From venison to beef: seasonal changes in wolf diet composition in a livestock grazing landscape

摘要: Wild ungulates are the primary prey for wolves in North America, but livestock predation is a concern areas where and overlap. Using clusters of global positioning system telemetry relocations scat analysis, we investigated wolf diets year-round southwestern Alberta, seasonal cattle grazing predominant land use wolf–cattle conflicts have increased recent years. Both methods indicated shift diets, from wild during non-grazing season to season. Wolves scavenged more frequently than season; 85% all scavenging events occurred at ranchers' boneyards (where carcasses dumped), fed on dead livestock. Cattle represent higher proportion previously thought; recommend sanitary disposal prevent becoming accustomed feeding livestock, development management plans aimed reducing if humans coexist landscapes that dominated by ranching.