Wolverine density determinants in Scandinavia

After a long history of persecution, several large carnivore species are recolonizing part of their historic range in Europe. Today's spatial configuration of these large carnivore populations has likely arisen from a combination of historical and current environmental and human influence factors. However, due to the challenge of studying population-level phenomena, we have thus far been only rarely able to disentangle and quantify the landscape-scale determinants of spatial distribution and density of these controversial species. Using a comprehensive data set of genetically identified wolverine individuals across the entire population in Norway and Sweden and recently developed, efficient spatial capture-recapture models, we identify and untangle the large-scale factors in shaping the current population density and spatial distribution of wolverines across the Scandinavian Peninsula.