Path tortuosity and the permeability of roads and trails to wolf movement

By J. Whittington, Colleen Cassady St. Clair, G. Mercer. 2004

148 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Few studies have examined the effects of human development on fine-scale movement behavior, yet understanding animal movement through increasingly human-dominated landscapes is essential for the persistence of many wild populations, especially wary species. In mountainous areas, roads and trails may be particularly deserving of study because they are concentrated in the valley bottoms where they can impede animal movement both across and between valleys. In this study, we tracked wolf (Canis lupus) movement in the snow for two winters in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada to examine how wolves navigate through or around human-use features. We quantified the effects of human development and topography on the tortuosity of wolf paths and then tested the permeability of roads, trails, and a railway line to wolf movement by comparing the frequency with which actual wolf paths and a null model of random paths crossed these features. Wolf path tortuosity increased near high-use trails, within areas of high-trail and road density, near predation sites, and in rugged terrain. Wolves crossed all roads, trails, and the railway line 9.7% less often than expected, but avoided crossing high-use roads more than low-use trails. Surprisingly, trails affected movement behavior of wolves equally, if not more, than roads. These results suggest that although roads and trails in this study were not absolute barriers to wolf movement, they altered wolf movements across their territories.

Subfields: Ecology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/fee790dd3042e76300c19cc414327cd853fe3b61

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology

Citations in the corpus

Activity patterns of urban red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) reduce the risk of traffic-induced mortality (2007, background): “Consequently, traffic may exert a significant yet recent selective pressure, with individuals adopting movement patterns to minimize the risk posed by vehicles (Shine et al. 2004; Whittington et al. 2004; Andrews and Gibbons 2005; Jaeger et al. 2005).”
Human Activity Differentially Redistributes Large Mammals in the Canadian Rockies National Parks (2011, background): “Wolves preferring to travel on or near linear features for short durations (under two hours) might explain our research not detecting a significant selection for areas 0 - 50 m compared with areas 51 - 400 m from trails (Whittington et al. 2004).”
The Eco-field Hypothesis: Toward a Cognitive Landscape (2005, background): “For instance, Whittington et al. (2004) have found that tracked wolf (Canis lupus) changes path tortuosity according to the more high-use trails, within areas of high-trail and road density, near predation sites, and in rugged terrain.”
Effects of Roads on Animal Abundance: an Empirical Review and Synthesis (2009, result): “Higher mortality rates in roaded areas would support the former (e.g., Fahrig et al. 1995), and analyses of movement paths showing deviations away from roads would support the latter (e.g., Whittington et al. 2004).”