A human-neutral large carnivore? No patterns in the body mass of gray wolves across a gradient of anthropization.
The gray wolf (Canis lupus) expanded its distribution in Europe over the last few decades. To better understand the extent to which wolves could re-occupy their historical range, it is important to test if anthropization can affect their fitness-related traits. After having accounted for ecologicall...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:ddedc2fd948c473ba42b5d497f404994 2023-07-02T03:31:55+02:00 A human-neutral large carnivore? No patterns in the body mass of gray wolves across a gradient of anthropization. Jacopo Cerri Carmela Musto Federico M Stefanini Umberto di Nicola Nicoletta Riganelli Maria C Fontana Arianna Rossi Chiara Garbarino Giuseppe Merialdi Francesca Ciuti Duccio Berzi Mauro Delogu Marco Apollonio 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282232 https://doaj.org/article/ddedc2fd948c473ba42b5d497f404994 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282232 https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0282232 https://doaj.org/article/ddedc2fd948c473ba42b5d497f404994 PLoS ONE, Vol 18, Iss 6, p e0282232 (2023) Medicine R Science Q article 2023 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282232 2023-06-11T00:35:58Z The gray wolf (Canis lupus) expanded its distribution in Europe over the last few decades. To better understand the extent to which wolves could re-occupy their historical range, it is important to test if anthropization can affect their fitness-related traits. After having accounted for ecologically relevant confounders, we assessed how anthropization influenced i) the growth of wolves during their first year of age (n = 53), ii) sexual dimorphism between male and female adult wolves (n = 121), in a sample of individuals that had been found dead in Italy between 1999 and 2021. Wolves in anthropized areas have a smaller overall variation in their body mass, during their first year of age. Because they already have slightly higher body weight at 3-5 months, possibly due to the availability of human-derived food sources. The difference in the body weight of adult females and males slightly increases with anthropization. However, this happens because of an increase in the body mass of males only, possibly due to sex-specific differences in dispersal and/or to "dispersal phenotypes". Anthropization in Italy does not seem to have any clear, nor large, effect on the body mass of wolves. As body mass is in turn linked to important processes, like survival and reproduction, our findings indicates that wolves could potentially re-occupy most of their historical range in Europe, as anthropized landscapes do not seem to constrain such of an important life-history trait. Wolf management could therefore be needed across vast spatial scales and in anthropized areas prone to social conflicts. Article in Journal/Newspaper Canis lupus gray wolf Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles PLOS ONE 18 6 e0282232 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Medicine R Science Q |
spellingShingle |
Medicine R Science Q Jacopo Cerri Carmela Musto Federico M Stefanini Umberto di Nicola Nicoletta Riganelli Maria C Fontana Arianna Rossi Chiara Garbarino Giuseppe Merialdi Francesca Ciuti Duccio Berzi Mauro Delogu Marco Apollonio A human-neutral large carnivore? No patterns in the body mass of gray wolves across a gradient of anthropization. |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
description |
The gray wolf (Canis lupus) expanded its distribution in Europe over the last few decades. To better understand the extent to which wolves could re-occupy their historical range, it is important to test if anthropization can affect their fitness-related traits. After having accounted for ecologically relevant confounders, we assessed how anthropization influenced i) the growth of wolves during their first year of age (n = 53), ii) sexual dimorphism between male and female adult wolves (n = 121), in a sample of individuals that had been found dead in Italy between 1999 and 2021. Wolves in anthropized areas have a smaller overall variation in their body mass, during their first year of age. Because they already have slightly higher body weight at 3-5 months, possibly due to the availability of human-derived food sources. The difference in the body weight of adult females and males slightly increases with anthropization. However, this happens because of an increase in the body mass of males only, possibly due to sex-specific differences in dispersal and/or to "dispersal phenotypes". Anthropization in Italy does not seem to have any clear, nor large, effect on the body mass of wolves. As body mass is in turn linked to important processes, like survival and reproduction, our findings indicates that wolves could potentially re-occupy most of their historical range in Europe, as anthropized landscapes do not seem to constrain such of an important life-history trait. Wolf management could therefore be needed across vast spatial scales and in anthropized areas prone to social conflicts. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jacopo Cerri Carmela Musto Federico M Stefanini Umberto di Nicola Nicoletta Riganelli Maria C Fontana Arianna Rossi Chiara Garbarino Giuseppe Merialdi Francesca Ciuti Duccio Berzi Mauro Delogu Marco Apollonio |
author_facet |
Jacopo Cerri Carmela Musto Federico M Stefanini Umberto di Nicola Nicoletta Riganelli Maria C Fontana Arianna Rossi Chiara Garbarino Giuseppe Merialdi Francesca Ciuti Duccio Berzi Mauro Delogu Marco Apollonio |
author_sort |
Jacopo Cerri |
title |
A human-neutral large carnivore? No patterns in the body mass of gray wolves across a gradient of anthropization. |
title_short |
A human-neutral large carnivore? No patterns in the body mass of gray wolves across a gradient of anthropization. |
title_full |
A human-neutral large carnivore? No patterns in the body mass of gray wolves across a gradient of anthropization. |
title_fullStr |
A human-neutral large carnivore? No patterns in the body mass of gray wolves across a gradient of anthropization. |
title_full_unstemmed |
A human-neutral large carnivore? No patterns in the body mass of gray wolves across a gradient of anthropization. |
title_sort |
human-neutral large carnivore? no patterns in the body mass of gray wolves across a gradient of anthropization. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282232 https://doaj.org/article/ddedc2fd948c473ba42b5d497f404994 |
genre |
Canis lupus gray wolf |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus gray wolf |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 18, Iss 6, p e0282232 (2023) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282232 https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0282232 https://doaj.org/article/ddedc2fd948c473ba42b5d497f404994 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282232 |
container_title |
PLOS ONE |
container_volume |
18 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
e0282232 |
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1770271367665549312 |