Wolf-Pack Buffer Zones as Prey Reservoirs

@article{Mech1977WolfPackBZ,
  title={Wolf-Pack Buffer Zones as Prey Reservoirs},
  author={L. David Mech},
  journal={Science},
  year={1977},
  volume={198},
  pages={320 - 321}
}
  • L. Mech
  • Published 21 October 1977
  • Environmental Science
  • Science
In a declining herd, surviving deer inhabited overlapping edges of wolf-pack territories. There, wolves hunted little until desperate, in order to avoid fatal encounters with neighbors. Such encounters reduce wolf numbers and predation pressure and apparently allow surviving deer along territory edges to repopulate the area through dispersal of their prime, less vulnerable offspring into territory cores. 
View on AAAS
digitalcommons.unl.edu
157 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
4
Background Citations
61
Methods Citations
1
Results Citations
6

157 Citations

Citation Type

Citation Type

Wolf-deer interactions: a mathematical model
  • K. White, J. Murray, M. Lewis
  • Environmental Science
    Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences
  • 1996
TLDR
A mathematical model is presented to suggest that pack social requirements to care for the young set up differential predation rates causing segregation of high deer and wolf densities, and that the predator-prey interaction may play an important role in segregating and maintaining the territories.
Deer distribution in relation to wolf pack territory edges
TLDR
Indications that deer are more abundant in buffer zones than in wolf pack territories were obtained in northeastern Minnesota, and deer tracks in edges and centers ofwolf pack territories during and following a deer decline were counted.
Modelling territoriality and wolf–deer interactions
TLDR
It is shown mathematically how reduced predation by wolves in the buffer zones provides a refuge for prey species as well as actual existence or extent of wolf territory and buffer zones.
Antipredator strategies of caribou: dispersion along shorelines
TLDR
A small herd of 15–31 caribou (Rangifer tarandus) inhabited a shoreline strip of habitat along Lake Superior from 1972 to 1983, consistent with the hypothesis that viable caribouch populations cannot survive on ranges frequented by high numbers of wolves unless there are special habitat features providing escape for cows with young calves.
Landscape heterogeneity shapes predation in a newly restored predator-prey system.
TLDR
It is shown that landscape features and vegetation, which influence predator detection and capture of prey, shape large-scale patterns of predation in a newly restored predator-prey system.
HABITAT SELECTION BY ELK BEFORE AND AFTER WOLF REINTRODUCTION IN YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
Abstract Prey species are thought to select habitats to obtain necessary resources while also avoiding predation. We examined whether habitat selection by elk (Cervus elaphus) changed following the…
Ecological Constraints on Predation by Large Felids
The evolutionary fitness of any predator, whether it is a spider catching insects or a lion hunting buffalo, depends largely on the quality and quantity of its diet. Predatory strategies are shaped…
Chapter 15 Wolf Recolonization of the Madison Headwaters Area in Yellowstone
Recolonizing wolves trigger a trophic cascade in Wisconsin (USA)
TLDR
The hypothesis that wolves are reducing local browse intensity by white-tailed deer, thus indirectly mitigating the biotic impoverishment of understorey plant communities in northern Wisconsin, is tested, providing the first published evidence of a trophic cascade triggered by wolf recovery in the Great Lakes region.
Spatial heterogeneity in predator activity, nest survivorship, and nest-site selection in two forest thrushes
TLDR
Significant spatial variability in predator activity and its relationship to nest predation and nest-site selection in a ground-nesting songbird is documented.
...
1
2
3
4
5
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 17 REFERENCES
Productivity, Mortality, and Population Trends of Wolves in Northeastern Minnesota
TLDR
At higher densities, adult pack wolves were the most secure members of the population, but as the population declined, they became the least secure because of intraspecific strife.
Scent-marking in wolves.
Weights, growth, and survival of timber wolf pups in Minnesota.
TLDR
Survival data based on radio-tracking and tag returns indicated that pups with relative weights less than 65 percent of standard have a poor chance of survival, whereas pups of at least 80 percent ofStandard weight have a high survivability.
Blood analyses of wolf pups and their ecological and metabolic interpretation.
TLDR
The potential value of such long-term integrated field and laboratory studies for providing a more complete understanding of changes in the dynamics of natural populations in terms of the responses of individual animals is demonstrated.
Man, Culture and Animals: The Role of Animals in Human Ecological Adjustments
Man, culture, and animals; the role of animals in human ecological adjustments , Man, culture, and animals; the role of animals in human ecological adjustments , مرکز فناوری اطلاعات و اطلاع رسانی…
White-tailed deer migration and its role in wolf predation
A Wolf Pack Kills Another Wolf
An Observation of Four Wolves Killing Another Wolf
Dispersal of Deer from Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge
A Preliminary Study of the Social Organization of White-Tailed Deer
...
1
2
...