Foraging behaviour by gray wolves on salmon streams in coastal British Columbia
Spawning salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) are important resources for terrestrial ecosystems and often shape the ecological strategies of organisms with which they co-evolve. Gray wolves (Canis lupus), primarily predators of ungulates, are sympatric with salmon over large areas, but the relationship betwe...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z02-246 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z02-246 |
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crcansciencepubl:10.1139/z02-246 2024-06-23T07:51:58+00:00 Foraging behaviour by gray wolves on salmon streams in coastal British Columbia Darimont, C T Reimchen, T E Paquet, P C 2003 http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z02-246 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z02-246 en eng Canadian Science Publishing http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining Canadian Journal of Zoology volume 81, issue 2, page 349-353 ISSN 0008-4301 1480-3283 journal-article 2003 crcansciencepubl https://doi.org/10.1139/z02-246 2024-06-13T04:10:50Z Spawning salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) are important resources for terrestrial ecosystems and often shape the ecological strategies of organisms with which they co-evolve. Gray wolves (Canis lupus), primarily predators of ungulates, are sympatric with salmon over large areas, but the relationship between the two remains poorly understood. We report here observations of direct and indirect evidence of salmon predation by wolves in several watersheds of coastal British Columbia and in detail report on the foraging behaviour of four wolves at one river during September and October 2001. Wolves oriented themselves upstream during detection and pursuit of salmon. The pooled mean capture rate was 21.5 salmon/h and mean efficiency (successes/attempt) was 39.4%. In most cases, wolves consumed only heads of salmon, perhaps for nutritional reasons or parasite avoidance. Preying on salmon may be adaptive, as this nutritious and spatially constrained resource imposes lower risks of injury compared with hunting large mammals. We infer from capture rates and efficiencies, as well as stereotypical hunting and feeding behaviour, a history of salmon predation by wolves and, as a corollary, a broad distribution of this foraging ecology where wolves and salmon still co-exist. Article in Journal/Newspaper Canis lupus Canadian Science Publishing Canadian Journal of Zoology 81 2 349 353 |
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Open Polar |
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Canadian Science Publishing |
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crcansciencepubl |
language |
English |
description |
Spawning salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) are important resources for terrestrial ecosystems and often shape the ecological strategies of organisms with which they co-evolve. Gray wolves (Canis lupus), primarily predators of ungulates, are sympatric with salmon over large areas, but the relationship between the two remains poorly understood. We report here observations of direct and indirect evidence of salmon predation by wolves in several watersheds of coastal British Columbia and in detail report on the foraging behaviour of four wolves at one river during September and October 2001. Wolves oriented themselves upstream during detection and pursuit of salmon. The pooled mean capture rate was 21.5 salmon/h and mean efficiency (successes/attempt) was 39.4%. In most cases, wolves consumed only heads of salmon, perhaps for nutritional reasons or parasite avoidance. Preying on salmon may be adaptive, as this nutritious and spatially constrained resource imposes lower risks of injury compared with hunting large mammals. We infer from capture rates and efficiencies, as well as stereotypical hunting and feeding behaviour, a history of salmon predation by wolves and, as a corollary, a broad distribution of this foraging ecology where wolves and salmon still co-exist. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Darimont, C T Reimchen, T E Paquet, P C |
spellingShingle |
Darimont, C T Reimchen, T E Paquet, P C Foraging behaviour by gray wolves on salmon streams in coastal British Columbia |
author_facet |
Darimont, C T Reimchen, T E Paquet, P C |
author_sort |
Darimont, C T |
title |
Foraging behaviour by gray wolves on salmon streams in coastal British Columbia |
title_short |
Foraging behaviour by gray wolves on salmon streams in coastal British Columbia |
title_full |
Foraging behaviour by gray wolves on salmon streams in coastal British Columbia |
title_fullStr |
Foraging behaviour by gray wolves on salmon streams in coastal British Columbia |
title_full_unstemmed |
Foraging behaviour by gray wolves on salmon streams in coastal British Columbia |
title_sort |
foraging behaviour by gray wolves on salmon streams in coastal british columbia |
publisher |
Canadian Science Publishing |
publishDate |
2003 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z02-246 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z02-246 |
genre |
Canis lupus |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus |
op_source |
Canadian Journal of Zoology volume 81, issue 2, page 349-353 ISSN 0008-4301 1480-3283 |
op_rights |
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1139/z02-246 |
container_title |
Canadian Journal of Zoology |
container_volume |
81 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
349 |
op_container_end_page |
353 |
_version_ |
1802643143320928256 |