Wolf Tales: Scholarly Article- What Drives Wolves: Fear or Hunger? Humans, Diet, Climate and Wolf Activity Patterns

The scholarly article “What drives wolves: Fear or hunger? Humans, diet, climate and wolf activity patterns,” by Jorn Theuerkauf, discussed certain factors that may influence wolf behavior and activity patterns. It seems no one had previously tried to define factors that could universally affect wolf behavior, so Theuerkauf looked at and used data from eleven separate studies (ranging from Alaska to Israel) when making his analyses. This study compared the effects of seven distinct factors on wolves’ nocturnal activity and movements: (1) public road density, (2) human population density, (3) human-caused mortality, (4) proportion of domestic animals in wolf diet, (5) proportion of forest, (6) latitude and (7) mean annual temperature on nocturnal wolf activity and movements.

In the introduction, Theuerkauf mentions optimization models and the basic economic principle of maximizing benefit while minimizing costs. As man is the wolf’s only predator, it is most likely that natural selection has favored those wolves who avoid humans. It’s suggested that wolves living in open spaces would probably be more likely to hunt and move at night, as there is nothing to hide them from humans in the daylight. There is a wide variety of factors that could influence wolf behavior, and since wolves are spread over so many different climates and conditions, any of these factors could vary with location—this is why Theuerkauf reviewed and compared the results of 11 studies which were undertaken in different geographic areas. As the studies were all slightly different, Theuerkauf standardized the results so they were more easily comparable.

relaxing in the sun

While wolf activity has previously been explained by human or prey activity, Theuerkauf found some different results. It seems latitude is actually the variable that correlated most with nocturnal wolf movement, and proportion of domestic animals in the diet was most highly correlated with nocturnal activity. So these results ended up refuting the earlier suggestion that wolves may reduce daytime movements just to avoid humans. Nocturnal movements were in fact minutely correlated with human-related factors (public roads, population, and mortality), suggesting the reason may actually be the fact that wolves need shelter from sun when travelling (especially in open areas). This means that the main factor restricting the movement of wolves is daytime heat, not human interaction.

The results of this study seem to reinforce the general tendency we have to overestimate the impact of humans on wolves, as well as underestimate the impact of heat. Theuerkauf suggests further studies of wolf activity patterns should be standardized, so that more reliable meta-analyses can be made. Studied from many different areas must be taken into account before making definite conclusions about the behavioral ecology of wolves.