Kill rates and predation rates of wolves on beavers

Gable, Thomas D.; Windels, Steve K.

doi:10.1002/jwmg.21387

Cited by 30 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(79 reference statements)

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“…Gable and Windels () were the first to estimate kill rates and predation rates of beavers by wolves from confirmed predation events. They estimated that a GPS‐collared breeding male wolf killed 22 beavers during a single ice‐free season (kill rate = 0.095 beavers per day), which was 10% of the estimated beaver population in the wolf's 85 km 2 home range.…”

Section: Impact Of Wolf Predation On Beaver Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using that wolf's kill rate, they estimated that the pack (four adults, two pups) removed 38–42% of the beaver population (density = 0.47 lodges km −2 ) in the pack's home range. Despite this high predation rate, the beaver population still increased by 43% the following year, leading the authors to conclude that ‘the effect of wolf predation on a dense beaver population in a multi‐prey system is minimal and that changes in beaver population size are likely more influenced by other factors’ such as food availability or water levels (Gable & Windels ).…”

Section: Impact Of Wolf Predation On Beaver Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Prior to Gable and Windels (), all attempts to understand the effect of wolf predation on beaver populations quantitatively were based on indirect methods. The most common method has been to estimate how many beavers (and what proportion of the beaver population) wolves consumed during a given period by using estimates of the wolf population in an area, the percentage of wolf diet (estimated via scat analysis) that was beaver, and wolf food requirements (see Romanski ).…”

Section: Impact Of Wolf Predation On Beaver Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They concluded that beaver recruitment alone was likely greater than the proportion of the beaver population consumed annually by wolves. However, the wolf diet and beaver population estimates used to estimate the effect of wolf predation on beavers in these studies are questionable, and should be taken cautiously (Gable & Windels ).…”

Section: Impact Of Wolf Predation On Beaver Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The forgotten prey of an iconic predator: a review of interactions between grey wolvesCanis lupusand beaversCastorspp.

Gable

Windels²,

Romanski³

et al. 2018

Mammal Review

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1.Predator-prey relationships can have wide-ranging ecological and landscapelevel effects. Knowledge of these relationships is therefore crucial to understanding how these systems function and how changes in predator-prey communities affect these systems. Grey wolves Canis lupus can be significant predators of beavers Castor spp., and conversely, beavers can be important prey for wolves, but wolf-beaver dynamics in North America, Europe, and Asia are poorly understood. 2. Our objectives were to synthesise current knowledge regarding wolf-beaver interactions and to identify knowledge gaps that should be targeted for study to increase our understanding of wolf-beaver dynamics. 3. During the ice-free season, beavers are vulnerable to predation and can be the primary or secondary prey of wolves, but the factors that affect beaver consumption by wolves are complex and are likely dependent on biological and environmental factors. 4. High beaver abundance can increase wolf pup survival, and beavers may subsidise wolves during periods of reduced ungulate abundance. Thus, many researchers have suggested that beaver densities adversely affect ungulate populations through apparent competition, though this remains largely untested. 5. The effects of wolf predation on beaver population dynamics are poorly understood, as most assessments are lacking in quantitative rigor and are instead based on indirect methods (e.g. scat analysis), anecdotal evidence, or speculation. To understand the effect of predation on beaver populations fully, better estimates (e.g. from documented predation events) of wolf predation on beavers are necessary. 6. Given the complexities of wolf-ungulate-beaver systems, fully understanding wolf-beaver dynamics will be challenging and is likely to require long-term, intensive research of wolf, ungulate, and beaver population parameters.Understanding this dynamic has implications, not only for the conservation and management of wolves and beavers, but also for ungulate populations, which are affected by the numerical and functional responses of wolves in these same systems. Mammal Review ISSN 0305-1838 bs_bs_banner Mammal Review 48 (2018) 123-138

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Section: Impact Of Wolf Predation On Beaver Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Impact Of Wolf Predation On Beaver Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Impact Of Wolf Predation On Beaver Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Impact Of Wolf Predation On Beaver Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The forgotten prey of an iconic predator: a review of interactions between grey wolvesCanis lupusand beaversCastorspp.

Gable

Windels²,

Romanski³

et al. 2018

Mammal Review

Self Cite

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“…Our understanding of wolf predation during this period is relatively poor (Palacios and Mech , Metz et al. , Gable and Windels ) as most wolf predation studies have occurred during winter when conditions are more conducive to finding wolf‐killed prey and observing wolf hunting behavior (Mech et al. ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do wolves ambush beavers? Video evidence for higher‐order hunting strategies

Gable

Stanger²,

Windels³

et al. 2018

Ecosphere

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Abstract. Over the past decade, there has been much debating about whether wolves possess high-order cognitive abilities that facilitate deliberate or cooperative hunting strategies such as ambush to capture prey. Beavers can be important alternate or primary prey for wolves in North America and Europe, but no observations of wolves hunting and killing beavers exist. We describe the first documented observation of a gray wolf killing a beaver, an observation that has provided valuable insight into how beavers defend themselves when attacked by wolves, how wolves hunt beavers, and the predatory strategies and cognitive abilities of wolves. Our observation confirms that wolves do hunt and kill beavers by surprising and ambushing them, which demonstrates that wolves have a unique ability to switch between cursorial and ambush hunting strategies depending on the prey. We suggest that wolves learn how to hunt beavers using high-order mental abilities combined with information learned from prior interactions with beavers.

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A field test of R package GPSeqClus: For establishing animal location clusters

Cluff¹,

Mech

2023

Ecol Sol and Evidence

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The ability to track animals with Global Positioning System (GPS) collars opened an enormous potential for studying animal movements and behaviour in their natural environment. One such endeavour is to identify clusters of GPS locations as a way to estimate predator kill rate. Clapp et al. (2021) developed an R package (GPSeqClus) to assess a location dataset based on user‐defined parameters to identify clusters and their characteristics. These characteristics can then help to distinguish resting‐site clusters from kill sites of their large (>50 kg) prey. We identified location clusters of an adult male wolf Canis lupus on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada in July 2009 and tracked him until he died in April 2010. Identifying location clusters was challenging because the collar only obtained two GPS locations per day (12 h apart). In July 2010, we searched 30 of 52 location‐clusters we identified as kill/scavenge sites and found 17 of them as such, given they had muskox Ovibos moschatus or caribou Rangifer tarandus pearyi remains nearby. We also documented five wolf rendezvous sites, two den sites, and the wolf's death site to total 60 location‐clusters in all. We used a two‐step process in testing the R Package GPSeqClus (hereafter GPSeqClus): (1) compare the number of clusters our method discerned with the number identified by the new algorithm, and (2) compare the number of biologically significant clusters (e.g. den sites, kill/feeding sites) we found with the number the new algorithm located. We made these tests with GPSeqClus by varying the search radius, number of days at a site, and minimum number of locations required for a cluster. GPSeqClus compared well to our technique, with the best sub‐algorithm among the 25 we tested only missing three of our identified clusters and yielding six additional clusters. GPSeqClus identified 16 of the 17 confirmed sites of remains, all wolf home sites, and the wolf's carcass site. Identifying clusters using a 500‐m search radius, a 1.5‐day window, and a minimum of two GPS locations per cluster was suitable for a coarse GPS acquisition rate of two locations per day when prey are large, such as muskox or caribou. Given that GPSeqClus performed well with our coarse location dataset, we expect it will also perform even better with a collar acquiring more than two locations per day. Having a field‐tested utility such as GPSeqClus will enhance carnivore predation studies elsewhere.

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Kill rates and predation rates of wolves on beavers

Cited by 30 publications

References 43 publications

The forgotten prey of an iconic predator: a review of interactions between grey wolvesCanis lupusand beaversCastorspp.

The forgotten prey of an iconic predator: a review of interactions between grey wolvesCanis lupusand beaversCastorspp.

Do wolves ambush beavers? Video evidence for higher‐order hunting strategies

A field test of R package GPSeqClus: For establishing animal location clusters

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