Authors: Fandos, Guillermo; Pratzer, Marie;Nill, Leon ;Kuemmerle, Tobias;Zurell, Damaris;

Large carnivores currently recolonise their historical range in Europe after centuries of persecution and habitat loss. Understanding how these recolonisations take place is important for proactive conservation planning to foster coexistence between carnivores and people. Integrating species distributions models with dispersal scenarios, we explore where and when large carnivores are likely to expand into human-dominated landscapes, and how human pressure might impact this recolonisation process.
We highlight that the recolonization potential of large carnivores in the Iberian Peninsula is likely more constrained by anthropogenic resistance than by habitat availability, a situation likely emblematic of large carnivores in many parts of the world. More generally, our approach provides a tool for conservation planners and managers to identify where range expansion is most likely to occur, and thus where human-carnivore conflicts could arise, to proactively implement preventive measures that foster coexistence between humans and wildlife.