Human-wildlife conflict impacts native wildlife populations and people in socio-economically poor areas. In the Shigar Valley, Karakoram range, Pakistan, subsistence mixed farming is the predominant land use and red foxes (Vulpes vulpes montana) are widely persecuted. Knowledge of the effects of human activity on fox behavior and populations in the region is lacking.We carried out 38 transect surveys within 87 sampling units of grid size 3 km × 3 km and recorded 42 resting and 24 active natal dens from 2015 to 2017. We evaluated 17 model subsets for describing probabilistic Resource Selection Functions (RSFs) predicting den occurrence at landscape, patch, and micro-habitat scales in terms of anthropogenic factors, including distance to agricultural land and roads. We also tested and controlled for associations between den occurrence and biotic and abiotic variables, including prey occurrence. We found that: 1) distance to roads negatively influenced fox den occurrence; 2) Indian pika (Ochotona roylei) burrow occurrence positively influenced fox den occurrence; (3) Natal dens had larger and more numerous openings than resting dens; 4) den occurrence was greatest at moderate elevations; and 5) den occurrence was negatively related to forest cover and positively correlated with shrub cover. The findings suggest that foxes do not strongly avoid human activity, and that den types are variable. Further studies are required on the function of foxes in this landscape focusing on ecosystem services such as seed dispersal, carrion removal and regulation of prey populations.

人与野生生物之间的冲突影响着当地的野生动植物种群和社会经济贫困地区的人们。在巴基斯坦喀喇昆仑山脉的什加尔谷地，自给自足的混合农业是主要的土地利用和赤狐（Vulpes vulpes montana）被迫害。缺乏关于人类活动对该地区狐狸行为和种群影响的知识.2015年至2017年，我们在3 km×3 km网格大小的87个采样单元内进行了38次样面调查，并记录了42个静息和24个活跃的出生点。我们评估了17个模型子集，以描述概率性资源选择函数（RSF），这些函数根据人为因素（包括与农田和道路的距离）在景观，斑块和微生境尺度上预测巢穴的发生。我们还测试并控制了巢穴发生与生物和非生物变量（包括猎物发生）之间的关联。我们发现：1）与道路的距离对狐狸窝的发生产生负面影响；2）印度皮卡（Ochotona roylei）洞穴的发生对狐狸窝的发生产生积极影响；（3）新生窝比休息窝更大，数量更多。4）在中等高度，巢穴发生最大；5）巢穴发生与森林覆盖率负相关，与灌木覆盖率正相关。这些发现表明，狐狸并没有强烈避免人类活动，而且巢穴类型是可变的。还需要对狐狸在该景观中的功能进行进一步研究，重点是生态系统服务，例如种子散布，去除腐肉和调节猎物种群。