Dynamic Risk From Mexican Wolves and Mountain Lions Influences Elk Foraging Behavior.

ABSTRACT: Foraging time is a major component of ungulate activity budgets but can be limited by anti-predator behaviors (e.g., vigilance). Multitasking can reduce the nutritional costs of vigilance under heightened predation risk, but this may depend on the response of prey to risk from multiple predators across a complex spatiotemporal landscape. Mexican gray wolves (Canis lupus baileyi) and mountain lions (Puma concolor) are primary predators for elk (Cervus canadensis) in the Mexican wolf experimental population area in east-central Arizona and west-central New Mexico. We observed elk foraging across varying levels of wolf risk throughout all seasons and diel periods to quantify proportions of foraging, intense vigilance, and multitasking at the individual and herd levels. We

SUBMITTER: Olson JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12712231 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature