), Mediterranean scrubwood and rural areas (Ciampalini and Lovari 1984, Serafini and Lovari 1993), montane forests (Brangi 1995), islands [429]