Description du projet (anglais)
The Adirondack-to-Laurentians (A2L) transboundary wildlife linkage connects wilderness areas in the northeastern United States with southeastern Canada. However, land conversion is putting wolf habitat amount and functional connectivity at risk. With the exception of protected areas, hunting and trapping of wolves and coyotes are permitted within the Québec and Ontario portions, while hunting and trapping coyotes are permitted within the New York portion where wolves have been extirpated. Thus, the fear of humans strongly influences wolf habitat selection in this region. We assessed the impact of land conversion on wolf habitat amount, habitat fragmentation, and functional connectivity in the A2L between 2000 and 2015 and identified potential suitable habitat patches and corridors for protection. Suitable habitat patch area decreased by 18,245 km2 (27%), with losses of 28% in the Québec portion, 95% in the Ontario portion, but only 0.3% in the New York portion. Habitat fragmentation, as measured by the effective mesh size, substantially increased in the Québec and Ontario portions, but only slightly in the New York portion. Functional connectivity significantly decreased, with mean distances and the cost of traveling these distances more than doubling. We propose nine recommendations centered on extensive habitat restoration and protected area expansion in the Québec and Ontario portions of the study area. Wolf recovery within the A2L will require collaborative and coordinated transboundary conservation and the protection of suitable habitat patches and corridors, or the legal protection of both wolves and coyotes within the suitable habitat patches and corridors, to ensure that wolves are not harvested as they disperse and colonize new locations.
Description du projet (français)
Organisation principale responsable du projet
Université Concordia
Organisation(s) partenaire(s)
Conservation de la nature Canada
Fait partie d'un réseau plus large
Corridors écologiques
Statut du projet
Terminé
Date de début du projet
2022
Date of completion
2024-08-30
Écosystème(s) concerné(s)
Forestier
Catégorie(s) d'actions liées à la connectivité
Conception de réseaux de corridors
Établissement de noyaux prioritaires
Restauration
Recherche (Modélisation)
Recherche (Évaluation de la connectivité fonctionelle)
Politiques et gouvernance
Protection des terres
Planification de l'utilisation des terres
Mots-clés standards
Corridors
Approche 'stepping stone'
Espèce faunique ayant un statut spécial
Mots-clés
Eastern wolf Gray wolf Habitat loss Effective mesh size Linkage mapper Circuitscape
Couverture taxonomique
Mammifères
Étendue géographique
Région(s)
Québec
Laurentides, Laval, Montréal
Nom du lieu
Quebec, Ontario, New York A2L