Ravens anticipate wolf kill sites across broad scales

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Loretto, Matthias-Claudio; Beck, Kristina B.; Smith, Douglas W.; Stahler, Daniel R.; Walker, Lauren E.; Wikelski, Martin; Mueller, Thomas; Safi, Kamran; Marzluff, John M.
• 署名单位: University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna; Max Planck Society; Senckenberg Biodiversitat & Klima- Forschungszentrum (BiK-F); Leibniz Association; Senckenberg Gesellschaft fur Naturforschung (SGN); United States Department of the Interior; US National Park Service; University of Konstanz; Goethe University Frankfurt; University of Washington; University of Washington Seattle
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adz9467
• 发表日期: 2026-03-12
• 页码: 1151-1154
• 关键词: COMMON RAVENS; cognitive map; group-size; YELLOWSTONE; navigation; landscape; predation; patterns; wolves

摘要

Scavengers generally rely on patchily distributed, unpredictable carrion. A long-standing hypothesis suggests scavenging ravens reliably locate such food by directly following large carnivores to their kills. However, by satellite tracking 69 ravens, 20 wolves, and 11 cougars in Yellowstone National Park, we found that following of predators over large distances rarely occurred. Instead, ravens routinely revisited sites where wolf kills were common-returning from distances of up to 155 kilometers to find carrion. Much like navigating to permanent anthropogenic subsidies, ravens appear to remember potential sources of carrion shaped by previous encounters with wolves or their kills. These findings suggest that spatial memory and navigation play a considerably greater role than previously assumed among scavengers, and possibly other wide-ranging species, in search of ephemeral resources.