Data from: Influence of group size on the success of wolves hunting bison
An intriguing aspect of social foraging behaviour is that large groups are often no better at capturing prey than are small groups, a pattern that has been attributed to diminished cooperation (i.e., free riding) in large groups. Although this suggests the formation of large groups is unrelated to p...
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ftzenodo:oai:zenodo.org:5016764 2023-05-15T15:49:55+02:00 Data from: Influence of group size on the success of wolves hunting bison MacNulty, Daniel R. Tallian, Aimee Stahler, Daniel R. Smith, Douglas W. 2015-10-22 https://zenodo.org/record/5016764 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.nf043 unknown doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0112884 https://zenodo.org/communities/dryad https://zenodo.org/record/5016764 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.nf043 oai:zenodo.org:5016764 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode Bison bison wolf social foraging Cervus elaphus carnivore Group hunting Bison Holocene Canis lupus info:eu-repo/semantics/other dataset 2015 ftzenodo https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.nf04310.1371/journal.pone.0112884 2023-03-10T13:30:54Z An intriguing aspect of social foraging behaviour is that large groups are often no better at capturing prey than are small groups, a pattern that has been attributed to diminished cooperation (i.e., free riding) in large groups. Although this suggests the formation of large groups is unrelated to prey capture, little is known about cooperation in large groups that hunt hard-to-catch prey. Here, we used direct observations of Yellowstone wolves (Canis lupus) hunting their most formidable prey, bison (Bison bison), to test the hypothesis that large groups are more cooperative when hunting difficult prey. We quantified the relationship between capture success and wolf group size, and compared it to previously reported results for Yellowstone wolves hunting elk (Cervus elaphus), a prey that was, on average, 3 times easier to capture than bison. Whereas improvement in elk capture success levelled off at 2–6 wolves, bison capture success levelled off at 9–13 wolves with evidence that it continued to increase beyond 13 wolves. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that hunters in large groups are more cooperative when hunting more formidable prey. Improved ability to capture formidable prey could therefore promote the formation and maintenance of large predator groups, particularly among predators that specialize on such prey. Data_MacNultyetalPLOSONECounts of the number of times wolves in different-sized hunting groups attempted and succeeded to attack and capture bison in Yellowstone National Park, 1996-2013. These are the frequency data presented in Figure 2 of the article. Dataset Canis lupus Bison bison bison Zenodo |
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ftzenodo |
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unknown |
topic |
Bison bison wolf social foraging Cervus elaphus carnivore Group hunting Bison Holocene Canis lupus |
spellingShingle |
Bison bison wolf social foraging Cervus elaphus carnivore Group hunting Bison Holocene Canis lupus MacNulty, Daniel R. Tallian, Aimee Stahler, Daniel R. Smith, Douglas W. Data from: Influence of group size on the success of wolves hunting bison |
topic_facet |
Bison bison wolf social foraging Cervus elaphus carnivore Group hunting Bison Holocene Canis lupus |
description |
An intriguing aspect of social foraging behaviour is that large groups are often no better at capturing prey than are small groups, a pattern that has been attributed to diminished cooperation (i.e., free riding) in large groups. Although this suggests the formation of large groups is unrelated to prey capture, little is known about cooperation in large groups that hunt hard-to-catch prey. Here, we used direct observations of Yellowstone wolves (Canis lupus) hunting their most formidable prey, bison (Bison bison), to test the hypothesis that large groups are more cooperative when hunting difficult prey. We quantified the relationship between capture success and wolf group size, and compared it to previously reported results for Yellowstone wolves hunting elk (Cervus elaphus), a prey that was, on average, 3 times easier to capture than bison. Whereas improvement in elk capture success levelled off at 2–6 wolves, bison capture success levelled off at 9–13 wolves with evidence that it continued to increase beyond 13 wolves. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that hunters in large groups are more cooperative when hunting more formidable prey. Improved ability to capture formidable prey could therefore promote the formation and maintenance of large predator groups, particularly among predators that specialize on such prey. Data_MacNultyetalPLOSONECounts of the number of times wolves in different-sized hunting groups attempted and succeeded to attack and capture bison in Yellowstone National Park, 1996-2013. These are the frequency data presented in Figure 2 of the article. |
format |
Dataset |
author |
MacNulty, Daniel R. Tallian, Aimee Stahler, Daniel R. Smith, Douglas W. |
author_facet |
MacNulty, Daniel R. Tallian, Aimee Stahler, Daniel R. Smith, Douglas W. |
author_sort |
MacNulty, Daniel R. |
title |
Data from: Influence of group size on the success of wolves hunting bison |
title_short |
Data from: Influence of group size on the success of wolves hunting bison |
title_full |
Data from: Influence of group size on the success of wolves hunting bison |
title_fullStr |
Data from: Influence of group size on the success of wolves hunting bison |
title_full_unstemmed |
Data from: Influence of group size on the success of wolves hunting bison |
title_sort |
data from: influence of group size on the success of wolves hunting bison |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://zenodo.org/record/5016764 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.nf043 |
genre |
Canis lupus Bison bison bison |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus Bison bison bison |
op_relation |
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0112884 https://zenodo.org/communities/dryad https://zenodo.org/record/5016764 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.nf043 oai:zenodo.org:5016764 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.nf04310.1371/journal.pone.0112884 |
_version_ |
1766384928922009600 |