Geographical Relationship between Ungulates, Human Pressure and Territory

Despite the fact that at the global level, half the planet’s wildlife population has declined since 1970, this trend is not homogeneous across species and areas. Indeed, focusing on the ungulates, their increasing population and density has become worrisome in several rural areas. Favoured by economic and social changes often related to human activities, ungulates have conquered areas where coexistence with humans is difficult to maintain as a result of the damage that ungulates cause to agricultural activities and forests. This work aims to analyse the relationship between the number of ungulates and the characteristics of a specific area they inhabit. Applying a Geographically Weighted Regression analysis (GWR), we analysed and tested the spatial non-stationarity of the relationship between ungulates and human activities. Mugello, an area in central Italy, was selected for this study. This area was chosen due to the presence of a high number of ungulates that interact in different territorial scenarios, including urban agglomerations located in the flat zone, agricultural areas in the central-northern part and forested areas in the northern part of Mugello. This article looks at the way the number of ungulates is directly related to human activities in a specific territory. This contributes to the literature by providing useful information to stakeholders for future planning and wildlife management in agricultural areas within the limits of sustainability. Moreover, the social and economic implications are significant, especially considering such agricultural areas are at risk of being damaged by the presence of ungulates. The result of the analysis has validated the use of GWR, highlighting the relationship of selected variables and the number of ungulates.