Designing the landscape of coexistence: Integrating risk avoidance, habitat selection and functional connectivity to inform large carnivore conservation

Abstract

Large carnivores often inhabit human-dominated landscapes, where avoidance of anthropogenic risks can constrain their use of space and time. Large carnivore conservation thus requires designing landscapes of coexistence, which should provide suitable habitats and dispersal opportunities in areas shared with humans. This study investigates the landscape of coexistence for the Iberian wolf, using movement data from 15 individuals to model how human-related risks constrain the spatial distribution of habitats and functional connectivity in highly modified landscapes. Wolves avoided potential sources of human disturbance, particularly settlements, roads, trails and windfarms. Avoidance was generally stronger for residents than dispersers, and in daytime than in twilight and night. There was strong elevational segregation, particularly at night, with higher and lower elevations selected by residents and dispersers, respectively. Conductance surfaces indicated that resident wolves were largely restricted to fragmented mountainous areas less used by people, while they faced strong resistance to movement in more densely populated lowlands. Higher tolerance to humans facilitated the movement of dispersers through the landscape, though they had the additional constraint of avoiding resident wolves. There were well-defined dispersal corridors potentially connecting most wolf packs. Our results reinforce the need to prevent new sources of human disturbance such roads and wind farms in remnant areas used by resident wolves, and to preserve continuous dispersal corridors through areas heavily used by humans. More generally, designing landscapes of coexistence should target at facilitating the spatial and temporal segregation of human structures and activities from large carnivore breeding and dispersal habitats.