摘要：National parks are important for conservation of species such as wolves (Canis lupus) andelk (Cervus canadensis). However, topography, vegetation conditions, and anthropogenic infrastructurewithin parks may limit available habitat. Human activity on trails and roads may lead to indirect habitatloss, further limiting available habitat. Predators and prey may respond differentially to human activity,potentially disrupting ecological processes. However, research on such impacts to wildlife is incomplete,especially at fine spatial and temporal scales. Our research investigated the relationship between wolf andelk distribution and human activity using fine-scale Global Positioning System (GPS) wildlife telemetrylocations and hourly human activity measures on trails and roads in Banff, Kootenay, and Yoho NationalParks, Canada. We observed a complex interaction between the distance animals were located from trailsand human activity level resulting in species adopting both mutual avoidance and differential responsebehaviors. In areas < 50 m from trails human activity led to a mutual avoidance response by both wolvesand elk. In areas 50 - 400 m from trails low levels of human activity led to differential responses; wolvesavoided these areas, whereas elk appeared to use these areas as a predation refugia. These differentialimpacts on elk and wolves may have important implications for trophic dynamics. As human activityincreased above two people/hour, areas 50 - 400 m from trails were mutually avoided by both species,resulting in the indirect loss of important montane habitat. If park managers are concerned with humanimpacts on wolves and elk, or on these species' trophic interactions with other species, they can monitorlocations near trails and roads and consider hourly changes of human activity levels in areas important towildlife
关键词：Banff National Park; conditional logistic regression; elk; human activity; resource selection;trails; wolves; Yellowstone National Park
