Quiet islands in a world of fear: Wolves seek core zones of protected areas to escape human disturbance

• DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109811
• Publication Date: 2022-11-28T16:59:16Z
• Authors: Adam F. Smith; Simone Ciuti; Dmitry Shamovich; Viktar Fenchuk; Barbara Zimmermann; Marco Heurich
• Keywords: Human settlement; Anthropocene

The Anthropocene continuously escalates the challenges and threats faced by large carnivores in human-dominated landscapes. Given their unique conservation management requirements, detailed insights into behaviour relation to human-induced risks are crucial designing landscapes of coexistence for people predators, containing key features such as nature areas. Adaptations like selection or avoidance areas at certain times reveal dynamic perception risk-landscapes trade-offs with potential resources. This study investigates these ideas applying a habitat-selection approach GPS collared wolves Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park (Belarus) quantify fine-scale human disturbance. Our results indicate that selected strongly higher protection within national park. They also avoided disturbance from settlements roads, but mediated depending on shifting risk throughout day night. more open during darkness. Seasonal sex-based differences shifted avoidance, females being avoidant settlements. suggests evidence successful anti-predator strategy against humans. offers some most novel wolf spatio-temporal context protected areas, which is imperative fine-tuning measures continued effective this functionally important species.