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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
An Historical Overview And Update Of Wolf-Moose Interactions In Northeastern Minnesota, L. David Mech, John Fieberg, Shannon M. Barber-Meyer
An Historical Overview And Update Of Wolf-Moose Interactions In Northeastern Minnesota, L. David Mech, John Fieberg, Shannon M. Barber-Meyer
USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Wolf (Canis lupus) and moose (Alces americanus) populations in northeastern Minnesota, USA, have fluctuated for decades and, based on helicopter counts, moose numbers declined to a new low from 2006 to about 2012. Other steep declines were found in 1991 and 1998 during periods when moose counts were done with fixed-wing aircraft; these declines also appeared to be real. Winter wolf numbers, monitored in part of the moose range, had been increasing since about 2002 to the highest population in decades in 2009. However, from 2009 to 2016, wolves decreased precipitously, and the moose- population decline leveled …
Parsing Demographic Effects Of Canine Parvovirus On A Minnesota Wolf Population, L. David Mech, Sagar M. Goyal
Parsing Demographic Effects Of Canine Parvovirus On A Minnesota Wolf Population, L. David Mech, Sagar M. Goyal
USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
We examined 35 years of relationships among wolf (Canis lupus) pup survival, population change and canine parvovirus (CPV) seroprevalence in northeastern Minnesota to determine when CPV exerted its strongest effects. Using correlation analysis of data from five periods of 7-years each from 1973 through 2007, we learned that the strongest effect of CPV on pup survival (r = -0.73) and on wolf population change (r = -0.92) was during 1987 to 1993. After that, little effect was documented despite a mean CPV seroprevalence from 1994 of 2007 of 70.8% compared with 52.6% during 1987 to 1993. We …
Predatory Senescence In Ageing Wolves, Daniel R. Macnulty, Douglas W. Smith, John A. Vucetich, L. David Mech, Craig Packer
Predatory Senescence In Ageing Wolves, Daniel R. Macnulty, Douglas W. Smith, John A. Vucetich, L. David Mech, Craig Packer
USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
It is well established that ageing handicaps the ability of prey to escape predators, yet surprisingly little is known about how ageing affects the ability of predators to catch prey. Research into long-lived predators has assumed that adults have uniform impacts on prey regardless of age. Here we use longitudinal data from repeated observations of individually-known wolves (Canis lupus) hunting elk (Cervus elaphus) in Yellowstone National Park to demonstrate that adult predatory performance declines with age and that an increasing ratio of senescent individuals in the wolf population depresses the rate of prey offtake. Because this ratio fluctuates independently of …