Despite the recent positive trend of wolves, their conservation is still one of the most important priority in several European countries. The knowledge of mechanisms regulating population dynamics, territory occupancy, interactions with prey and human conflict is a prerequisite of a proper wolf management both on regional and national spatial scale. During the last two decades, Apennine wolf population has played an important role in the recolonization process both on national and European scale. Italian wolf population was threatened reaching the lowest historical number in the recent past. One hundred wolves survived in few isolated areas of the South-Central Apennines between 1960’s and 1970’s. Afterwards, this population started to increase and expanded northwards. Wolf occupancy process was not continuous in the same extent in each part of the Italian range; recolonization of Tuscan-Emilia-Romagna Apennine by wolves occurred in less than ten years and since 1990’s this area is widespread inhabited by many wolf packs. The same phenomenon has been observed on Western Alps little time later. Wolves crossed the Ligurian Apennine and recolonized the South-Western Alps at the beginning of 1990’s. Wolf presence rose quickly and the Western Alps were newly colonized by many wolf packs in few years. On the contrary, wolf occupancy process was slow in Liguria region. Although, since 1987 the first wolf pack was confirmed in the eastern Ligurian Apennine, no wolf pack has been observed in the remaining regional territory till 1997. Moreover wolf presence in Ligurian Apennine is still extremely low despite the presence of available land, with only 6 packs recorded on the whole region (5343 km2). Thus, Liguria region represents a good opportunity to study wolf occurrence and persistence in relation to human and environmental variables as: landscape features, size and distribution of protected areas, prey availability and interactions with human activities. This research was carried out from 2007 to 2012. The wolf predictive model, computed with Theoretic Information Approach and model selection, confirmed a high level of habitat suitability of the whole Liguria region (60.4%). Moreover Liguria region has a rich and abundant ungulate community composed by wild boar (annual harvest : n=15275), roe deer (regional population size : n=16116), chamois (regional population size : n=880), fallow deer (regional population size: n=630) and free-grazing livestock (regional population size: sheep and goats=17301; cattle =1576). These data could produce a positive effect on wolf presence. On the other side, the low percentage of regional surface covered by protected areas (4.7%) and the high consumption of livestock (44.9%vm) revealed by wolf scats analysis could negatively influence the wolf presence. The high wolf-livestock conflict was also confirmed by many attacks and losses recorded (n. of attacks=196; n. of losses= 406), and by several wolves found dead during the study period (n = 12). Our results suggest that the distribution and size of protected areas and the high level of wolf-human conflict can play a key role in the occurrence and persistence of this species throughout the Liguria region.

The role of food availability, human conflict and landscape features in wolf occupancy process

MERIGGI, ALBERTO
2013-01-01

Abstract

Despite the recent positive trend of wolves, their conservation is still one of the most important priority in several European countries. The knowledge of mechanisms regulating population dynamics, territory occupancy, interactions with prey and human conflict is a prerequisite of a proper wolf management both on regional and national spatial scale. During the last two decades, Apennine wolf population has played an important role in the recolonization process both on national and European scale. Italian wolf population was threatened reaching the lowest historical number in the recent past. One hundred wolves survived in few isolated areas of the South-Central Apennines between 1960’s and 1970’s. Afterwards, this population started to increase and expanded northwards. Wolf occupancy process was not continuous in the same extent in each part of the Italian range; recolonization of Tuscan-Emilia-Romagna Apennine by wolves occurred in less than ten years and since 1990’s this area is widespread inhabited by many wolf packs. The same phenomenon has been observed on Western Alps little time later. Wolves crossed the Ligurian Apennine and recolonized the South-Western Alps at the beginning of 1990’s. Wolf presence rose quickly and the Western Alps were newly colonized by many wolf packs in few years. On the contrary, wolf occupancy process was slow in Liguria region. Although, since 1987 the first wolf pack was confirmed in the eastern Ligurian Apennine, no wolf pack has been observed in the remaining regional territory till 1997. Moreover wolf presence in Ligurian Apennine is still extremely low despite the presence of available land, with only 6 packs recorded on the whole region (5343 km2). Thus, Liguria region represents a good opportunity to study wolf occurrence and persistence in relation to human and environmental variables as: landscape features, size and distribution of protected areas, prey availability and interactions with human activities. This research was carried out from 2007 to 2012. The wolf predictive model, computed with Theoretic Information Approach and model selection, confirmed a high level of habitat suitability of the whole Liguria region (60.4%). Moreover Liguria region has a rich and abundant ungulate community composed by wild boar (annual harvest : n=15275), roe deer (regional population size : n=16116), chamois (regional population size : n=880), fallow deer (regional population size: n=630) and free-grazing livestock (regional population size: sheep and goats=17301; cattle =1576). These data could produce a positive effect on wolf presence. On the other side, the low percentage of regional surface covered by protected areas (4.7%) and the high consumption of livestock (44.9%vm) revealed by wolf scats analysis could negatively influence the wolf presence. The high wolf-livestock conflict was also confirmed by many attacks and losses recorded (n. of attacks=196; n. of losses= 406), and by several wolves found dead during the study period (n = 12). Our results suggest that the distribution and size of protected areas and the high level of wolf-human conflict can play a key role in the occurrence and persistence of this species throughout the Liguria region.
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11571/1012585
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact