Wolf-Pack Buffer Zones as Prey Reservoirs

“Wolves are particularly aggressive towards strange wolves that invade their territories, and intraspecific aggression is the most frequent cause of wolves’mortality (Cubaynes et al. 2014; Mech 1977a, 1994).”

“Predation risk is one of the most lethal selection pressures and strongly influences the habitat selection of prey species, such as those of the deer family (Cervidae) [1–5].”

“Using buffer zone hypotesis (Mech, 1977, 1979)”.”

“For instance, in predator–prey systems such as wolves and ungulates, prey species may employ spatial avoidance strategies by moving beyond predator core ranges or demonstrating increased survival rates in peripheral habitats [ 16, 17 ].”

“…taken on a local scale do not ensure safety to wild ungulates and may even prove favorable for nonterritorial wolves from neighboring regions, eventually bringing more harm than good (Mech, 1977; Kudaktin, Golgof skaya, and Bibikov, 1979; Allen, 1979; Kudaktin, 1982; Suvorov and Kirienko, 2008).”

“In his study of a rapid decline in prey density, Mech (1977) observed that the majority of surviving white-tailed deer were found at the edges of wolf-pack territories.”

“In an area with severat wolfpacks, the wolfpack buffer zones between tenitories occupy from 25 to 40% ofa region (Mech 1977).”

“…territory limits of neighbouring packs may partially overlap (Peters & Mech, 1975b; Peterson & Page, 1988) in a kind of buffer zone between packs (Mech, 1977d) but territory boundaries are rarely trespassed and when this occurs, it may lead to violent aggressions and intra-specific mortality…”

“The potential for prey refuges that have been described in single predator system (Mech 1977; Hebblewhite, Merrill and McDonald 2005) may be even more limited in multiple predator systems (Kotler, Blaustein and Brown 1992; Thaker et al.”

“…Mather and Roitberg 1987), (2) modifications to life-history such as reproduction earlier in life (Gadgil and Bossert 1970; Dodson 1989a), and (3) behavioral such as migration (Mech 1977; Bollens and Frost 1989) and reduced activity (Koperski 1998) that lowers the encounter rate with predators.”

“For example, in systems where the predator is highly territorial and avoids encountering conspecifics, buffer zones between territories may serve as refuges for prey (Mech 1977; Lewis and Murray 1993).”

“Habitat selection in ungulates is strongly influenced by terrain features (Boyce et al., 2003 ), climatic conditions (Dussault et al., 2004 ), forage distribution (Fryxell et al., 2004 ), predation risk (Mech, 1977), and competition (Fretwell & Lucas, 1970).”

“Mammalian carnivores frequently exhibit scent-marking to determine identity, reproductive status, spatial information, and communication (Peters and Mech 1975; Henry 1977; Mech 1977; Gosling 1982; Conover and Gittleman, 1989; Gorman and Trowbridge 1989).”

“Using WDNR shapefiles, we targeted locations near the core of each Gray Wolf terri - tory to reduce the influence of shifting territorial boundaries (Mech 1977, 1994; Peters and Mech 1975).”

“Indeed, despotic decision-making is more obvious in the predatory behavior of wolf packs [27].”

“Deer have been observed to change their distributions as well as foraging behaviors in relation to wolves (Mech, 1977; Flagel et al., 2016), which in turn appears to be reducing deer herbivory impacts on Great Lakes forest plants, including increased sapling growth and understory forb diversity…”

“Similar buffer zones have also been noted among other animal species, for instance, wolves, where lack of hunting along territorial boundaries can lead to higher game density (Mech, 1977, 1994).”

“As such, the spatial configuration of fox home ranges does not lead to buffer zones of low predation risk between territories as observed in some wolf-ungulate systems (Mech, 1977; Anderson et al., 2005).”

“In effect, the buffer zones formed reservoirs that served to repopulate the cores of wolf-pack territory (Mech, 1977).”

“Mech (1977) suggested that wolves avoided the “buffer zones” between wolf packs to prevent intraspecific strife between neighboring packs.”