SE: Brown bears are a nuisance for wolves

“It’s all about competition. Bears lay claim to many of the wolves’ carcasses,” says Johan Mansson, a researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and operates in Skandulv, the Scandinavian wolf project.Bears can hunt themselves but then it is mostly about hunting on moose calves when they are small in the spring. To overcome larger prey, they tend to rely on what other predators have brought down.

Bothersome bears

Over 50 percent of the moose killed by wolves in the researchers’ study areas in Sweden are taken over by bears.  In many cases, the wolves already left the carcass, but sometimes they run away from the food of the bears.

The study shows that wolves have it harder to establish new territories, forming family groups in areas frequented by bears.  A dense bear population could mean a thinner wolf population or a delay of wolves colonization, as seen for example in northeastern Dalarna.

The researchers, who publish their findings in the journal Ecosphere, notes that competition from the Bears in their core area of ​​southern Norrland and northern Svealand partly explains the wolves’ scattering patterns over the past 20 years.

unknown effects

Previously, this has been unknown. The wolves are adversely affected by people, mainly through hunting, legal as well as illegal. Wolves can not establish themselves in areas already occupied by other wolves. But the Bears having such powerful effect is something new.

An obvious question is whether the competition can have the reverse effect. Do wolves have a negative effect on the bears in certain situations?

“Sometimes enough wolves pose a problem. We do not know with certainty. We started from the situation that existed from the beginning, with an established bear population and a wolf during application. But we keep on investigating this too,” said Mansson.