IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Lande, U.S.; Linnell, J.D.C.; Herfindal, I.; Salvatori, V.; Broseth, H.; Andersen, R.; Odden, J.; Andr‚n, H.; Karlsson, J.; Willebrand, T.; Persson, J.; Landa, A.; May, R.; Dahle, B.; Swenson, J. | |
| Potensielle leveomr†der for store rovdyr i Skandinavia: GIS-analyser p† et ›koregionalt niv† | |
| 2003 Full Book | |
The aim of this report is to use GIS methods to identify the potential areas of suitable habitat for large carnivores on the Scandinavian peninsula. We firstly describe the characteristics of suitable carnivore habitat using data from the core home-ranges of radio-collared female bears, Iynx and wolverines, and the pack ranges of both radio-collared and snow-tracked wolves, from the areas where they have been studied. Each home-range is described in terms of prey-density, human density, infrastructure, habitat type and elevation on a pixel resolution of 1 km x 1 km using the Mahalanobis distance, a multi-dimensional statistic. Secondly, areas within the ecoregion with a similar ecological signature are identified. The resulting maps were tested against independent data for bears (shot females), lynx (shot females and tracks of family groups) and wolverines (shot females and natal dens). The results indicated that the maps for bears and lynx were very accurate, while the wolverine map may have been slightly conservative. Unfortunately, there was no contemporary data to test the wolf habitat map, although an analysis of historical bounty payments indicates that the results are accurate. The analysis revealed that over 90% of the area of the Scandinavian peninsula is suitable habitat for bears, wolves and lynx, while almost 50% is suitable for wolverines. This habitat exists in virtually continuous blocks, with the possible exception of some areas of potential wolverine habitat in the low-Iying forest regions of eastern Sweden. When considering home range sizes and representative densities for these 4 species of carnivores it is clear that available habitat will not limit the conservation of viable populations. |
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