Food habits of the world's grey wolves

Abstract

1. Grey wolves Canis lupus have been studied extensively, but there has been no detailed review of the species’ feeding ecology, despite growing debate about how to conserve wolf populations while limiting their impacts on wild or domestic ungulates. Here, we assess the extent to which grey wolf diet varies among and within North America, Europe and Asia. \ud 2. We derived dietary data from searches of published literature. We grouped studies based on their bioregional location. We compared grey wolf diet among locations using nonmetric multidimensional scaling and analysis of similarity. We assessed whether increased human impacts are associated with decreased grey wolf dietary diversity. Finally, using studies from southern Europe, we assessed whether the importance of wild ungulates in grey wolf diet has increased over time, coincident with a decline in domestic species in grey wolf diet over time.\ud 3. We compiled dietary data from 177 studies incorporating 94607 scat and stomach samples. Grey wolf diet was dominated by large (240-650 kg) and medium-sized (23-130 kg) wild ungulates, but variation in the percentages of wild ungulates consumed, along with variation in the percentages of domestic and smaller prey species consumed, contributed to the dietary differences found among and within continents. \ud 4. We found no evidence that grey wolf dietary diversity varies globally. However, the result from southern Europe suggests that grey wolves may switch their diets away from domestic species if more wild ungulates are available. \ud 5. The diversity of prey consumed by grey wolves shows that the species is capable of surviving dramatic anthropogenic upheaval. However, there is an urgent need to increase our understanding of grey wolf foraging ecology in human-dominated landscapes, in order to determine whether restoration of depleted prey populations, coupled with effective damage-prevention measures, will reduce human-wolf conflicts

Predator densities and white‐tailed deer fawn survival

“…However, Svoboda et al () identified a mean of 5.3 fawn kills/bobcat/summer (May–Aug) from GPS‐collar‐based predation investigations of 7 bobcats during 2009–2011 in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, suggesting bobcats in this area regularly consume fawns. Wolves also had a greater estimated per‐individual kill rate than black bears or coyotes in our study, and can specialize in hunting neonatal ungulates during summer (Metz et al , Newsome et al ). Where wolves and coyotes co‐occur, wolves tend to derive a greater portion of their diet from ungulate prey (Arjo et al , Benson et al ).…”

Exploring the diet of arctic wolves (Canis lupus arctos) at their northern range limit

“…We used studies identified in Newsome et al (2016) from Arctic areas, including one study from Arctic Alaska, supplemented with the reports from Tener (1954) and Hayes et al (2016). For this Fig.…”

“…While the grey wolf is one of the most wellstudied carnivores on Earth (Brooke et al 2014), ecological data on Arctic wolves are scarce. For example, wolf diet is well documented globally (reviewed in Newsome et al 2016), but the number of diet studies on Arctic wolves remains limited. In high Arctic environments, publications are restricted to a study from north Greenland (Marquard-Petersen 1998) and to anecdotal observations from central Ellesmere Island (Tener 1954, Mech 1988, Mech and Adams 1999, Mech 2010.…”

Grasshopper consumption by grey wolves and implications for ecosystems

“…Although wolf packs generally prey on ungulates, lone wolves are less likely to take down large animals and instead rely on alternative prey (Mech and Ciucci 2003) until they can establish or join a new pack (Fig. As wolves spread across the American west, our understanding of wolf diet is being reshaped (Collins et al 2019), but the importance of alternative small prey has been largely overlooked as an important factor (Newsome et al 2016). However, evaluating the nutritional significance of grasshoppers for wolves is difficult.…”

“…3B). Surprisingly few published studies have assessed the occurrence of other smaller prey items in wolf diets through analysis of scats or stomach contents (Newsome et al 2016), which are needed to provide a comprehensive view of wolf diet and their role as a predator. Published estimates of the daily caloric needs of wolves range from as low as 1,300 kCal in captive studies (Lindsey and Hopkins 2009) to estimates of nearly 6,000 kCal for wild animals (Mech and Ciucci 2003).…”