Evaluation of Landscape Models for Wolverines in the Interier Northwest, United States of America

• Main Authors: Rowland, Mary M, Wisdom, Michael J, Johnson, Douglas H, Wales, Barbara C, Copeland, Jeffrey P, Edelmann, Frank B
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln 2003
• Subjects: Bayesian models; carnivores; conservation planning; Gulo gulo; habitat evaluation; interior Columbia Basin; models; Northwest; roads; wolverine; Other International and Area Studies
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usgsnpwrc/205; https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/context/usgsnpwrc/article/1205/viewcontent/Johnson_JM_2003_Evaluation_landscape_wolverines.pdf

The wolverine (Gulo gulo) is an uncommon, wide-ranging carnivore of conservation con- cern. We evaluated performance of landscape models for wolverines within their historical range at 2 scales in the interior Northwest based on recent observations (n = 421) from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. At the sub-basin scale, simple overlays of habitat and road-density classes were effective in predicting observations of wolverines. At the watershed scale, we used a Bayesian belief network model to provide spatially explicit estimates of relative habitat capability. The model has 3 inputs: amount of habitat, human population density, and road density. At both scales, the best models revealed strong cor- respondence between means of predicted counts of wolverines and means of observed counts (P < 0.001). Our results can be used to guide regional conservation planning for this elusive animal.