Diet of wolves Canis lupus recolonizing Switzerland: A preliminary approach

Abstract

Diet of wolves Canis lupus recolonizing Switzerland: a preliminary approach. - Dietary analyses were conducted using scat analysis and incidental carcass observations to investigate the diet of wolves returning to Switzerland. Red deer was the most frequent item eaten by wolves with 32.1% and 57.1% of frequency of occurrence in the scats and kills, respectively. Domestic ungulates accounted for 27.1% of the remains found in the scats. Kills were more frequent at lower altitude and at flatter locations than in randomly selected sites. Moreover, the slope of the latter was steeper than that of locations with kills. Wolf predation also occurred at closer distance to the nearest house and to the nearest roads than expected. Finally, gullies and ravines seemed to be a recurrent habitat feature for wolf kills.