Habitat factors affecting vulnerability of moose to predation by wolves insoutheastern British Columbia

We compared habitat features at sites where wolves (Canis lupus) killed moo se (Alces alces), sites 500 m from kills, telemetry locations of moose, and random sites, to examine the influence of logging and other landscape feat ures on the vulnerability of moose to predation by wolves in southeastern B ritish Columbia during the winters of 1984-1985 through 1995-1996. Moose-ki ll sites were located farther from the edges of seedling and pole size-clas s patches than telemetry locations. Road density was lower and wolf use was higher in areas where kill sites occurred than in areas where relocation o r random sites occurred. Kill sites were located at lower elevations than r elocation or random sites. A logistic regression model using road density, elevation, distance from trails, and distance from size-class polygon edges successfully classified 94.5% of sites as either kills or locations. Moose density was greater and hiding-cover levels were lower at kill sites than at control sites. Forest harvest practices in this study area apparently di d not increase the vulnerability of moose to wolf predation.