Resource selection of recolonizing gray wolves in northwest Wisconsin

The gray wolf (Canis lupus) has expanded numerically and geographically in eastern Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin since the late 1970s. Based on data collected from 40 wolves in 15 resident packs during 1992--2001, I examined resource selection by wolves at the following scales: territory selection on the landscape, resource selection within territories, and den placement. Road density within pack territories increased from a mean of 0.35 km/km2 in packs established in 1992 to 1.09 km/km 2 in packs established in 1999. Mean road density in pack territories was lower (0.70 km/km2) than in unused areas (1.43 km/km 2, p < 0.001). Forested wetland (14%), lowland shrub (13%), and aspen (Populus spp.) (22%) were all more prevalent (p < 0.10 in all cases) in wolf pack territories than in unused areas (7%, 6%, and 9% respectively). County owned land comprised larger proportions (p < 0.001) of pack territories (61%) than unused areas (15%), while privately owned land were less prevalent (p < 0.001) in territories (19%) than unused areas (56%). A logistic regression-based habitat model including terms for road density, proportion of county and national forest land, and proportion of forested wetland in the area of interest correctly classified 14 of 15 pack territories and 13 of 15 unused areas outside of the area where the data used to develop the model was collected.; A compositional analysis indicated that forested wetland, lowland shrub, and aspen were the 3 most selected land cover categories at the landscape level of selection while forested wetland, aspen, and oak were the 3 most selected land cover categories within territories. The proportion of wolf telemetry locations in buffers of 25--250 m around roads was lower ( p < 0.10 in all cases) than the proportion of territories occupied by these same buffers. Wolf dens fell within an arbitrarily defined territory core occupying the inner 25% of the territory more often (78%) (p = 0.002) than random sites (35%). Roads occurred within 1212m of fewer (p < 0.029) dens (50%) than random points. This distance represented the average distance from a den that an alpha female was located during the study. Pine (8%) and shrub (6%) comprised higher proportions (p < 0.10 in both cases) of buffers around dens than random sites (3%, and 4% respectively), while lowland shrub comprised a lower proportion (p = 0.068) of buffers around dens (16%) than random sites (10%). A compositional analysis indicated that deciduous forest, aspen, and lowland shrub were the 3 most selected land cover categories at wolf den sites. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...