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Cumulative effects of forestry on habitat use by gray wolf (Canis lupus) in the boreal forest

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Abstract

Forest harvesting involves the creation of roads and cutblocks, both of which can influence animal habitat use. We evaluated the cumulative effects of forestry on habitat selection by six packs of gray wolf (Canis lupus) widely distributed in Quebec’s boreal forest. Resource selection functions were used to evaluate cumulative effects at two levels. First, we studied how the response of wolves to roads and cutblocks varied within their home range (HR level) as a function of the local abundance of these habitat features. Second, we assessed whether differences in the response to roads and cutblocks observed among packs (inter-HR level) could be explained by variations in their average abundance among individual home ranges. At the HR level, we found that cumulative effects shaped habitat selection of wolves, and the nature of the effects varied during the year. For example, we detected a decrease in the selection of roads following an increase in local road density during the rendez-vous and the nomadic periods, but not during the denning period. At the inter-HR level, we found a functional response to logging activity only during the denning period. Packs with home ranges characterized by a larger proportion of recent cutblocks selected these cutblocks more strongly. We conclude that cumulative effects of logging activities occur at multiple levels, and these effects can have profound effects on habitat use by wolves, thereby influencing spatial predator–prey dynamics. Wildlife conservation and management in boreal ecosystems should thus account for cumulative impacts of anthropogenic features on animal distribution.

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Acknowledgments

Financial supports for field efforts and data analysis were funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)—Sylviculture and Wildlife Research Chair, the Ministère des Ressources naturelles et de la Faune du Québec, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, Fondation de la faune du Québec, and World Wildlife Fund. We thank Laurier Breton, Alain Desrosiers, Rolland Lemieux, and Marius Poulin for their help in the field. We thank Cheryl Johnson, Nicolas Courbin and James Hodson for their comments on a previous version of the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chaire de recherche industrielle CRSNG-Université Laval en sylviculture et faune, Département de biologie, Université Laval, 1045, Av. de la Médecine, pavillon Alexandre Vachon, Quebec, QC, G1V 0A6, Canada

    Mélina Houle & Daniel Fortin

  2. Ministère des Ressources naturelles et de la Faune, Service de la faune terrestre et de l’avifaune, 880, chemin Sainte-Foy, Quebec, QC, G1S 4X4, Canada

    Christian Dussault

  3. Ministère des Ressources naturelles et de la Faune, Service de la biodiversité et des maladies de la faune, 880, chemin Sainte-Foy, Quebec, QC, G1S 4X4, Canada

    Réhaume Courtois

  4. Département de biologie, chimie et sciences de la santé, Université du Québec à Rimouski, Centre d’études nordiques, Rimouski, QC, G5L 3A1, Canada

    Jean-Pierre Ouellet

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  1. Mélina Houle
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  2. Daniel Fortin
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  3. Christian Dussault
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  4. Réhaume Courtois
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  5. Jean-Pierre Ouellet
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Correspondence to Daniel Fortin.

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Houle, M., Fortin, D., Dussault, C. et al. Cumulative effects of forestry on habitat use by gray wolf (Canis lupus) in the boreal forest. Landscape Ecol 25, 419–433 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-009-9420-2

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