Feeding habits and dietary overlap among forest generalist carnivores (brown bear Ursus arctos, red fox Vulpes vulpes, badger Meles meles, pine marten Martes martes, polecat Mustela putorius, and raccoon dog Nyctereutes procyonoides) in natural forested landscape of northern Belarus (Gorodok and Rossony districts) were studied. In the warm season (April-October), generalist carnivores were characterized by a fairly wide food spectrum. Predominant items of their diets were fruits, small mammals insects and birds. Although several pairs of species, such as brown bear-badger, raccoon dog-badger, pine marten-red fox, and pine marten-raccoon dog, had considerable dietary overlap, there was little evidence of a competition for resources in the generalist guild in the warm season. In the cold season (November-March), the food niches of active generalist predators became narrower and considerably overlapped, which coincided with a substantial decrease in food abundance and availability. In this period of poor food supply, generalists mostly consumed wild ungulate carrion, small mammals, and fruits. By inhabiting the same habitats, several pairs of species such as pine marten-red fox, polecatred fox, polecat-raccoon dog, polecat-pine marten, may compete for food. In the harshest period of late winter and early spring, in conditions of deep and/or soft snow cover in forest, it is energetically expensive to move around and the majority of food search fails. Thus, all generalists were forced to feed on carrion, the abundance of which substantially affected all generalist carnivores with the probable exception of raccoon dog. The obtained data on the predator abundance suggest that after the raccoon dog had reached a high population density, the native generalist predators began to decline.
