Deer density drives habitat use of establishing wolves in the Western European Alps ...

• Main Authors: Roder, Stefanie, Biollaz, François, Mettaz, Stéphane, Zimmermann, Fridolin, Manz, Ralph, Kery, Marc, Vignali, Sergio, Fumagalli, Luca, Arlettaz, Raphaël, Braunisch, Veronika
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2020
• Subjects: Canis lupus; habitat modelling; MaxEnt; Predator-prey relationships; Ungulate density; wolf; Recolonization by carnivores
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2v6wwpzhx; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.2v6wwpzhx

1. The return of top carnivores to their historical range triggers conflicts with the interests of different stakeholder groups. Anticipating such conflicts is key to appropriate conservation management, which calls for reliable spatial predictions of future carnivore occurrence. Previous models have assessed general habitat suitability for wolves, but the factors driving the settlement of dispersing individuals remain ill-understood. In particular, little attention has been paid to the role of prey availability in the recolonization process. 2. High-spatial-resolution, area-wide relative densities of the wolf’s main ungulate prey species (red deer, roe deer and chamois) were assessed from snow-track surveys and modelled along with wolf presence data and other environmental descriptors to identify the main drivers of habitat selection of re-establishing wolves in the Western European Alps. 3. Prey species abundance was estimated from the minimum number of individuals recorded from snow-tracks along 218 1km ... : Ungulate data were collected by means of snow-tracking along 218 1km long transects, during four subsequent winters starting in 2012/13. In order to distribute transects in a stratified manner, the study area was first divided into 34 10x10km squares. In each square, an average of six transects (range: 1-10) were then placed so as to cover the elevational and environmental gradients present in the study area as representatively as possible, while accounting for accessibility, topography and safety (avalanches). The transects were surveyed twice per winter (December to March). To reduce observer effects, each transect was visited by the same person during the whole study period, and the entire fieldwork was conducted by two experienced wildlife-biologists, who trained and standardized their methods for one full season (2011/12) prior to the start of this study. Tracks found in the snow were recorded for the main potential wolf prey: roe deer, red deer, chamois, ibex, mouflon and wild boar. Based on imprint ...