Meeting Abstract
Animal movement is dependent upon metabolic energy, the fundamental currency of ecology. Yet quantifying the activity patterns and energy demands of wide ranging keystone predators such as gray wolves (Canis lupus) in the wild has remained exceedingly difficult, resulting in a poor understanding of how physiological capabilities and environmental factors affect animal movement and foraging success. We deployed accelerometer-GPS collars on wolves in Denali National Park to gain unprecedented detail into travel patterns, foraging, and daily energetic costs of these carnivores. In 2015, 20 wolves across DENA’s northern expanse were monitored continuously in distinct lowland spruce (Region 1), upland (Region 2), and open foothill (Region 3) habitats with known differences in relative prey availability and type including moose, caribou, Dall sheep, and salmon. Wolves occupying habitat that supported salmon but few large ungulates (Region 1) had the lowest within-pack wolf densities (0.3 wolves/1000 km2) and the smallest average pack size (2.2 wolves/pack in 4 packs) relative to regions with more abundant ungulate prey and topographic complexity (Region 2: 0.5 wolves/1000 km2 and 5.6 wolves/pack in 6 packs; Region 3: 0.8 wolves/1000 km2 and 5.3 wolves/pack in 2 packs). Daily distance traveled for wolves in Region 2 (14 km/day) was significantly less than for wolves in Regions 1 and 3 (19 and 20 km/day, respectively), corresponding to reduced foraging costs for wolves defending territories with more ungulate prey. Identifying such patterns in wolves represents a critical step towards evaluating how natural features and heterogeneous prey distribution influence space use and energy allocation, with subsequent conservation implications in Alaska and beyond.
