Developing priorities for metapopulation conservation at the landscape scale: Wolverines in the Western United States

Abstract

a b s t r a c tWildlife populations are often influenced by multiple political jurisdictions. This is particularly true for wide-ranging, low-density carnivores whose populations have often contracted and remain threatened, heightening the need for geographically coordinated priorities at the landscape scale. Yet even as modern policies facilitate species recoveries, gaps in knowledge of historical distributions, population capacities, and potential for genetic exchange inhibit development of population-level conservation priorities. Wolverines are an 8-18 kg terrestrial weasel (Mustelidae) that naturally exist at low densities ($5/1000 km 2 )in cold, often snow-covered areas. Wolverines were extirpated, or nearly so, from the contiguous United States by 1930. We used a resource selection function to (1) predict habitat suitable for survival, reproduction and dispersal of wolverines across the western US, (2) make a rough estimate of population capacity, and (3) develop conservation priorities at the metapopulation scale. Primary wolverine habitat (survival) existed in island-like fashion across the western US, and we estimated capacity to be 644 wolverines (95% CI = 506-1881). We estimated current population size to be approximately half of capacity. Areas we predicted suitable for male dispersal linked all patches, but some potential core areas appear to be relatively isolated for females. Reintroduction of wolverines to the Southern Rockies and SierraNevadas has the potential to increase population size by >50% and these regions may be robust to climate change. The Central Linkage Region is an area of great importance for metapopulation function, thus warranting collaborative strategies for maintaining high survival rates, high reproductive rates, and dispersal capabilities. Our analysis can help identify dispersal corridors, release locations for reintroductions, and monitoring targets. The process we used can serve as an example for developing collaborative, landscapescale, conservation priorities for data-sparse metapopulations. Ó

Wolverines in winter: indirect habitat loss and functional responses to backcountry recreation

“…, Inman et al. ), identifying characteristics that predict the distribution or presence of wolverines. These efforts have indicated that wolverine are found at higher elevations (Copeland et al.…”

“…, Inman et al. ), and in alpine and subalpine habitats (Aubry et al. ) with higher topographic ruggedness (Krebs et al.…”

Female breeding dispersal in wolverines, a solitary carnivore with high territorial fidelity

“…We suggest that the ultimate driver of the observed breeding dispersal is high competition for territories, translated through social interactions between competitors (aggressive forcing) and mother-offspring (territory bequeathal). This demonstration of the complexity in carnivore spatial behaviour provides a stronger foundation for science-based management of wolverine populations that are subject to strong conservation and management concerns in many parts of its distribution (Saether et al 2005;Persson et al 2009;Inman et al 2013). Our results have implications for the design and interpretation of population monitoring schemes (Ellis et al 2014;, harvest strategies (Saether et al 2005) and conflict mitigation .…”

Can river management improve the piping plover’s long-term survival on the Missouri River?

“…Sink populations may require conservation interventions to insure that mortality and emigration are at least balanced by reproduction and immigration. Such interventions are common, especially for species in anthropogenically-altered habitats or subject to overexploitation (e.g., Guimaraes et al, 2014;Inman et al, 2013;Wellicome et al, 2013;Wiens et al, 2014). The goals of these interventions usually are to improve local survival and reproduction, with expected response time to be nearly immediate.…”