Effect of sociality and season on gray wolf (Canis lupus) foraging behavior: implications for estimating summer kill rate.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Understanding how kill rates vary among seasons is required to understand predation by vertebrate species living in temperate climates. Unfortunately, kill rates are only rarely estimated during summer.

Methodology/principal findings

For several wolf packs in Yellowstone National Park, we used pairs of collared wolves living in the same pack and the double-count method to estimate the probability of attendance (PA) for an individual wolf at a carcass. PA quantifies an important aspect of social foraging behavior (i.e., the cohesiveness of foraging). We used PA to estimate summer kill rates for packs containing GPS-collared wolves between 2004 and 2009. Estimated rates of daily prey acquisition (edible biomass per wolf) decreased from 8.4±0.9 kg (mean ± SE) in May

SUBMITTER: Metz MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3046980 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature