Wolverines spreading south – management needs to follow

Wolverines spreading south – management needs to follow

Wolverines worldwide are subject to habitat loss, depredation conflicts and poaching, and potential effects of climate change. In recent years, the wolverine population in Sweden has increased and is recolonizing forested habitat south and east of the mountain range. This occurs into a new ecosystem context; with different predatorprey system and different interactions with environment. But there is currently very little knowledge available about wolverine ecology and its interactions with habitat, other species and human activity in these areas. Therefore, we aim to provide knowledge that will facilitate sound management in the entire range of the wolverine population, now and in the future. We will do this by studying important aspects of wolverine habitat selection, spatial ecology, demography, foraging ecology and interactions with other species. We will also investigate how and why these parameters differ spatially within wolverine distribution. With this, we aim to contribute with knowledge about what is limiting population distribution and density of wolverines, how they affect and are affected by other species (e.g. wolves, bears, moose), including human activities. Important aspect to investigate are influence of climate (snow cover) and human activities on wolverines, and to contribute to better use of existing and new methods to monitor the wolverine population in areas with poor snow conditions, as reliable population estimates are crucial with for efficient adaptive management of both carnivore population and human-carnivore conflicts. We will obtain this knowledge by monitoring GPS-collared wolverines, and evaluating monitoring methods. We will also use data from a previous long-term study (22yrs) of wolverine ecology and data from monitoring of wolverines and other species in Scandinavia. The end goal is to contribute with knowledge for a sound management of wolverines and other carnivores within its entire range.

Jens Persson, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

1 200 000 SEK