Ricerc@Sapienza

Fine-scale knowledge of how anthropogenic effects may alter habitat selection by wolves (Canis lupus) is important to inform conservation management, especially where wolf populations are expanding into more populated areas or where human activity and development are increasingly encroaching on formerly pristine environments.

Understanding large carnivores’ behavioural adaptations to habitat modifications is critical for their persistence in human-modified environments. Based on 10 Global Positioning System-collared wolves in a protected area of central Italy, we investigated wolf responses to anthropogenic features such as roads and settlements by using Step and Resource Selection Functions. We revealed that responses by wolves to anthropogenic features varied according to behavioural state (travelling vs. resting) and social affiliation (pack members vs.

Representing a form of anthropogenic hybridization, wolf–dog interbreeding may potentially compromise the ecological and evolutionary traits of local wolf populations and corrode social tolerance towards wolves. However, estimates of the extent of wolf–dog hybridization in wolf populations are scarce, especially at a multi-pack scale and in human-dominated landscapes.

In ecologically pristine ecosystems, top-down effects of apex predators play a fundamental role in shaping trophic cascades and structuring ecosystems, but in human-modified landscapes anthropogenic effects may markedly alter the ecological role of predators. In particular, human-provisioned food subsidies represent a serious concern for the conservation of apex predators, even though little empirical attention has been given to this aspect in assessing conservation outcomes.

Historically, many local grey wolf (Canis lupus) populations have undergone substantial reductions
in size or become extinct. Among these, the wolf population once living in Sicily, the largest island
in the Mediterranean Sea, was completely eradicated by human activity in the early decades of the
20th century. To gain a better understanding of the genetic identity of the Sicilian wolf, we used
techniques for the study of ancient DNA to analyze the mitochondrial DNA of six specimens stored