Abstract The conservation of wide-ranging species presents challenges in a world of intensified human land use, forcing animals to occupy and recolonize human-modified landscapes. Although identifying suitable habitat and ensuring connectivity are important in supporting natural recolonization, these actions are rarely validated due to difficulties in monitoring such events. In Sweden, the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) is now recolonizing its former range, after centuries of persecution. We investigated resource selection based on telemetry data from 108 lynx monitored over 20 years. We assessed the differences between the established population in central Sweden and the recolonizing population in southern Sweden, and between established and dispersing individuals. We found that models based on central Sweden successfully identified core habitat patches for establishment in southern Sweden, validated after recolonization. We also found that lynx selected for higher habitat suitability during the recolonization phase, and that dispersing individuals were less selective than established lynx. Using cost-distance analysis, we assessed connectivity between central and southern Sweden, and found that landscape permeability was higher when based on dispersing lynx compared to established lynx. Altogether, our findings suggest that when landscapes are sufficiently similar between source and recolonization areas, resource selection information from an established population can be useful for managers seeking to facilitate recolonization of wide-ranging species. We recommend more frequent use of validation during and after recolonization events, to improve our common understanding of habitat suitability and connectivity modeling, and therefore to enable more active management of recolonization events.

中文翻译：

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评估重新定居的大型食肉动物的栖息地适宜性和连通性

摘要 在人类土地利用加剧的世界中，保护范围广泛的物种面临着挑战，迫使动物占领和重新定居人类改造的景观。尽管确定合适的栖息地并确保连通性对于支持自然重新殖民很重要，但由于难以监测此类事件，这些行动很少得到验证。在瑞典，欧亚猞猁（猞猁猞猁）经过几个世纪的迫害，现在正在重新殖民其原先的栖息地。我们根据 20 年来监测的 108 只猞猁的遥测数据调查了资源选择。我们评估了瑞典中部已建立人口与瑞典南部重新殖民人口之间的差异，以及已建立和分散的个体之间的差异。我们发现基于瑞典中部的模型成功确定了在瑞典南部建立的核心栖息地斑块，并在重新殖民后得到验证。我们还发现，在重新定植阶段，猞猁选择了更高的栖息地适宜性，并且散布的个体的选择性低于已建立的猞猁。使用成本距离分析，我们评估了瑞典中部和南部之间的连通性，发现与建立的猞猁相比，基于分散的猞猁的景观渗透率更高。总而言之，我们的研究结果表明，当源区和再定殖区之间的景观足够相似时，来自已建立种群的资源选择信息对于寻求促进广泛物种再定殖的管理者可能有用。