Diets, dominance hierarchies, and kleptoparasitism drive asymmetrical interactions between wolves and cougars

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Binder, Wesley; Ruprecht, Joel S.; Rabe, Jack; Metz, Matthew C.; Hutchinson, Rebecca; Stahler, Daniel R.; Levi, Taal
• 署名单位: Oregon State University; University of Minnesota System; University of Minnesota Twin Cities; Oregon State University
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2511397123
• 发表日期: 2026-02-10
• 页码: e2511397123
• 关键词: competition; carnivore interactions; movement ecology; random forests; YELLOWSTONE; resource selection; GRAY WOLVES; COMPETITION; MOVEMENT; predator; COYOTES; habitat; size

摘要

After widespread extirpation, conservation efforts have restored large carnivores to portions of their former range. Substantial research has since focused on their ability to alter ecological communities through effects on herbivores and mesocarnivores, but the principles governing competition among multiple apex carnivores remain unclear. While mesocarnivore scavenging of apex carnivore kills drive enemies with benefits dynamics, subordinate apex carnivores seldom rely on scavenging. Instead, they proficiently hunt prey themselves that dominant apex carnivores can steal, fundamentally altering the dynamics of their interactions. We used 9 y of contemporaneous GPS telemetry and 3,929 potential kill site investigations from a reconstituted community apex-apex dynamics instead follow an enemies without benefits framework. Wolf movement and resource selection were strongly linked to cougar kills, resulting in carcass theft (i.e., kleptoparasitism) that drove their interactions and led to cougar mortalities. In contrast, cougars avoided wolf kills, were tied to escape terrain, and did not kill wolves, producing an asymmetric dynamic that persisted across distinct seasonal contheir diets to smaller-bodied deer that were kleptoparasitized by wolves at one-sixth the a framework for predicting the coexistence outcomes of carnivore restoration and the ongoing recolonization of wolves.