Food for the Masses

The animals killed by wolves are also fed on by many other animals. Park staff developed a protocol for observing wolf kills to assess the community of scavengers at the site in winter and summer, as carcass use varies significantly by season. After wolves make a kill, staff begin observing and recording the vertebrate scavengers that visit the kill. Data are collected every 15 minutes until no scavengers are left, which can sometimes take days. Staff then sample for invertebrate scavengers by setting up “pitfall” traps in the soil around the carcass to identify which insects feed on the carcass. The soil immediately beneath the kill is also sampled for nitrogen, potassium, and calcium to determine which nutrients are leaching from the carcass.