Wolves under cover: The importance of human-related factors in resting site selection in a commercial forest

[摘要] We investigated winter selection of resting sites by wolves in a commercial pine forest to test if roads, settlements, and type of forest influenced the resting behaviour of wolves during the day and at night. At the landscape scale, wolves selected resting sites that were farther from settlements, public roads and high-traffic forest roads than random points. At the fine scale, wolves chose sites that were more concealed and farther from the closest forest road than random points. During the day, wolves tended to rest in thickets and forest with understorey, whereas at night they rested in more open habitats. The concealment of resting sites was higher when wolves rested closer to high-traffic forest roads and during the day. Our results indicate that certain forestry practices enhance concealment opportunities and might therefore be beneficial for wolves

[发布日期] 2021-10-01

[关键词] Canis lupus;Resting behaviour;Avoidance of humans;Forest roads