DOI: 10.5061/dryad.pc866t1p3
title: Distribution of large carnivores in Europe 2012 - 2016: Distribution maps for Brown bear, Eurasian lynx, Grey wolf, and Wolverine

description: Regular assessments of species’ status are an essential component of
 conservation planning and adaptive management. They allow the progress of
 past or ongoing conservation actions to be evaluated and can be used to
 redirect and prioritise future conservation actions. Most countries
 perform periodic assessments for their own national adaptive management
 procedures or national red lists. Furthermore, the countries of the
 European Union have to report on the status of all species listed on the
 directives of the Habitats Directive every 6 years as part of their
 obligations under Article 17. However, these national level assessments
 are often made using non-standardised procedures and do not always
 adequately reflect the biological units (i.e. the populations) which are
 needed for ecologically meaningful assessments. Since the early 2000’s the
 Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe (a Specialist Group of the IUCN’s
 Species Survival Commission) has been coordinating periodic surveys of the
 status of large carnivores across Europe (e.g. von Arx et al. 2004;
 Salvatori & Linnell 2005, Kaczensky et al. 2013). These have
 covered the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), the wolf (Canis lupus), the brown
 bear (Ursus arctos) and the wolverine (Gulo gulo). These surveys involve
 the contributions of the best available experts and sources of
 information. While the underlying data quality and field methodology
 varies widely across Europe, these coordinated assessments do their best
 to integrate the diverse data in a comparable manner and make the
 differences transparent. They also endeavour to conduct the assessments on
 the most important scales. This includes the continental scale (all
 countries except for Russia, Belarus, Moldova and the parts of Ukraine
 outside the Carpathian mountain range), the scale of the EU 28 (where the
 Habitats Directive operates) and of the biological populations which
 reflect the scale at which ecological processes occur (Linnell et al.
 2008). In this way, the independent LCIE assessments provide a valuable
 complement to the ongoing national processes. Our last assessments covered
 the period 2006-2011 (Kaczensky et al. 2013; Chapron et al. 2014). The
 current assessment is mainly based on the period 2012-2016 and broadly
 follows the same methodology. The population definitions used in
 this report broadly follow those proposed in Linnell et al. (2008) and
 described in Kaczensky et al. (2013). However, as these were always
 intended to be dynamic definitions there have been a few small changes,
 namely the upgrading of the lynx in the Harz mountains to being a
 population (formerly they were viewed as an “occurrence”), and the
 exclusion of the wolves in the Sierra Morena mountains of southern Spain
 because of their regional extinction.  Additional information on
 issues related to large carnivore status assessment is available in other
 reports. For example, Linnell & Cretois (2018) summarise data on
 large carnivore depredation on livestock, Linnell (2013) summarises data
 on social conflicts associated with large carnivore recovery, and Boitani
 et al. (2015) summarises key actions required to address the main threats
 facing large carnivores in Europe. References Boitani, L., F. Alvarez, O.
 Anders, H. Andren, E. Avanzinelli, V. Balys, J. C. Blanco, U.
 Breitenmoser, G. Chapron, P. Ciucci, A. Dutsov, C. Groff, D. Huber, O.
 Ionescu, F. Knauer, I. Kojola, J. Kubala, M. Kutal, J. Linnell, A. Majic,
 P. Mannil, R. Manz, F. Marucco, D. Melovski, A. Molinari, H. Norberg, S.
 Nowak, J. Ozolins, S. Palazon, H. Potocnik, P.-Y. Quenette, I. Reinhardt,
 R. Rigg, N. Selva, A. Sergiel, M. Shkvyria, J. Swenson, A. Trajce, M. Von
 Arx, M. Wolfl, U. Wotschikowsky, D. Zlatanova, 2015. Key actions for Large
 Carnivore populations in Europe. Institute of Applied Ecology (Rome,
 Italy). Report to DG Environment, European Commission, Bruxelles. Contract
 no. 07.0307/2013/654446/SER/B3 Chapron, G., Kaczensky, P., Linnell,
 J.D.C., von Arx, M., Huber, D., Andrén, H., López-Bao, J.V., Adamec, M.,
 Álvares, F., Anders, O., Balčiauskas, L., Balys, V., Bedő, P., Bego, F.,
 Blanco, J.C., Breitenmoser, U., Brøseth, H., Bufka, L., Bunikyte, R.,
 Ciucci, P., Dutsov, A., Engleder, T., Fuxjäger, C., Groff, C., Holmala,
 K., Hoxha, B., Iliopoulos, Y., Ionescu, O., Jeremić, J., Jerina, K.,
 Kluth, G., Knauer, F., Kojola, I., Kos, I., Krofel, M., Kubala, J.,
 Kunovac, S., Kusak, J., Kutal, M., Liberg, O., Majić, A., Männil, P.,
 Manz, R., Marboutin, E., Marucco, F., Melovski, D., Mersini, K.,
 Mertzanis, Y., Mysłajek, R.W., Nowak, S., Odden, J., Ozolins, J.,
 Palomero, G., Paunović, M., Persson, J., Potočnik, H., Quenette, P.-Y.,
 Rauer, G., Reinhardt, I., Rigg, R., Ryser, A., Salvatori, V., Skrbinšek,
 T., Stojanov, A., Swenson, J.E., Szemethy, L., Trajçe, A.,
 Tsingarska[1]Sedefcheva, E., Váňa, M., Veeroja, R., Wabakken, P., Wölfl,
 M., Wölfl, S., Zimmermann, F., Zlatanova, D. & Boitani, L. 2014.
 Recovery of large carnivores in Europe’s modern human-dominated
 landscapes. Science 346(6216): 1517-1519. Kaczensky, P., Chapron, G., Von
 Arx, M., Huber, D., Andrén, H. & Linnell, J. 2013. Status,
 management and distribution of large carnivores - bear, lynx, wolf and
 wolverine - in Europe. Istituto di Ecologia Applicata, Rome, Italy.
 Linnell, J.D.C., Cretois, B., 2018. Research for AGRI Committee – The
 revival of wolves and other large predators and its impact on farmers and
 their livelihood in rural regions of Europe. Research for AGRI Committee –
 The revival of wolves and other large predators and its impact on farmers
 and their livelihood in rural regions of Europe, European Parliament,
 Policy Department for Structural and Cohesion Policies, Brussels. Linnell,
 J.D.C. 2013. From conflict to coexistence: insights from
 multi-disciplinary research into the relationships between people, large
 carnivores and institutions. Istituto di Ecologia Applicata, Rome.
 Linnell, J.D.C., Salvatori, V. & Boitani, L. 2008. Guidelines for
 population level management plans for large carnivores in Europe. A Large
 Carnivore Initiative for Europe report prepared for the European
 Commission (contract 070501/2005/424162/MAR/B2). Salvatori, V. &
 Linnell, J.D.C. 2005. Report on the conservation status and threats for
 wolf (Canis lupus) in Europe. Council of Europe Report T-PVS/Inf (2005)
 16. von Arx, M., Breitenmoser-Würsten, C., Zimmermann, F. &
 Breitenmoser, U. 2004. Status and conservation of the Eurasian lynx (Lynx
 lynx) in Europe in 2001. KORA Report 19e: 1- 330.
description: The mapping approach follows the methods described in Chapron et
 al. (2014) and Kaczensky et al. (2013). It updates the published Species
 Online Layers (SPOIS) to the period 2012-2016. In
 short, large carnivore presence was mapped at a 10x10 km ETRS89-LAEA
 Europe grid scale. This grid is widely used for the Flora-Fauna-Habitat
 reporting by the European Union (EU) and can be downloaded
 at: http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/eea-reference-grids-2  The map encompasses the EU countries plus the non-EU Balkan states, Switzerland, Norway, and the Carpathian region of Ukraine. Presence in a grid cell was ideally mapped based on carnivore presence and frequency in a cell resulting in: 1 = Permanent (presence confirmed in &gt;= 3 years in the last 5 years OR in &gt;50% of the time OR reproduction confirmed within the last 3 years) 3 = Sporadic (highly fluctuating presence) (presence confirmed in &lt;3 years in the last 5 years OR in &lt;50% of the time) We subsequently include: i) the category “present” when there is no doubt about the species presence in the country, but where additional information is missing & ii) the category “presence uncertain” where evidence is weak that large carnivore presence consists of more than very rare vagrants Where grid cells have portions in more than one country and cells were assigned different values in neighbouring countries; the “disputed” cell was always given the “higher” presence value; that is a cell categorized as “sporadic” by one and “permanent” by the country was categorized as “permanent”. To assess the quality of carnivore signs we used the SCALP criteria developed for the standardized monitoring of Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in the Alps (Molinari-Jobin et al. 2012): Category 1 (C1): “Hard facts”, verified and unchallenged large carnivore presence signs (e.g. dead animals, DNA, verified camera trap images); Category 2 (C2): Large carnivore presence signs controlled and confirmed by a large carnivore expert (e.g. trained member of the network), which requires documentation of large carnivore signs; and Category 3 (C3): Unconfirmed category 2 large carnivore presence signs and all presence signs such as sightings and calls which, if not additionally documented, cannot be verified We subsequently include the category “soft” which refers to presence large carnivore presence based on interview, questionnaires, and media coverage For additional details please also see the attached pdf files for each of the species datasets.
description: The data available consists of shapefiles at a 10 x 10 km
 resolution compiled for the period 2012-2016 for the Large Carnivore
 Initiative of Europe IUCN Specialist Group and for the IUCN Red List
 Assessment. The zip files available are for four species and their
 distribution in Europe (for further details see also attached report files
 for each species): Brown bear
 (<em>Ursus arctos</em>) Eurasian lynx
 (Lynx lynx) Grey wolf (<em>Canis
 lupus</em>) Wolverine (<em>Gulo
 gulo</em>)