Wildlife in Forest Habitats

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, we have witnessed a biodiversity crisis, one of the major causes of which is habitat loss and degradation. Forests are the richest in biodiversity among all land ecosystems; therefore, the proper management of forest ecosystems is a key factor in biodiversity conservation. Many wildlife species (understood as mammals and birds for the purposes of this Special Issue) have attracted human attention (e.g., wildlife tourism, hunting). Understanding the characteristics of the forest habitat as a factor responsible for wildlife abundance is therefore important from a sociocultural point of view.

However, wildlife species not only depend on their habitat but also tend to affect it. Some of them are considered keystone species (e.g., wolves, deer, beavers, or woodpeckers), i.e., species that have a particularly high impact on their habitats as well as on other animal species. It is in this way that some species may also exert a significant economic impact on forest stands. Large herbivores, especially certain deer species, are particularly well known in this respect in many regions of the world.

The objective of this Special Issue is to publish the most recent papers describing various aspects of the relationship between wildlife and forest habitats, which are important for both the functioning and management of forest ecosystems. We hope that this Special Issue can further encourage and promote the scientific contributions of researchers in this field.

Dr. Jakub Borkowski
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• wildlife
• animal abundance
• forest habitats
• biodiversity
• insects
• birds
• mammals
• habitat use
• forest ecosystem
• forest damage
• wildlife management