Wolves in Yellowstone National Park bait a bison in this National Park Service photograph.
“Many people—especially those opposed to wolves—think of the wolf as a killing machine. And in a general sense they are right.”
Across decades of writing about wolves and the science associated with their study, I’ve seldom encountered a more gripping opening to a natural history book than the one above.
It appears in the introduction to a new tome on lobos, “Wolves on the Hunt: The Behavior of Wolves Hunting Wild Prey.” And it’s authored by three experts on wolf ecology: the U.S. Geological Survey’s L. David Mech, Yellowstone biologist Douglas Smith, and Utah State University professor Daniel MacNulty.
Their provocative opening continues with this observation: “At first glance, it certainly appears that a wolf, or especially a pack of wolves, can kill just about anything it wants. In fact, many laypeople even believe that wolves kill for the sheer sport of it. The reality is different and far more interesting.”
“Wolves on the Hunt” is an in-depth analysis of how wolves kill prey to survive. And where it really opens eyes is revealing just how perilous it is to make a living as wolves do hunting animals several times larger than themselves.
When biologists find the skulls of wolves or perform necropsies on dead lobos, they are often amazed at how many cranial fractures and broken bones and teeth the wild canids have sustained. Some have endured more orthopedic misadventures than the late Evel Knievel.
“Wolves on the Hunt” could not come at a better time. Even though the year is 2015, there remains in the American West some pretty extreme notions about alleged wolf behavior that have little basis in reality.
Mech, a Minnesotan and the world’s foremost wolf authority, joins his scientific colleagues in delivering a hair-raising—and at times grim—narrative on how lobos stalk moose, deer, elk, caribou, Dall sheep, mountain goats, bison, musk oxen, arctic hares, beavers, waterfowl, even salmon.
In a nutshell, they conclude that no matter how it appears, no matter how smart Canis lupus is, it’s not easy being a wolf.
Not only are most attempts at bringing down prey unsuccessful, but such episodes, the researchers note, are fraught with the unforgiving perils of meeting sharp lethal horns and skull-crunching hoof kicks. Outwit danger today; tomorrow, you might not be so lucky.
The authors provide an abundance of field observations illustrating the highly evolved defense strategies prey use to fend off attacks. Most enlightening, based on many cited examples of how wolves target each species, is that many of the modern scientifically supported notions about wolves actually do hold up.
Yes, lobos do tend to target the sick, injured, old, weakened, young and otherwise vulnerable. Why? Because it’s safer and the odds of achieving success are improved.
On the other hand and sure to delight wolf critics, lobos sometimes do kill more prey—such as calves—than they need, but those incidents tend to be exceptions rather than the rule.
Here’s another factoid: “The odds of elk being encountered by wolves was 1.3 times higher in pine forest and 4.1 times less in grasslands than other habitats.” The authors surmise that both elderly elk and moose, feeling vulnerable in open country, retreat into wooded terrain where, ironically, they become easier marks.
Certainly, wolves are not gentle dispatchers, the authors note. They secure their meals with the dental tools nature gave them.
Yet, in truth, little killing anywhere is ever pretty or clean; livestock slaughterhouses, gut-shot elk wounded by poor marksmanship, and leg-hold trapping of animals for their fur are also not scenes for the faint of heart.
Also, wolf opponents forget: The very elusive big game species they covet are creatures sharpened and made more resilient by the predators that have pursued them.
The authors write, “And so it goes, day after day, as wolves continue their rounds, ever searching for more vulnerable prey animals—chasing, missing, trying again and again, and eventually connecting. The net result of all this sifting and selecting of prey over eons is that prey gradually get faster, smarter, and more alert.”
Indeed, compared to having slower, dumber and more docile critters dominating the public landscape, isn’t it a good thing to have public wildlife being made faster, smarter, and more alert?
No matter what lobo camp you’re in, you’ll find “Wolves on the Hunt” to be endlessly fascinating reading.
Todd Wilkinson, a a longtime journalist based in Bozeman, is author of a forthcoming book, “Grizzlies of Pilgrim Creek—An Intimate Portrait of 399, the Most Famous Bear of Greater Yellowstone” featuring 150 amazing photographs by Jackson Hole photographer Thomas D. Mangelsen.
