The presence of grizzlies affects how long wolves will stay at the scene of their kills, new research has shown.
The behavior of wolves towards their kills in Yellowstone National Park changes when bears are around, a new study has shown. The research was published in the journal Ecological Monographs, and compared wolf behavior in the presence of brown bears in both Yellowstone and in Scandinavia. The study found that when brown bears, also known as grizzly bears, attend the scene of wolf kills, they caused varying behavior in the animals and triggered their natural competitive mechanisms. The research illuminated how top predators like wolves and bears don’t ignore the presence of other apex hunters when around their kills but in fact are directly influenced by each other. In Yellowstone, bears tend to be antagonistic towards wolves and frequently target fresh wolf kills for food. The study showed that wolves act differently when the bears show up, depending on the time of year and how big the kill happened to be.
