Contact: Jordan Muss, muss@wisc.edu, (608) 265-6321
Presentation:
COS 23-2, Using forest canopy density to model beneath canopy snowpack (Tuesday, August 5, 2008, 8:20 a.m.)
Where in Wisconsin do wolves call home?
In 1992, forest and wildlife ecology professor David Mladenoff began identifying and mapping Wisconsin's most preferred wolf habitat, both to assist in the management of existing packs and predict where new ones might establish. Though he included a wide variety of landscape characteristics in his model, including the presence of forests and wetlands, and the densities of streams and deer, what wolves seemed to prefer above all else were areas with fewer roads. Now, with more than 500 wolves roaming the state and much of that top habitat occupied, does this prediction still hold?
Yes, says Mladenoff, with some nuances. While roads still play a part in his new model, the most critical factor is agriculture, whose presence appears to have a strong negative effect on wolves' ability to establish. Wolves are least successful in places with many roads and farms because these landscape features represent contact and conflict with humans, he says.
While this suggests that wolves likely won't colonize central and southern Wisconsin heavily in the future, he cautions that habitat preferences could shift again now that wolves no longer enjoy protection as endangered species in the state.
Contact: David Mladenoff, djmladen@wisc.edu, (608) 262-1992
Presentation:
COS 42-9, A new habitat selection model for gray wolves in Wisconsin after 30 years of recovery (Tuesday, August 5, 2008, 4:20 p.m.)
Tracking long-term ecological changes in Wisconsin
Ecological changes are complex and occur over large spans of
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| Contact: Don Waller dmwaller@wisc.edu 608-263-2042 University of Wisconsin-Madison Source:Eurekalert |