Protection from harvesting restores the natural social structure of eastern wolf packs

摘要: Legal and illegal killing of animals near park borders can significantly increase the threat extirpation for populations living within ecological reserves, especially wide-ranging large carnivores that regularly travel into unprotected areas. While consequences human-caused mortality protected areas generally focus on numerical responses, little attention has been given to impacts social dynamics. For wolves, pack structure typically constitutes an unrelated breeding pair, their offspring, close relatives, but intense harvest may adoption individuals packs. Concerns high outside Algonquin Park, Canada threatened persistence eastern led implementation a ban in surrounding townships. We combined genetic data show reducing anthropogenic causes restore natural kin-based groups despite absence marked change density. Since ban, decreased (P = 0.000006) largely offset by mortality, such wolf density remained relatively constant at approximately three wolves/ 100 km 2