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<div><i>Ecology & Evolution</i>, Early View First published: 9
February 2016<br>
DOI: 10.1002/ece3.1921<br>
<br>
Original Research<br>
<br>
<b>Wolverine behavior varies spatially with anthropogenic footprint:
implications for conservation and inferences about declines<br>
</b>Frances E. C. Stewart, Nicole A. Heim, Anthony P. Clevenger, John
Paczkowski, John P. Volpe,<br>
Jason T. Fisher<br>
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<div>As reported in the Calgary Herald</div>
<div><font
face="Cambria"><u
>http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/wolverines-act-like-smash-a<span
></span>nd-grab-burglar-at-bait-sites-in-developed-areas<br>
<br>
</u></font>"Outside of the parks, where the landscape is developed,
they develop an in-and-out behaviour at baited sites, grabbing what
they can quickly and getting out quickly - like a smash-and-grab
burglar," said Jason Fisher, senior research scientist with Alberta
Innovates. "Inside the park, they linger for hours and hours,
seemingly carefree. "You can draw a line on a map where the
behaviour changes."<br>
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<div>Abstract<b> (OPEN ACCESS)</b><br>
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.1921/full<br>
</div>
<div>Understanding a species' behavioral response to rapid
environmental change is an ongoing challenge in modern conservation.
Anthropogenic landscape modification, or "human footprint," is
well documented as a central cause of large mammal decline and range
contractions where the proximal mechanisms of decline are often
contentious. Direct mortality is an obvious cause; alternatively,
human-modified landscapes perceived as unsuitable by some species may
contribute to shifts in space use through preferential habitat
selection. A useful approach to tease these effects apart is to
determine whether behaviors potentially associated with risk vary with
human footprint. We hypothesized wolverine (Gulo gulo) behaviors vary
with different degrees of human footprint. We quantified metrics of
behavior, which we assumed to indicate risk perception, from
photographic images from a large existing camera-trapping dataset
collected to understand wolverine distribution in the Rocky Mountains
of Alberta, Canada. We systematically deployed 164 camera sites across
three study areas covering approximately 24,000 km2, sampled monthly
between December and April (2007-2013). Wolverine behavior varied
markedly across the study areas. Variation in behavior decreased with
increasing human footprint. Increasing human footprint may constrain
potential variation in behavior, through either restricting behavioral
plasticity or individual variation in areas of high human impact. We
hypothesize that behavioral constraints may indicate an increase in
perceived risk in human-modified landscapes. Although survival is
obviously a key contributor to species population decline and range
loss, behavior may also make a significant contribution.<font
size="-2" color="#000000"><br>
</font></div>
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<div><font face="Verdana" size="-1"
color="#000000"
>===========================================================<br>
"The effects of climate change will be 'severe, pervasive and
irreversible' within the next few decades if countries burn more than
just one-quarter of the fossil fuel reserves already found, according
to a major new U.N. draft report"<br>
<br>
"It warns that companies and governments have 'identified reserves
of these [fossil] fuels at least four times larger than could safely
be burned if global warming is to be kept to a tolerable level.'<b> In
short, 75 percent of the fossil fuels must remain in the ground to
forestall devastating impacts."<br>
</b> <br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size="-1"
color="#FFFF00"><u
>http://www.newsweek.com/leaked-un-report-climate-change-impacts-alre<span
></span>ady-inevitable-may-soon-be-irreversible-266860<br>
<br>
</u></font><font face="Verdana" size="-1"
color="#000000"
>===============================================================<br>
"I believe humanity is making risky bets in the climate casino.
Š. <b> But it is always possible that humanity will wake up
....</b> If that happened, fossil fuel reserves would indeed be
stranded.<b> Investors beware: the risk of that cannot be
zero."</b></font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana" size="-1" color="#000000"> <br>
Martin Wolf. A climate fix would ruin investors.<br>
<i>Financial Times</i>. June 17, 2014<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size="-1"
color="#FFFF00"><u
>http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/5a2356a4-f58e-11e3-afd3-00144feabdc0.<span
></span>html#axzz3C5hyxJyx<br>
<br>
<br>
</u></font><font face="Verdana" size="-1" color="#000000"><b>Bold
emphases added</b></font></div>
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