Innovation Anthology #544:

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The WHEC study on Wildlife Habitat Effectiveness and Connectivity is collecting information on wolves in the Fort McMurray oil sands region.

University of Alberta ecologist Holger Bohm says his group expected moose would dominate the wolves’ diet.

But spring scat studies in 2012 indicate that along with some moose, deer, and snowshoe hares, about half the wolf diet is comprised of beaver.

HOLGER BOHM: Following the wolves on the ground, we have actually found a couple of wolf dens and it seems like some of those packs really like to build their dens on existing beaver lodges. Which is a perfect combination because you’ve got a house and you also get free food. You just eat the beavers that are already there. This is only a snapshot of that spring study period that we conducted. Because in winter for example they are most likely not going to eat that much beaver because the beavers are obviously in their lodges deep down and unaccessible for wolves. So we are actually collecting scats as we speak right now and we’ll see what they eat in winter. I assume it’s more moose and deer than beaver in winter.

As Holger Bohm told the CONRAD Symposium on oil sands reclamation, the wolf diet is seasonal and animal hair found in wolf scats will show the difference between winter and spring.

Thanks today to Syncrude

I’M CHERYL CROUCHER

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Syncrude

Program Date: 2013-03-21