Home range size is one of the most fundamental ecological parameters that can be described 36 for any given species and can be viewed as a trade-off between resource access and energetic 37 costs. The minimum size of an animal's home range is fundamentally determined by the 38 ability to obtain enough food resources for survival and to secure successful reproduction 39 (Burt 1943) but the actual use of space is influenced by a far more complex array of factors. We used location data on wolves monitored within the on-going Scandinavian Wolf Research wolves within a specific pack may have changed between years but the approximate estimates. An effect of pack size on home range size was mainly observed when using kernel 380 estimates, where range size decreased with increasing number of wolves in a pack (Table 3). but not for OREP, is likely an effect of these roads functioning as a "natural" barrier for wolf 399 home movements which is not used but still included in MCP ranges. (Fig. 4) (non-ungulate) prey species that we were not able to measure. Although there is no evidence 472 that these non-ungulate species constitute major parts of wolf diet, they may have more subtle 473 influences in some key periods or on larger scale movement patterns.
474The Scandinavian wolf population has constantly increased during the years of the study 475 and an effect of population density on home range size was expected but not observed. The limiting effect on space use. The inverse effect of density may however be masked by some of 485 the smallest home ranges being isolated from the main population's distribution (Fig. 1)
1. Understanding the role of predation in shaping the dynamics of animal communities is a fundamental issue in ecological research. Nevertheless, the complex nature of predator–prey interactions often prevents researchers from modelling them explicitly.2. By using periodic Leslie–Usher matrices and a simulation approach together with parameters obtained from long-term field projects, we reconstructed the underlying mechanisms of predator–prey demographic interactions and compared the dynamics of the roe deer–red fox–Eurasian lynx–human harvest system with those of the moose–brown bear–gray wolf–human harvest system in the boreal forest ecosystem of the southern Scandinavian Peninsula.3. The functional relationship of both roe deer and moose λ to changes in predation rates from the four predators was remarkably different. Lynx had the strongest impact among the four predators, whereas predation rates by wolves, red foxes, or brown bears generated minor variations in prey population λ. Elasticity values of lynx, wolf, fox and bear predation rates were −0·157, −0·056, −0·031 and −0·006, respectively, but varied with both predator and prey densities.4. Differences in predation impact were only partially related to differences in kill or predation rates, but were rather a result of different distribution of predation events among prey age classes. Therefore, the age composition of killed individuals emerged as the main underlying factor determining the overall per capita impact of predation.5. Our results confirm the complex nature of predator–prey interactions in large terrestrial mammals, by showing that different carnivores preying on the same prey species can exert a dramatically different demographic impact, even in the same ecological context, as a direct consequence of their predation patterns. Similar applications of this analytical framework in other geographical and ecological contexts are needed, but a more general evaluation of the subject is also required, aimed to assess, on a broader systematic and ecological range, what specific traits of a carnivore are most related to its potential impact on prey species.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.