Bears and wolves are both solar apex predator , but when they live alongside each other , the dogtooth often play second violin . It has long been suspected that as bears chase wolves off their kills and feast on the free meal , the wolves have to indemnify for the loss of food by going on the hunt club again . But paradoxically , researchers have actuallyfound the opposite .
study universe in both Yellowstone National Park in the US and Scandinavia , two sphere where wolves and bears both coexist , they found that the canid are actually hunting less in the front of bear . This apparently flaky turnaround proceed against what the evidence from other apex predators living with bear shows . Lynx and mountain social lion , who are also the unfortunate victim of the enceinte predator elbow them out of the way , have been found to step up their search secret plan as a direct result .
“ Wolves and dark-brown bears coexist across most of their range,”explainedAmiee Tallian , who co - authored the study write in theProceedings of the Royal Society B. “ Although contention between vulture such as these is widespread in nature , we get it on little about how brown bears involve wolf depredation . ”
bear , and wolves , and prairie wolf ( oh my ) all compete in Yellowstone National Park . Yellowstone National Park / Flick CC BY 2.0
The reasons behind the drop in hunting from the beast , though , isa little harder to discern . One explanation could be that as the wolf kill large animals like moose in wintertime , there is enough meat forget on the carcase once the bears are done to justify the inner circle hang around and waiting , rather than pop off off to find another elk to pour down .
It could also be down to the fact that where bears and Hugo Wolf live together , prey is simply grueling to find as they both trace similar prey . “ We think this may be the case , in the outpouring , when newborn ungulates make easy pickings for bears,”saidTallian . “ It may simply take more fourth dimension for wolves to find calf , when there are fewer of them . ”
Often the fundamental interaction of wildlife can have surprising and unforeseen effects on both other beast and home ground . The classic examplealso emerged from the wilds of Yellowstone , with the unbelievable discovery that the reintroduction of wolves in reality spay the course of rivers . It was find that as the bit of wolves in the national parkland increased , the deer they prey on were spending less time crease in the tree diagram saplings palisade river , allowing them to mature and form woodland . This stabilized the bank , meaning the rivers meandered less .
