Opportunity and peril: how wolves use a dense network of forest roads

Abstract

AbstractWe investigated by snow tracking and GPS telemetry how wolves Canis lupus used a dense (4 km/km2) network of forest roads for travel and scent marking. Forty-six percent of wolf trails but only 4.6% of telemetry locations were on forest roads. Wolves used forest roads to travel fast and far across their home ranges but spent relatively little time on roads, especially on those with high traffic levels and during the time of highest human activity. The probability of scent marking was higher on roads than off-road and increased with traffic intensity on roads and close to junctions. Our findings suggest that wolves take advantage of the forest road infrastructure, while minimising human encounters by spatio-temporal avoidance of all roads, even those with negligible traffic. The ongoing expansion and improvements of the forest road network might lead to elevated costs for wolves associated with avoidance of humans and roads.