Landscape of risk: responses of grey wolves to lethal control in a mosaic landscape

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Abstract As wolves recolonize human-modified landscapes across the Old World, management programs aiming to mitigate livestock depredation while preserving wolf populations are falling short. The combination of human activity, habitat fragmentation, and mixed land use creates complex challenges for conservation management. Recolonized by wolves in the 1970s, the Golan Heights in northern Israel poses a dense mosaic landscape of risk, comprising grazing pastures, military zones, nature reserves, agriculture, and minefields. Today it contains one of the highest densities of wolves worldwide. While wolves are protected by law, the government maintains an active lethal management program by which about 25% of the population is culled annually. To evaluate this program’s effectiveness, we used 60 motion-triggered camera traps over 5,997 nights to monitor wolf activity across the Golan Heights. Using long-term culling and landscape data, we assessed the spatiotemporal responses of single wolves and wolf packs to culling pressure, land use and human activity. We found a positive relationship between culling pressure and single wolf activity, while pack responses to culling varied over a gradient of land uses. Single wolves utilized high-risk areas near cattle despite intense culling, while packs dominated protected, no-culling zones. Overall, culling did not deter wolves, singles or packs, from conflict zones; all zones were occupied by wolves. However, wolves shifted temporally to avoid daytime human activity and were predominantly nocturnal in high-culling areas. Understanding wolves’ responses to lethal management across diverse anthropogenic pressures offers lessons for other areas, particularly in Europe, currently undergoing wolf recolonization in similar landscapes.

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