[Animals] Only now have we discovered that wolves also hunt sea otters and seals

[FNX Magokiler]

While patrolling the beach on the remote coast of Katmai, in Alaska (United States), the white wolf approached the mouth of a stream, where fresh water flows into the salty Hallo Bay.

After a minute, the predator suddenly launched itself into the water and grabbed the tail of a harbor seal with its powerful jaws, a large marine mammal that can weigh more than twice as much as an adult wolf.

With a powerful tug, the wolf dragged the seal onto a sandbar, and for the next half hour the seal snapped uselessly at its captor while the wolf continued to tear at its tail. Once the seal was dead, the wolf trotted away, only to return with a packmate. Together they devoured their prey.

This scene, filmed by a group of biologists in Katmai National Park and Reserve in 2016, is the first time a wolf has been documented hunting and killing a marine mammal. Then, in 2021, they witnessed the first sea otter hunt: a lactating female and two males from the pack dispatched an adult sea otter resting on a rocky outcrop.

The results, published in October in the journal Ecology, are significant because they move away from what wolves are famous for.

 

 

Hunting hoofed animals like deer and elk, exhausting their prey with relentless resistance and pack cooperation tactics. . This Katmai study is part of a growing body of research suggesting that wolves are more flexible than previously thought, preying on everything from beavers to salmon.

"The most important thing is to think that wolves are not strictly terrestrial predators, but that they can influence different ecosystems," says Kelsey Griffin, a biologist with the United States National Park Service and lead author of the article; "They are potentially an important link between terrestrial and marine systems."

Ambush and food
The Katmai coast, with its glacier-fringed fjords, vast grasslands and wide sandy beaches, is beautiful and incredibly remote. Griffin had to be airlifted with her research team.

Although the constant cold and drizzle, as well as numerous storms, can be unwelcoming to humans, Katmai teems with wildlife. The annual Fat Bear Week competition, organized by Katmai National Park, is held each summer in streams teeming with sockeye salmon. And in recent decades, sea otter and harbor seal po[CENSORED]tions have returned by the thousands to their former range.

 

https://www.nationalgeographic.es/animales/2023/11/descubierto-lobos-cazan-comen-nutrias-marinas-focas