Prey type, social context, and proximity to roads affect feeding activity of wolves living in human-modified landscapes – Journal of Zoology Blog

Gallo, O., Ursitti, J. and Ciucci, P. (2025). Winter use of kill and scavenging sites by wolves in human-modified landscapes. Journal of Zoology, vol. 326, pp. 65-76. https://doi.org/10.1111/jzo.70001

By locating feeding sites (i.e., sites where wolves kill their prey or scavenge a prey carcass) through GPS telemetry we documented feeding behaviour of wolves living in a historical stronghold in central Italy, where they have always coexisted with humans. Specifically, we explored wolves’ spatiotemporal use of both kill and scavenging sites in the Abruzzo Lazio and Molise National Park, by fitting GPS collars to 8 wolves (pack members, breeding pairs, and solitary wolves) and reconstructed their feeding activity during winter, when snow allowed us to more accurately deduce the wolves’ feeding behaviour. We described feeding activity both in terms of handling time (i.e., the amount of time a predator spends at a feeding site) and recurrence of use (i.e., the number of successive visits to a site), and investigated whether anthropogenic landscape features affected wolves’ feeding activity. From December through March 2008-2011, we field-inspected 364 clusters of GPS locations, revealing predation or scavenging by the wolves in 18.1% of the cases.

Wolves used feeding sites on average for 2.4 days, up to a maximum of 10 days, largely though not exclusively during the night, and revisited used sites on average 3 times, with pack members staying closer to the sites (on average 1.8 km) than breeding pairs and solitary floaters. Prey handling time and recurrence of use, however, were affected by both prey type (wild vs. domestic) and wolf social context (i.e., solitary floaters, newly established breeding pairs, or pack members). Pack members (≥ 3 wolves) spent relatively more time at feeding sites, especially at those involving large prey, and visited them more frequently compared to the other categories. While the time spent at feeding sites and their recurrence of use increased at further distances to settlements, the time spent at feeding sites increased at closer proximity to roads, exhibiting higher nocturnality. Contrarily, distance to settlements did not affect circadian patterns of feeding site use, suggesting wolves perceive differently the higher risk associated with settlements compared to the more predictable risk associated with roads, where they are attracted by road kills.

While unveiling valuable details of wolf feeding behaviour, these findings provide useful information to enhance the ecological role and function of wolves in the human-dominated landscapes of Europe.

Paolo Ciucci