Management and conservation implications
The positive effect of wolf and lynx presences on detection of one another, high levels of co-occupancy in winter, and high levels of conditional occupancy in both seasons (higher occupancy probability when other species is present), for lynx and wolf provide little evidence of interference competition between these apex predators. This corroborates findings from other studies assessing interactions between co-occurring felids and canids that overlap in resource use. For example, Wikenros et al. (2010) assessed the effects of a recolonizing wolf population on resident lynx in Sweden and found that lynx demographics were unaffected by the presence of wolf. A greater body of literature focuses on the interactions between two similar species, the sympatric bobcat (Lynx rufus ) and coyote (Canis latrans ), in North America. A review of literature on this topic reveals a similar story to that of lynx and wolf in the Carpathians, whereby bobcats and coyotes coexist and exhibit little interference competition in most of their range likely due to specialization on different prey and mediation via use of heterogenous habitats (Dyck et al., 2022). Efforts to reintroduce or augment Eurasian lynx populations also exist in Europe (e.g., Slovenia, Croatia; https://www.lifelynx.eu/). In this context, resident wolf populations should not affect the introduction efforts given that prey base can support both species, and releases occur in highly forested but less topographically fragmented areas. Additionally, our findings also suggest that apex predators have little negative effects on the mesocarnivore, wildcat. This information is useful for management given that wolves are recolonizing their former range in Europe (Chapron et al., 2014). Our findings suggest that wolf would not have negative impacts on wildcat given enough suitable habitat is available, due to low overlap in diet. In summary, studying intraguild interactions in an intact system has enabled us to observe and quantify intraspecific interactions among carnivores where they have co-existed and co-evolved for centuries. This provides insight into their potential long-term dynamics for areas where they are recovering naturally or recovering through rewilding efforts. While our study did not include the summer season, our results from two separate and partially overlapping autumn and winter seasons suggest that competition between lynx, wildcat and wolf is low. However, additional information on the richness and abundance of the prey base, and the spatial and temporal relations between predators and their prey can augment these findings and provide additional management insights in the context of rewilding.