Winter Diet and Movements of Wolf (<i>Canis Lupus</i>) in Alampedja Nature Reserve, Estonia

Kübarsepp, Marko; Valdmann, Harri

doi:10.1080/13921657.2003.10512540

Cited by 14 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Studies in eastern and central Europe agree that wolves hunt for wild or domestic ungulates (i.e. Jędrzejewski et al, 2000;Kübarsepp and Valdmann, 2003;Sidorovich et al, 2003;Andersone and Ozolins, 2004;Gazzola et al, 2005;Nowak et al, 2005;Hovens and Tungalaktuja, 2005) depending on game abundance (Meriggi et al, 1991;Mattioli et al, 1995;Sidorovich et al, 2003). But unlike our results from German wolves, who primarily hunt on roe deer, most of the other studies confirmed the wolf hunt preferably on the largest ungulate species in high abundance, available in the region.…”

Section: Diet Compositioncontrasting

confidence: 71%

Wolf (Canis lupus) feeding habits during the first eight years of its occurrence in Germany

Wagner

Holzapfel

Kluth³

et al. 2012

Mammalian Biology

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a b s t r a c tDue to the fact that the feeding habits of large carnivores are the main contentious point when they start resettling regions they were absent from for several decades, the diet composition of the wolves in Germany was analysed from the beginning of this process. Wolves in Germany primarily feed on wild ungulates, which make up more than 96% of their diet. The dominating prey species is the roe deer (55.3%), followed by red deer (20.8%) and wild boar (17.7%). The second important food category are the leporids (2.9% of Biomass), whereas livestock makes up only 0.6% of all biomass consumed. Wolves clearly prefer hunting on juvenile to adult red deer; roe deer are not selected after their age. We found seasonal differences in the diet composition with a higher amount of wild boar in spring and winter, when a high amount of juveniles and weakened animals, respectively, are available. In the first years of the study the percentage of red deer was much higher, and the percentage of roe deer therefore was lower than the following years. The amount of wild boar in the wolf diet fluctuated most in the first three years. Diet composition remained constant during the last five years. Wolves needed less than two generations for adapting to the new conditions in the cultivated landscape of eastern Germany.

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Section: Diet Compositioncontrasting

confidence: 71%

Wolf (Canis lupus) feeding habits during the first eight years of its occurrence in Germany

Wagner

Holzapfel

Kluth³

et al. 2012

Mammalian Biology

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“…Apart from the Italian Apennines (Mattioli et al 1995;Ciucci et al 1996;Meriggi et al 1996Mattioli et al 2004), a similar result was found only in a few other locations of Eastern Europe like Estonia (Kübarsepp and Valdmann 2003), Russia (Rusakov andTimofeeva 1984 in Okarma 1995) and Belarus (Sidorovich et al 2003).…”

Section: Prey Use and Dietary Responsementioning

confidence: 60%

Prey selection and dietary response by wolves in a high-density multi-species ungulate community

Mattioli¹,

Capitani

Gazzola

et al. 2011

Eur J Wildl Res

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Studies on predation by the wolf (Canis lupus) have often reported contradictory results about the role of prey density and vulnerability on wolf prey use. We investigated dietary response and prey selection by wolves in a high-density and multi-species ungulate community, analysing scats collected over a period of 11 years in the Casentinesi Forests, Italy. The second most abundant species, wild boar (Sus scrofa), was found to be the main wolf prey, and we did not observe any dietary response of wolves to variations in the density of either primary or secondary prey species. Selection patterns were uniform throughout the study period. Wolves strongly selected for wild boar piglets, while roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) fawns and adults, red deer (Cervus elaphus) adults and fallow deer (Dama dama) adults were avoided. Wolf preference for wild boar was inversely density dependent. Within each species, juveniles were preferred to adults. Medium-sized, young individuals of both wild boar and roe deer were optimal prey, although with different selection patterns related to the different anti-predator strategies adopted by each prey species. The results of this study suggest that in productive ecosystems with high density and high renewal rates of prey, selection patterns by wolves are determined by prey vulnerability, which is connected to prey age and body size. The different patterns of wild boar versus cervids use by wolf across Europe seems to be related to their relative abundances, while the strong selection of wild boar in Italian Apennines with respect to the more frequent avoidance in central-eastern Europe is better explained by higher piglet productivity and smaller body size of adults boar in Mediterranean temperate forests.

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“…The diet of wolves in Latvia is rather diverse although they mainly preyed upon wild ungulates as in other areas where the natural prey base is rich (Bibikov, 1985;Jędrzejewska & Jędrzejewski, 1998;Kübarsepp & Valdmann, 2003;Mech 2003). Consumption of beaver is mentioned also in other studies of wolves (Pavlov, 1990;Kohira & Rexstad, 1997;Jędrzejewska & Jędrzejewski, 1998;Valdmann et al, 1998;Mech, 2003;Sidorovich et al, 2003) although the proportion of beaver in the wolf diet was seldom as high as in Latvia.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Food habits of the wolfCanis lupusin Latvia based on stomach analyses

Žunna¹,

Ozoliņš²,

Pupila³

2009

Estonian J. Ecol.

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The diet of Canis lupus in Latvia was studied from December 2001 to April 2008 based on analyses of 165 stomachs. Wild ungulates (cervids and wild boar) were the main food of the wolves. Cervids were found in 64.7% of the samples (69.7% of the biomass), wild boar in 25.9% of the samples (22.6% of the biomass), and beavers in 8.6% of the samples (6.4% of the biomass). The average mass of stomach contents was 824.1 g. Empty stomachs made up 26.7% of all stomachs. Statistically significant differences were found comparing variances of stomach content biomass between 1-2-year-old and adult animals and also in beaver remains in the diet of male and female wolves (12.9% and 3.2% of the stomach content biomass, respectively). There were no other significant differences in the diet composition, stomach content biomass, and percentage of empty stomachs among age groups, between sexes, and between eastern and western parts of Latvia. Interpretation and implications to wolf conservation policy based on the given results are suggested.

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Winter Diet and Movements of Wolf (Canis Lupus) in Alampedja Nature Reserve, Estonia

Cited by 14 publications

References 17 publications

Wolf (Canis lupus) feeding habits during the first eight years of its occurrence in Germany

Wolf (Canis lupus) feeding habits during the first eight years of its occurrence in Germany

Prey selection and dietary response by wolves in a high-density multi-species ungulate community

Food habits of the wolfCanis lupusin Latvia based on stomach analyses

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