Wolverine Scavenging Behaviour : At their southern range in Sweden

Abstract: Over the past decades, wolverines in Sweden have made a recovery from near extinction to recolonization large part of their historic range. Effective conservation of large carnivores, which inhabit extensive territories, necessitates adaptative management that considers the diverse ecological and societal factors spanning their entire range. This report contributes to our understanding of wolverines in the southern periphery of their recolonized area, focusing on their scavenging behaviour. I utilize data from 14 wolverines, tracked with GPS-collars in Värmland, Dalarna and Jämtland over five years (2018-2022). The monitoring covered 19 three-week periods, during spring, early summer, and autumn. My thesis focusses on the wolverine’s utilization of two type of scavenging sites: anthropogenic food resources and carcasses from wild ungulates. The results show that females exhibit higher visit frequencies to both types of scavenging sites during spring and summer, but this difference diminishes in autumn when males visit scavenging sites more frequently than in other seasons. Anthropogenic feeding sites had more visits during autumn, compared to wild carcasses, whereas wild carcasses are more commonly utilized in spring and summer. The presence of large predators influences wolverine scavenging behavior, as evidenced by shorter visits to feeding sites in Jämtland (with high bear density) compared to Värmland and Dalarna. Nevertheless, these low-conflict areas have all benefited wolverines by increasing their reproductive rate, offering hope for the ongoing recolonization. Moreover, my results show that human activities in this region can have a positive impact on wolverines, by acting as and apex predator providing a stable food source, which should further facilitate recolonization success.