Scavenging patterns of an inbred wolf population in a landscape with a pulse of human‐provided carrion
Scavenging is an important part of food acquisition for many carnivore species that switch between scavenging and predation. In landscapes with anthropogenic impact, humans provide food that scavenging species can utilize. We quantified the magnitude of killing versus scavenging by gray wolves (Cani...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:10319521 2023-07-30T03:55:46+02:00 Scavenging patterns of an inbred wolf population in a landscape with a pulse of human‐provided carrion Wikenros, Camilla Di Bernardi, Cecilia Zimmermann, Barbara Åkesson, Mikael Demski, Maike Flagstad, Øystein Mattisson, Jenny Tallian, Aimee Wabakken, Petter Sand, Håkan 2023-07-04 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10319521/ https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10236 en eng John Wiley and Sons Inc. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10319521/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10236 © 2023 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Ecol Evol Research Articles Text 2023 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10236 2023-07-09T01:04:29Z Scavenging is an important part of food acquisition for many carnivore species that switch between scavenging and predation. In landscapes with anthropogenic impact, humans provide food that scavenging species can utilize. We quantified the magnitude of killing versus scavenging by gray wolves (Canis lupus) in Scandinavia where humans impact the ecosystem through hunter harvest, land use practices, and infrastructure. We investigated the cause of death of different animals utilized by wolves, and examined how the proportion of their consumption time spent scavenging was influenced by season, wolf social affiliation, level of inbreeding, density of moose (Alces alces) as their main prey, density of brown bear (Ursus arctos) as an intraguild competitor, and human density. We used data from 39 GPS‐collared wolves covering 3198 study days (2001–2019), including 14,205 feeding locations within space–time clusters, and 1362 carcasses utilized by wolves. Most carcasses were wolf‐killed (80.5%) while a small part had died from other natural causes (1.9%). The remaining had either anthropogenic mortality causes (4.7%), or the cause of death was unknown (12.9%). Time spent scavenging was higher during winter than during summer and autumn. Solitary wolves spent more time scavenging than pack‐living individuals, likely because individual hunting success is lower than pack success. Scavenging time increased with the mean inbreeding coefficient of the adult wolves, possibly indicating that more inbred individuals resort to scavenging, which requires less body strength. There was weak evidence for competition between wolves and brown bears as well as a positive relationship between human density and time spent scavenging. This study shows how both intrinsic and extrinsic factors drive wolf scavenging behavior, and that despite a high level of inbreeding and access to carrion of anthropogenic origin, wolves mainly utilized their own kills. Text Alces alces Canis lupus Ursus arctos PubMed Central (PMC) Ecology and Evolution 13 7 |
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Research Articles |
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Research Articles Wikenros, Camilla Di Bernardi, Cecilia Zimmermann, Barbara Åkesson, Mikael Demski, Maike Flagstad, Øystein Mattisson, Jenny Tallian, Aimee Wabakken, Petter Sand, Håkan Scavenging patterns of an inbred wolf population in a landscape with a pulse of human‐provided carrion |
topic_facet |
Research Articles |
description |
Scavenging is an important part of food acquisition for many carnivore species that switch between scavenging and predation. In landscapes with anthropogenic impact, humans provide food that scavenging species can utilize. We quantified the magnitude of killing versus scavenging by gray wolves (Canis lupus) in Scandinavia where humans impact the ecosystem through hunter harvest, land use practices, and infrastructure. We investigated the cause of death of different animals utilized by wolves, and examined how the proportion of their consumption time spent scavenging was influenced by season, wolf social affiliation, level of inbreeding, density of moose (Alces alces) as their main prey, density of brown bear (Ursus arctos) as an intraguild competitor, and human density. We used data from 39 GPS‐collared wolves covering 3198 study days (2001–2019), including 14,205 feeding locations within space–time clusters, and 1362 carcasses utilized by wolves. Most carcasses were wolf‐killed (80.5%) while a small part had died from other natural causes (1.9%). The remaining had either anthropogenic mortality causes (4.7%), or the cause of death was unknown (12.9%). Time spent scavenging was higher during winter than during summer and autumn. Solitary wolves spent more time scavenging than pack‐living individuals, likely because individual hunting success is lower than pack success. Scavenging time increased with the mean inbreeding coefficient of the adult wolves, possibly indicating that more inbred individuals resort to scavenging, which requires less body strength. There was weak evidence for competition between wolves and brown bears as well as a positive relationship between human density and time spent scavenging. This study shows how both intrinsic and extrinsic factors drive wolf scavenging behavior, and that despite a high level of inbreeding and access to carrion of anthropogenic origin, wolves mainly utilized their own kills. |
format |
Text |
author |
Wikenros, Camilla Di Bernardi, Cecilia Zimmermann, Barbara Åkesson, Mikael Demski, Maike Flagstad, Øystein Mattisson, Jenny Tallian, Aimee Wabakken, Petter Sand, Håkan |
author_facet |
Wikenros, Camilla Di Bernardi, Cecilia Zimmermann, Barbara Åkesson, Mikael Demski, Maike Flagstad, Øystein Mattisson, Jenny Tallian, Aimee Wabakken, Petter Sand, Håkan |
author_sort |
Wikenros, Camilla |
title |
Scavenging patterns of an inbred wolf population in a landscape with a pulse of human‐provided carrion |
title_short |
Scavenging patterns of an inbred wolf population in a landscape with a pulse of human‐provided carrion |
title_full |
Scavenging patterns of an inbred wolf population in a landscape with a pulse of human‐provided carrion |
title_fullStr |
Scavenging patterns of an inbred wolf population in a landscape with a pulse of human‐provided carrion |
title_full_unstemmed |
Scavenging patterns of an inbred wolf population in a landscape with a pulse of human‐provided carrion |
title_sort |
scavenging patterns of an inbred wolf population in a landscape with a pulse of human‐provided carrion |
publisher |
John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10319521/ https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10236 |
genre |
Alces alces Canis lupus Ursus arctos |
genre_facet |
Alces alces Canis lupus Ursus arctos |
op_source |
Ecol Evol |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10319521/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10236 |
op_rights |
© 2023 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10236 |
container_title |
Ecology and Evolution |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
7 |
_version_ |
1772809569428307968 |