Military training areas facilitate the recolonization of wolves in Germany

• Published in: Conservation Letters
• Main Authors: Reinhardt, Ilka, Kluth, Gesa, Nowak, Carsten, Szentiks, Claudia Anita, Krone, Oliver, Ansorge, Hermann, Mueller, Thomas
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: ddc:590; ddc: Canis lupus
• Online Access: http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/53546; https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-535460; https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12635; http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/files/53546/Reinhardt_Military-training-areas.pdf

Wolves (Canis lupus) are currently showing a remarkable comeback in the highly frag-mented cultural landscapes of Germany. We here show that wolf numbers increasedexponentially between 2000 and 2015 with an annual increase of about 36%. Wedemonstrate that the first territories in each newly colonized region were establishedover long distances from the nearest known reproducing pack on active militarytraining areas (MTAs). We show that MTAs, rather than protected areas, served asstepping-stones for the recolonization of Germany facilitating subsequent spreadingof wolf territories in the surrounding landscape. We did not find any significant differ-ence between MTAs and protected areas with regard to habitat. One possible reasonfor the importance of MTAs may be their lower anthropogenic mortality rates com-pared to protected and other areas. To our knowledge, this is the first documented casewhere MTAs facilitate the recolonization of an endangered species across large areas.