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Integrating human trail use in montane landscapes reveals larger zones of human influence for wary carnivores

Thompson, Peter1; Paczkowski, John2; Whittington, Jesse3; St Clair, Colleen1

Published Nov 25, 2024 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.s7h44j1h8

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Nov 25, 2024 version files 126.92 MB

Abstract

Coexistence between humans and wildlife is necessary for many conservation goals but is difficult to achieve in landscapes with increasing human populations and species that are often wary of people and may also threaten human safety. In these contexts, coexistence may be enhanced by identifying geographic areas where animal movement is particularly important and changes to human use via trail design could support both wildlife conservation and human safety. 

We used camera trap data to monitor the spatial distribution of grizzly bears (Ursus arctos), gray wolves (Canis lupus), and humans within the central Canadian Rocky Mountains, where anthropogenic development and human activity have gradually encroached on limited wildlife habitat. We quantified spatial variation in human use, and then incorporated this output into models for the detection rates of bears and wolves. We interpolated metrics of human use throughout the study area using inverse distance weighted averages of human detection rates from cameras. This approach supported a novel estimate of the cumulative effects of human use at all nearby trails on animal space use. We used our models to estimate the zone of influence of human use on bears and wolves, determining the distance at which human-use on nearby trails no longer exhibited a measurable change in detection rates for each of grizzly bears and wolves. 

The negative effects of human use on wildlife declined steeply with distance such that 50% of the decrease in detection rates immediately adjacent to trails would be expected to occur at 267 m for grizzly bears and 576 m for wolves. Weak effects, 5% as strong as the effect adjacent to trails, extended up to 1.8 km and 6.1 km for grizzly bears and wolves, revealing the importance of cumulative measures of human use. 

Our work shows how the distribution of human activity over entire landscapes can alter wildlife detection rates. Our results identify target buffer distances for protected areas near trails, and the modelling framework could be used by land managers to predict how altering trail networks and modifying human activity could affect wary wildlife species and advance coexistence.07-Nov-2024 --