Spatiotemporal plasticity of prey selection in the wolf

Abstract

Under an optimal foraging scenario, prey selection would be expected to occur when food resources are abundant. A positive frequency-dependent prey selection would elicit prey switching when the abundance of main food resources decreases, potentially favouring community resilience to the effects of intensive, selective predation on a single prey. We assessed whether a positive frequency-dependent prey selection by the wolf Canis lupus occurred in two areas hosting abundant populations of wild ungulates, one in northern (Słowiński National Park, Poland) and the other one in southern (Maremma Regional Park, Italy) Europe, throughout a cold semester. In Słowiński, ungulate community was dominated by red deer Cervus elaphus (57% availability) over wild boar Sus scrofa (35%) and roe deer Capreolus capreolus (8%); wild boar and fallow deer Dama dama (43–37%) were more abundant than roe deer (20%) in Maremma. In both areas, wolf diet was dominated by wild ungulates, with a major use of red deer in Słowiński and wild boar in Maremma. Prey selection occurred in both areas, and it was addressed towards the most abundant prey in Słowiński, that is, the red deer, but only towards the wild boar in Maremma, where the fallow deer was used according to availability. In Slowinski, high red deer density may have driven wolf prey selection, while the shifting of activity rhythms of the fallow deer in the Maremma as antipredator response to wolf presence may have reduced predation. Despite its comparable densities between the two areas, the wild boar was selected in Maremma and under-used in Słowiński. Results provide partial support to positive frequency-dependent selection, emphasising the spatiotemporal plasticity of wolf–prey relationships. The relative role of prey density and other factors (e.g., antipredator behavioural responses) should be assessed at longer temporal scales.