The impacts of tourist destinations on wildlife in northern Finland

Abstract The sprawl of tourism to natural areas may have many kinds of effects on wildlife species due to urban development, landscape fragmentation and increased disturbance. I examined potential effects of tourist destinations on four forest grouse and five mammalian species in northern Finland. I used density data coming from the late-summer and mid-winter wildlife counts. The data was collected in 88 wildlife triangles (length of 12 km each) within a radius of 40 km around ten tourist destinations in northern Finland conducted during 1989–2006 by hunters. The densities of the mountain hare (Lepidus timidus) and the mustelid species correlated negatively with the distance to a tourist destination. The density of adult grouse, juvenile grouse, mountain hare, and mustelids were positively correlated with the area of mixed forests surroundings of destinations. The densities of adult and juvenile grouses were positively and the density of pine marten and mustelids were negatively correlated with the area of agricultural land surroundings of destinations. The density of studied wildlife species varied between the destinations and the years. The results of the study suggest that the current recreation pressure has not caused substantial changes in the wildlife fauna in the surroundings of tourist destinations studied. The location of a destination, predator densities, and a landscape structure around destinations affected most the density of wildlife species.