Habitat evaluation for the Iberian wolf Canis lupus in Picos de Europa National Park, Spain

A GIS multivariate model based on the Mahalanobis distance statistic is proposed to evaluate habitat suitability for the wolf Canis lupus in northern Spain. Results derived from the model show that wolves can potentially thrive in some habitats on the southern and western side of the study area where conflicts with the human population are minimum. However, some other areas that have been recently occupied by wolves were determined as largely unsuitable. If appropriate management strategies are not implemented, negative human attitudes towards wolves could increase. The consequences of this might be a rise in unregulated killing of wolves in both suitable and unsuitable areas. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.