Study: Off feedgrounds, wolves eat elk, moose

Wolves ate bull elk and cow moose more than other ungulates in northern Jackson Hole last winter, in contrast to the Gros Ventre drainage, where cow and calf elk were the prey of choice, researchers said.
Researchers used volunteers and a combination of VHF- and GPS-tracking collars to examine two wolf packs last year and three packs this year in Buffalo Valley and northern Grand Teton National Park.
Volunteers collected data on the species type, age and sex of the animals. The crews also looked at the bone marrow of the ungulates wolves killed to determine body condition. The study area is primarily inhabited by the Pacific Creek, Phantom Springs and Huckleberry wolf packs, although some of those packs have been known to range widely in winter. From January to March, field crews from the park and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service documented 47 wolf-kill carcasses: 26 elk (55.3 percent), 18 moose (38.3 percent) and three deer (6.4 percent). Of the documented elk kills, wolves took down 14 bulls (53.8 percent), seven cows (26.9 percent) and two calves (7.7 percent). Researchers were not able to determine the age and sex of three animals (11.5 percent)...more