Daily activity patterns of wolves in open habitats in the Dauria ecoregion, Russia

Abstract

There are very little data about daily activity patterns of Canis lupus (hereinafter – wolf) living in open arid habitats with low human density in Dauria. Therefore we have studied the influence of human activity, reproduction and weather conditions on daily patterns and duration of the activity of 17 GPS-collared wolves in the Daursky State Nature Biosphere Reserve, Russia, from 2015 to 2020. GPS-collars were equipped with acceleration sensors. Wolves were active 44% (± 0.02 SE) of the day and traveled 1.21 km/h (± 0.10 SE) on average. The mean duration of subsequent activity periods was 7.36 h (± 1.5 SD). The duration of the subsequent, inactivity period was 10.07 h (± 4.2 SD). Travelling speed significantly increased when wolves made extraterritorial forays from their home range to territories of neighbouring packs. The highest activity index corresponds to long-distance dispersing wolves. Weather conditions and human activity did not significantly effect wolves daily activity patterns. Wolves were generally less active and mobile during the cold season. All wolves showed crepuscular movement peaks. Five of the wolves' movement patterns switched to diurnal eight cases when they conducted an extraterritorial foray crossing territories of neighbouring packs. We conclude that wolves' daily activity patterns were mainly shaped by a combination of several factors.

Keywords

• activity index
• arid habitats
• breeding
• canis lupus
• daursky biosphere reserve
• dispersing
• human activity