You will find on many web sites the claim that wolves eat between 15 and 20 deer a year but I think that’s wrong. Why? When wolves kill a deer they gorge on the meat until full a wolf will eat about 20 pounds of meat and then go off and lie down. This accounts for a deer being cleaned to the bones by a pack. There are 12 months in a year, are we to believe that a wolf will only eat on a deer once every two weeks? Don’t think so!
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/ne…
Quote’ “What happens is that wolves can only eat about 20 pounds of meat before they need to lie down and let the food digest..”
Wolves will eat all sorts of game, from rodents, birds and eggs to big game. But they tend to eat what is abundant in their area. So if there are lots of deer they eat lots of deer along with other things.
Another thing the wolf “experts” leave out is that wolves also kill for fun;
http://muledeerfanatic.com/2008/02/26/tw…
I have seen wolves kill for fun, they enjoy it just like ferial dogs like to kill for fun.
So if we consider that after eating that wolf will be hungry again in 24 to 48 hours the number of deer killed goes way up. I would say in an area with abundant deer population that a wolf will be involved with a pack kill *at least* once or twice a week. There are 52 weeks in a year so 52 deer killed by a pack of wolves a year would be a conservative number.
I live in South East Alaska where our wolves eat salmon also. Here again they waste meat as all they eat of that salmon is its head;
http://www.wildlifenews.alaska.gov/index…
There is no way to get an accurate number of animals they kill for fun or partially eat because other scavengers eat the carcass in short order.
But I would say they kill at least 2 big game animals a week for fun that 104 big game animals dead a year that they don’t eat. So now we have 156 dead big game killed by a pack of wolves a year at the minimum. Therefore just 10 packs of wolves can kill over 1560 big game animal a year, but I think its more like over 2000.
Here is another study that came up with number of deer needed to sustain a wolf;
http://www.wc.adfg.state.ak.us/index.cfm…
Quote; “We assumed a high average finite rate of increase for deer (1.3), a mean predation rate of 26 deer per wolf per year”….” Our results suggest that 170 to 180 deer per wolf are needed for a 95-percent probability of equilibrium….”
As for wolves not over eating their food source I can take you right now to the upper Chilkat Valley near Haines Alaska and you will not find a single deer, but lots of wolf packs. Go just 60 miles south near Icy straight and there are deer all over the place and few wolves at all. This is because bodies of sea water prevent the wolves from getting there so the deer flourish. By the way that area of upper Chilkat has very few grouse, snow shoe rabbits and other small game, the wolves are cleaning it out! And local Fish and game are asking local trappers and hunters to reduce the wolf population there. But there are not enough hunters and trappers to make a dent in that wolf population. There used to be caribou in that valley but the wolves killed them out, not a one left.
Hope some of this sheds some light on wolves diet.
Wolves how much do they eat in the wild? Deer and other wild game? I was told they eat 25 deer a year. ?
I agree with the others who think 25 in on the low side.
Wolves do eat other things but if they ONLY ate deer then I'd say that each wolf would probably need about 1 deer per week.
Wolves hunt in packs so the numbers aren't always even but at 15-20 pounds of food per wolf per day and deer at 100-150 pounds then I think 1 deer per wolf per week is pretty close
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I would think that number of 25 per animal per year is probably on the low side. Twice that I would think is more realistic. I saw a photo array of a wolf pack taking down a full size moose. 18 wolves , killed and stripped the carcass to just bones in less than 20 minutes. A pack can do the same thing to a full grown cow or a human in less time.
I am a long time Alaskan hunter and trapper.
Very easy to figure out. Look at the size of a wolf - most are 150lbs on the small size to 200 lbs on the large size. Next - consider what a dog that size would need to eat in raw meat to gain sufficient nutrients. My guess - about 12-18 lbs a day average.
Unlike people - they will chew the bones to get to the marrow and eat the internal organs.
However - a wolf never gets to eat the whole thing. After they have killed and had their fill - other scavengers come in from birds to bears and finish off the carcass.
Do the math. 25 is about right all things considered.
Hope this helps
You also have to figure in the calves, sheep and pets they eat
My 85 pound house dog eats 5 pounds a day plus what and the most exercise he gets is running to the food bowl
Double that size on a very active canine and that number does not seem all that low
Biologist determine the amount by figuring in like we all did plus by taking into account the number of carcasses they find
depends on how big the pack is, but the average gray wolf is 125-150lbs and say the pack is a size of about 10, i would think 1 animal a week untill they have cubs then it would be 2 animals a week, it all depends on what they take because they have taken moose before and that would last about a month for the pack
Considering that wolves reintroduced into Yellowstone have already consumed 50% of the Elk population I dont doubt that figure.
Yes, 25 in a year easily plus rabbits and other dead stuff they find.
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