Why wolves walk – drivers of daily movement in a social large carnivore

Animal movement patterns are influenced by a range of extrinsic and intrinsic factors, including the distribution of resources, human disturbance, landscape connectivity, species interactions, and individual traits. We examined factors associated with daily movement distance (DMD) and linearity in 20 territorial Scandinavian wolves Canis lupus during summer (n = 405) and winter (n = 614) by analysing hourly GPS locations (2001–2019). We used generalised linear mixed‐effects models to relate DMD and linearity to explanatory variables including indicators of road infrastructure (gravel road density, paved road density), environmental quality (forest fragmentation), prey availability (moose Alces alces and roe deer Capreolus capreolus densities), intra‐ and interspecific density (number of neighbouring wolf territories, brown bear Ursus arctos density), individual characteristic (breeding status, inbreeding coefficient), and annual home range size. DMD was shorter during winter than summer, but linearity was similar. In summer, DMD was positively associated with number of neighbouring territories, home range size, and brown bear density, but linearity was not related to any of the included variables. A higher number of neighbouring territories and larger home range size likely require longer daily movements to cover and defend the territory. The relationship with brown bear density supports previous research showing increased search time for ungulate prey for wolves in areas with high brown bear densities. In winter, DMD was negatively associated with forest fragmentation, suggesting reduced movement when forests are patchy. DMD was also negatively associated with roe deer density, indicating reduced movement when preferred prey is abundant. Contrary to summer, linearity in winter decreased with increasing number of neighbouring territories. Alternative models also indicated reduced DMD with increasing paved road density and increased movement linearity with increasing gravel road density during winter. Our results showed that wolf movement in Scandinavia is shaped by extrinsic factors, with limited influence from individual‐level traits.