Summer movements, predation and habitat use of wolves in human modified boreal forests

摘要: Grey wolves (Canis lupus), formerly extirpated in Finland, have recolonized a boreal forest environment that has been significantly altered by humans, becoming patchwork of managed forests and clearcuts crisscrossed roads, power lines, railways. Little is known about how the utilize this impacted ecosystem, especially during pup-rearing summer months. We tracked two instrumented with GPS collars transmitting at 30-min intervals summers eastern visiting all locations field, identifying prey items classifying movement behaviors. analyzed preference avoidance habitat types, linear elements edges, tested generality our results against lower resolution movements 23 other collared wolves. Wolves tended to show strong for transitional woodlands (mostly harvested clearcuts) mixed over coniferous use roads low facilitate movement. The high density primary one wolf’s territory led more constrained home compared wolf fewer suggesting humans; however, there did not appear be large differences on hunting success or pup rearing packs. In total, 90 kills were identified, almost entirely moose (Alces alces) reindeer (Rangifer tarandus sspp.) calves which proportion killed woodlands. Generally, displayed level adaptability, successfully exploiting direct indirect human-derived modifications environment.