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Anthropogenic food resources sustain wolves in conflict scenarios of Western Iran
The feeding ecology of gray wolves has been investigated extensively worldwide. Despite previous studies on food habits of wolves in Asia and Iran, none has focused on the diet of the species in a scenario of depleted of wild prey and with recent records of attacks on humans. Here, we combined telem...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2019
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6576759/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31206529 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218345 |
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author | Mohammadi, Alireza Kaboli, Mohammad Sazatornil, Víctor López-Bao, José Vicente |
author_facet | Mohammadi, Alireza Kaboli, Mohammad Sazatornil, Víctor López-Bao, José Vicente |
author_sort | Mohammadi, Alireza |
collection | PubMed |
description | The feeding ecology of gray wolves has been investigated extensively worldwide. Despite previous studies on food habits of wolves in Asia and Iran, none has focused on the diet of the species in a scenario of depleted of wild prey and with recent records of attacks on humans. Here, we combined telemetry methods and scat analysis to study the diet of wolves in areas of Hamadan province, Iran, where medium to large wild prey is almost absent. Between October 2015 and March 2017, we studied the feeding behavior (by identifying feeding sites through clusters of GPS locations) of three wolves fitted with GPS collars, belonging to different wolf packs. We also collected and analyzed 110 wolf scats during the same period within the same areas. Overall, we investigated 850 clusters of GPS locations in the field, and identified 312 feeding sites. Most feeding clusters were linked to dumpsites and poultry farms around villages. We found 142 and 170 events of predatory (kill sites) and scavenging behavior, respectively. Prey composition based on kill sites was comprised of 74.6% livestock, 19.7% lagomorphs, 3.5% dogs, 1.4% red fox, and 0.7% golden jackal. Similarly, prey composition based on scavenging clusters was comprised of 79.9% livestock, 10.6% red fox, and 9.4% golden jackal. Scat analysis, however, indicated that livestock (34.3%), garbage (23.7%), poultry (16.0%), and European hare (15.4%) were the most frequent food items. We discuss the role of anthropogenic food sources in a context where agonistic wolf-human encounters occur recurrently, and suggest management guidelines regarding illegal dumping of animal carcasses and garbage dumpsites, in order to minimize wolf-human negative interactions. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6576759 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-65767592019-06-28 Anthropogenic food resources sustain wolves in conflict scenarios of Western Iran Mohammadi, Alireza Kaboli, Mohammad Sazatornil, Víctor López-Bao, José Vicente PLoS One Research Article The feeding ecology of gray wolves has been investigated extensively worldwide. Despite previous studies on food habits of wolves in Asia and Iran, none has focused on the diet of the species in a scenario of depleted of wild prey and with recent records of attacks on humans. Here, we combined telemetry methods and scat analysis to study the diet of wolves in areas of Hamadan province, Iran, where medium to large wild prey is almost absent. Between October 2015 and March 2017, we studied the feeding behavior (by identifying feeding sites through clusters of GPS locations) of three wolves fitted with GPS collars, belonging to different wolf packs. We also collected and analyzed 110 wolf scats during the same period within the same areas. Overall, we investigated 850 clusters of GPS locations in the field, and identified 312 feeding sites. Most feeding clusters were linked to dumpsites and poultry farms around villages. We found 142 and 170 events of predatory (kill sites) and scavenging behavior, respectively. Prey composition based on kill sites was comprised of 74.6% livestock, 19.7% lagomorphs, 3.5% dogs, 1.4% red fox, and 0.7% golden jackal. Similarly, prey composition based on scavenging clusters was comprised of 79.9% livestock, 10.6% red fox, and 9.4% golden jackal. Scat analysis, however, indicated that livestock (34.3%), garbage (23.7%), poultry (16.0%), and European hare (15.4%) were the most frequent food items. We discuss the role of anthropogenic food sources in a context where agonistic wolf-human encounters occur recurrently, and suggest management guidelines regarding illegal dumping of animal carcasses and garbage dumpsites, in order to minimize wolf-human negative interactions. Public Library of Science 2019-06-17 /pmc/articles/PMC6576759/ /pubmed/31206529 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218345 Text en © 2019 Mohammadi et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Mohammadi, Alireza Kaboli, Mohammad Sazatornil, Víctor López-Bao, José Vicente Anthropogenic food resources sustain wolves in conflict scenarios of Western Iran |
title | Anthropogenic food resources sustain wolves in conflict scenarios of Western Iran |
title_full | Anthropogenic food resources sustain wolves in conflict scenarios of Western Iran |
title_fullStr | Anthropogenic food resources sustain wolves in conflict scenarios of Western Iran |
title_full_unstemmed | Anthropogenic food resources sustain wolves in conflict scenarios of Western Iran |
title_short | Anthropogenic food resources sustain wolves in conflict scenarios of Western Iran |
title_sort | anthropogenic food resources sustain wolves in conflict scenarios of western iran |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6576759/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31206529 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218345 |
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