Feeding ecology of the wolf (Canis lupus) in a near-natural ecosystem in Mongolia

Abstract

The increasing animosity towards wolves (Canislupus) by livestock-keeping nomads in Mongolia and the accompanying conflicts highlight the urgent need for knowledge about the feeding behavior of wolves, since information on the feeding ecology of wolves in Mongolia is rare, especially in the mountain taiga and mountain forest steppe regions of Northern Mongolia. Those regions are characterized by a relatively high wildlife diversity and are sparsely populated by humans. To face this problem, 137 wolf scats were collected in the Khentii Mountain range in Northern Mongolia between 2008 and 2012. Almost all wolf faeces contained remnants of wild ungulates, which made up 89% of the consumed biomass. Siberian roe deer (Capreoluspygargus) was the most important and positively selected prey species. It was followed by red deer (Cervuselaphus) and wild boar (Susscrofa), which was negatively selected by wolves. Wolves also fed on buffer prey species such as lagomorphs and small mammals. No evidence of domestic ungulates was found in the wolf diet. Thus, near-natural habitats with a diverse fauna of wild animals are important to limit livestock depredation.

Conservation and mitigation approaches for human–gray wolf (Canis lupus) conflicts in Shigar Valley, Northern Pakistan

“…Our most parsimonious model included terrain landscapes such as ruggedness, slope and pastureland, which were negatively associated with wolf attacks, and suggested that higher elevation was related with more livestock killings. This finding is in accordance with previous work, which found wolves select for mountainous terrain over flat steppes in Mongolia and some flat terrain also used by livestock for grazing (Tiralla et al, 2021), as also in Pakistan (Kabir et al, 2017). Since predators chase the prey, landscape topography becomes a significant factor for carnivore habitat use and distribution (Hua et al, 2020).…”

Prerequisites for coexistence: human pressure and refuge habitat availability shape continental-scale habitat use patterns of a large carnivore

“…25% forest cover within home ranges; Linnell et al 2021), likely also enabled by the low anthropogenic influences in these regions. Similarly, other large carnivores commonly associated with forest habitats can persist in savannas and steppes provided sufficient protection and low levels of human disturbance, such as wolves in Central Asian steppes or North American prairies (Riley et al 2004;Tiralla et al 2021), but these habitats have often been the confidence intervals and partial residuals for low, medium, and high levels of forest cover (10th, 50th and 90th percentile in our dataset) are highlighted in different colors. Other variables are kept at their mean values for computing marginal effects first to lose large carnivores once human pressure increased (Laliberte and Ripple 2004).…”

Available for millions of years but discovered through the last decade: Insects as a source of nutrients and energy in animal diets

“…The constantly increased availability of invertebrate biomass on the market has resulted in an enlarged number of commercial foods. It should be highlighted that the ancestors of domestic dogs and cats ingest invertebrates as a part of their natural diets ( Behrendorff et al., 2016 ; Tiralla et al., 2021 ; Woolley et al., 2020 ). Thus, the implementation of “novel” insect ingredients is in fact back to nature.…”