Posted on behalf of Amber Dance

Wolves, powerful pack hunters who take down elk, moose, and deer, would rather feast on salmon if given the option.

Scientists knew wolves enjoyed the occasional fillet (Wildlife News 2004), but assumed they turned to salmon only when their usual prey — big, hoofed mammals — were scarce. But a study in Monday’s BMC Ecology suggests that when the salmon are running, wolves prefer finned food.

Chris Darimont and colleagues at the University of Victoria and the Raincoast Conservation Foundation collected more than 2,000 wolf scat samples from eight British Columbia packs over four years. “We had a literal mountain of wolf shit,” Darimont says. They discovered that in autumn, when spawning salmon migrate upriver, the amount of deer remains decreased, whereas salmon was found in 40-70% of samples.

The washed scat samples are now archived in Darimont’s mother’s basement, he says, in paper lunch sacks. “In Mum’s defense, and in my defense, we autoclave it so all the parasites are rendered inviable,” he notes.

Salmon are an appealing snack, the authors write, because they’re a safe catch. Wolves are often injured, or even killed, by their usual prey as it uses hooves and horns to fight for its life. Fish, on the other hand, can’t do much more than wriggle once they’re caught.

The other advantage of a salmon dinner is the nutrients — a bit more protein than deer, and lots of those healthy omega-3 fatty acids. For pups, in particular, the nutrients in salmon allow these smallest members of the pack to bulk up before winter.

The researchers found that wolves turned to salmon no matter how many deer were around, suggesting fish are a first-choice option, not a secondary food source when deer numbers are low. The results also show one way in which salmon transfer biomass from the sea to land; the team refers to the wolf as “Canada’s newest marine mammal” (Canada.com).

Image: Chris Darimont