Abstract
The increasing animosity towards wolves (Canislupus) by livestock-keeping nomads in Mongolia and the accompanying conflicts highlight the urgent need for knowledge about the feeding behavior of wolves, since information on the feeding ecology of wolves in Mongolia is rare, especially in the mountain taiga and mountain forest steppe regions of Northern Mongolia. Those regions are characterized by a relatively high wildlife diversity and are sparsely populated by humans. To face this problem, 137 wolf scats were collected in the Khentii Mountain range in Northern Mongolia between 2008 and 2012. Almost all wolf faeces contained remnants of wild ungulates, which made up 89% of the consumed biomass. Siberian roe deer (Capreoluspygargus) was the most important and positively selected prey species. It was followed by red deer (Cervuselaphus) and wild boar (Susscrofa), which was negatively selected by wolves. Wolves also fed on buffer prey species such as lagomorphs and small mammals. No evidence of domestic ungulates was found in the wolf diet. Thus, near-natural habitats with a diverse fauna of wild animals are important to limit livestock depredation.
Highlights
The amount of livestock increased from about 25 million to more than 40 million animals with a total population of only 2.8 million inhabitants (Erdenesan 2016). This led to a transformation of natural habitats into pasturelands, which cover more than one-third of the Mongolian territory
Livestock depredation plays a significant role in Mongolia, since livestock serves both as a food source and as source of income for more than 50% of the Mongolian population (Mijiddorj et al 2018)
Up-to-date information on livestock depredation rates in Mongolia is missing, since consistent recordings stopped after the Soviet Union collapse, but it is believed that rates are increasing (Eregdenedagva et al 2016)
Summary
Throughout its range in Northern America and Europe, the wolf (Canis lupus) mainly feeds on wild ungulate species (Okarma 1995; Jędrzejewska and Jędrzejewski 1998; Peterson and Ciucci 2003; Mattioli et al 2011; Lanszki et al 2012; Wagner et al 2012; Barber-Meyer and Mech 2016; Goldthorpe 2016; Newsome et al 2016; Bassi et al 2020; Figueiredo et al 2020; Trbojević et al 2020). The diversity and density of large wild ungulates in all study areas were comparatively low, regarding the high amount of free-ranging livestock grazing in and around the protected areas. The most consumed prey species was the Siberian roe deer (frequency of occurrence 43.8%, biomass 46.2%), followed by wild boar and red deer.
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