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Coexistence between humans and wildlife is necessary for many conservation goals but is difficult to achieve in landscapes with increasing human populations and species that are often wary of people and may also threaten human safety. In these contexts, coexistence may be enhanced by identifying geographic areas where animal movement is particularly important and changes to human use via trail design could support both wildlife conservation and human safety. We used camera trap data to monitor the spatial distribution of grizzly bears (Ursus arctos), grey wolves (Canis lupus), and humans within the central Canadian Rocky Mountains, where anthropogenic development and human activity have gradually encroached on limited wildlife habitat. We quantified spatial variation in human use and then incorporated this output into models for the detection rates of bears and wolves. We interpolated metrics of human use throughout the study area using inverse distance weighted averages of human detection rates from cameras. This approach supported a novel estimate of the cumulative effects of human use at all nearby trails on animal space use. We used our models to estimate the zone of influence of human use on bears and wolves, determining the distance at which human use on nearby trails no longer exhibited a measurable change in detection rates for each of grizzly bears and wolves. The negative effects of human use on wildlife declined steeply with distance such that 50% of the decrease in detection rates immediately adjacent to trails would be expected to occur at 267 m for grizzly bears and 576 m for wolves. Weak effects, 5% as strong as the effect adjacent to trails, extended up to 1.8 and 6.1 km for grizzly bears and wolves, revealing the importance of cumulative measures of human use. Synthesis and applications. Our work shows how human activity over entire landscapes can alter wildlife detection rates. Our results identify target buffer distances for protected areas near trails, and the modelling framework could be used by land managers to predict how altering trail networks and modifying human activity could affect wary wildlife species and advance coexistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wolverines ( Gulo gulo ) are a circumboreal species that has experienced substantial range reduction worldwide. In Canada, the wolverine has been extirpated entirely from the east, and from prairie regions in the west. The province of Alberta holds the south-central portion of wolverines' Canadian range, and there they have been designated as Data Deficient since 2001 due to a historical lack of information. Our aim was to provide a first approximation of a wolverine abundance estimate at the provincial scale to inform science-based management as well as status designation. We synthesised existing density estimates and wolverine-habitat relationships to create a province-wide density estimate for wolverines. Densities were derived from five landscapes, spanning protected National Parks in the Rocky Mountains, the highly developed Foothills and the northcentral and northwestern boreal forests. Densities were estimated using spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR) models. Densities ranged from 6.74 wolverines/1000 km 2 in the northwest boreal to 0.71 wolverines/1000 km 2 in the foothills. The proportion of adults was based on a study from the northwest, which estimated 57% adults to 43% subadults. Extrapolating densities across natural subregions (bioclimatic ecoregions), based on known habitat relationships, it was estimated that there were 955 wolverines in the province, of which 544 were adults. This number falls well below an IUCN threshold for a legally listed species; we suggest a reassessment of the wolverine status in Alberta and considering commensurate conservation actions., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (© 2024 The Author(s). Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)