Abstract
Natal habitat preference induction (NHPI) occurs when characteristics of the natal habitat influence the future habitat selection of an animal. However, the influence of NHPI after the dispersal phase has received remarkably little attention. We tested whether exposure to humans in the natal habitat helps understand why some adult wolves Canis lupus may approach human settlements more than other conspecifics, a question of both ecological and management interest. We quantified habitat selection patterns within home ranges using resource selection functions and GPS data from 21 wolf pairs in Scandinavia. We identified the natal territory of each wolf with genetic parental assignment, and we used human-related characteristics within the natal territory to estimate the degree of anthropogenic influence in the early life of each wolf. When the female of the adult wolf pair was born in an area with a high degree of anthropogenic influence, the wolf pair tended to select areas further away from humans, compared to wolf pairs from natal territories with a low degree of anthropogenic influence. Yet the pattern was statistically weak, we suggest that our methodological approach can be useful in other systems to better understand NHPI and to inform management about human-wildlife interactions.
Highlights
Animal decision making, such as the selection of home ranges, can be influenced by natal conditions and early phases of learning[1,2]
Even if characteristics of the natal habitat could influence habitat preferences at the second order, an individual may show preferences for the stimuli experienced in its natal territory at the third or fourth orders, e.g., when selecting a habitat patch within its home range
We proposed three alternative hypotheses regarding the mechanisms behind the individual variation in wolves’ habitat selection relative to human structures of the landscape within their adult home range (Fig. 1): First, we assumed that wolves born in areas with high human activity are more likely to have experienced close, maybe negative encounters with humans during early life stages, and avoid human activity and human www.nature.com/scientificreports related features of the landscape during adulthood
Summary
Animal decision making, such as the selection of home ranges, can be influenced by natal conditions and early phases of learning[1,2]. Miller et al.[13] highlighted that the potential effects of natal experience on habitat selection after dispersal and territory establishment have received surprisingly little attention, in spite of being the longest period in the life of an individual and the most important for its fitness. Dispersing kites that bred in natal-like habitats had lower nest success and productivity than kites that chose different habitats[17] This indicates that natal environments can have long-term effects on the individual, even in highly mobile and wide-ranging animals[17,18,19], and it illustrates that NHPI does not guarantee optimal habitat selection. Because large carnivores are highly cognitive species, it might be expected that different types of early experiences may play a role later in life, beyond the potential effect on dispersal and home-range establishment. Experiences with humans during the natal phase may be a stimulus that reflects on carnivore behavior and habitat selection throughout the whole life of an individual
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