Large carnivores serve a central role within scavenging ecology through the suppression and facilitation of intraguild competitors.
The wolf, as an apex obligate predator, can provide a reliable supply of carrion, that can serve as an important resource to facultative scavengers. However, while facultative behavior helps to mitigate the effects of limited prey for scavengers, it can also increase exposure to competition and intraguild predation.
Across three seasons, we explored the use of fresh wolf-killed prey by sympatric wolves and wolverines. Our findings reveal that wolves facilitate wolverines by providing scavenging opportunities, where biomass available from kills is influenced by wolves’ prey preference and group size.
Wolverines, like wolves, utilized kills heavily during winter, when increased access to food is important to wolverine reproductive rates. Wolverines exhibited caching behavior, possibly reducing exposure to interspecific competition, while serving an important role in the depletion of carrion biomass.
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Nordli, K., Walton, Z., Eriksen, A., Rogstad, M., Zimmermann, B., Wikenros, C., Aronsson, M. & Wabakken, P. (2024). Carcass provisioning and intra-guild risk avoidance between two sympatric large carnivores. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 78(2), 1-13.