Spatial and temporal variability in summer diet of gray wolves (Canis lupus) in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

ABSTRACT: The role of predation by large carnivores in suppressing prey populations and structuring ecosystems is highly debated, calling for a detailed understanding of carnivore diets. Wolves (Canis lupus) roam across three continents and persist throughout widely different ecosystems. Their diet is flexible and may vary spatially as well as seasonally, which requires analysis of diet on different spatial and temporal scales. Few studies have investigated the summer diet of wolves, which is more variable, consists of smaller prey, and requires different methods than studying their winter diet. To better understand the summer diet of wolves, we combined three independently collected wolf scat data sets from three distinctly different portions of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: Yellowstone

SUBMITTER: Lodberg-Holm HK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8362331 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature