Men and wolves: Anthropogenic causes are an important driver of wolf mortality in human-dominated landscapes in Italy

Over the last 40 years gray wolf (Canis lupus) re-colonized its historical range in Italy increasing human-predator interactions. However, temporal and spatial trends mortality, including direct indirect persecution, were never summarized. This study aims to fill this gap by focusing on situation of Tuscany Emilia-Romagna regions, hosting a significant proportion Italian population, by: (i) identifying prevalent causes (ii) summarizing their patterns (iii) applying spatially-explicit Generalized Linear Models predict persecution. Between October 2005 February 2021, 212 carcasses collected subjected necropsy, being involved collisions with vehicles (n = 104), poisoned 45), wounded gunshot 24) or blunt objects 4) hanged 2). The illegally killed wolves did not increase through time. Most persecution events occurred between February. None our candidate models outperformed null model covariates such as density sheep farms, number predations livestock, human associated probability having wolves, at municipal scale. Our findings show that conventional correlates combined supposedly high non-retrieved carcasses, fail illegal killings areas where species have become ubiquitous. widespread distribution indicates probably arises from multiple kinds conflicts humans, beyond those husbandry. Wolf conservation should thus address cryptic multi-disciplinary approaches, shared national protocols, socio-ecological studies, support experts’ experience effective sampling schemes for detection carcasses.