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DRAWING BY NICHOLAS ROERICH “WOLVES” 1895

Why wolves walk–drivers of daily movement distances in a social large carnivore. Björk J, Sand H, Wabakken P, Zimmermann B, Wikenros C. Authorea Preprints. 2025 Oct

Abstract

Animal movement patterns are influenced by a range of extrinsic and intrinsic factors, including the distribution of resources,human disturbance, landscape connectivity, species interactions, and individual traits. We examined the factors associated with daily movement distance (DMD) in 28 territorial Scandinavian wolves (Canis lupus) during summer (n = 484 24-hour periods) and winter (n = 1243 24-hour periods) by analysing hourly GPS locations collected between 2001 and 2019. Explanatory variables included indicators of anthropogenic activity (night-time light, gravel road density, paved road density), environmental quality (habitat suitability), prey availability (moose (Alces alces) and Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) densities), intra- and interspecific density (number of neighbouring wolf territories, brown bear (Ursus arctos) density), and individual characteristics (sex, social affiliation, inbreeding coefficient). Mean DMD was 19.8 km in summer and 13.9 km in winter, with some individuals exceeding 50 km per day. In summer, DMD was positively associated with brown bear density, while there was a weak positive correlation with night-time light. The observed relationship with brown bear density is supported by previous research showing increased search time for ungulate prey for wolves in areas with high brown bear densities. In winter, DMD was negatively associated with both Roe deer density and habitat suitability, suggesting reduced movement when preferred prey is abundant and habitats are less favourable, although habitat suitability coefficients in our study area indicated generally suitable habitats for wolves. Our results indicate that wolf movement patterns in Scandinavia are primarily shaped by extrinsic factors, with limited influence from individual-level traits. Our findings contribute to understanding large carnivore spatial ecology and highlight the importance of interspecific interactions and prey distribution in shaping predator movement,