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+----- Thread: Canids Interactions - Interspecific Conflicts (/topic-canids-interactions-interspecific-conflicts)
RE: Canids Interactions - Interspecific Conflicts - Rage2277 - 01-19-2019
RE: Canids Interactions - Interspecific Conflicts - Pckts - 01-24-2019
Curious Crous Photography
What a Sighting. I have never seen this in my life before... A Jackal preying on an African Wild Cat??... The wild Cat fought for his life, scratching the Black Backed Jackal's face and legs, but to no avail. This Feline Warrior had its final battle...
*This image is copyright of its original author
RE: Canids Interactions - Interspecific Conflicts - Sanju - 01-25-2019
There is at least one record of a lone wolf associating with a pair of dholes in Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary.
http://www.sanctuaryasia.com/magazines/features/9390-just-friends.html
Just Friends
In this intriguing story, Manoj V. Nair and Saroj Kumar Panda write on what is possibly the first recorded instance of an association between a wolf and a pair of dholes in Debrigarh, Odisha.
*This image is copyright of its original author
Photograph by Manoj V. Nair and Saroj Kumar Panda. April 6, 2013: 06:45 hours, Kendutal, Debrigarh Sanctuary.
In the soft slanting light after daybreak, the dholes lie by the side of the forest road, their russet pelage bright against the muted hues of the dry forest. They are barely 15 m away when my driver spots them, kills the engine and slowly brings the jeep to a halt. Just a casual glance to check us out, and both are back to their nap. But by the twitching of their ears, we can tell they are listening. As we sit in mahua-scented silence, a peacock honks his protest from afar and a kendu tree drops yet another pulpy sweet fruit on to the forest floor.
Then, amidst the chirruping of courting Petronias and the metronomic regularity of the Coppersmith’s call, comes the tell-tale crackle of a trod-upon leaf. And there it is – a wolf – barely 10 m away from the dholes. Tall and stately, grizzled grey coat blending into the jungle, its amber-yellow eyes gaze into us with that haunting lupine look. Now, one dhole rolls over the other and crouching, begins mounting her, a few thrusts at a time.
The wolf takes a few tentative steps forward, only to turn back into the forest in an easy, loping gait, typical of this long-limbed canid. A few feet, and he stops, turning back as if he is waiting for the dholes. But they pay him no heed. He then doubles back on his track, makes a wide detour and comes out into the road, stopping short of the dholes by five metres. Strangely, the dholes continue to be nonchalant. The wolf looks nonplussed, caught between a natural instinct to flee from us, yet detained by a strong urge to stay with the dholes. Even without being anthropomorphic, we can see that this wolf is caught in the horns of a dilemma!
As we start the vehicle and slowly move closer to click close-ups, the wolf is quick to react, and veers away instantly into the shrubbery. He stops awhile to turn back and the dholes reluctantly get up and follow him. One bitch repeatedly mounts the other. In a while, all three melt away into the forest depths. Ten minutes of gripping wildlife drama, and after several fruitless visits, we have finally seen what we had come to see, a bizarre association between two unrelated genera
of the dog family, the dhole or Asiatic wild dog Cuon alpinus and the Indian wolf Canis lupus pallipes unfolding in the jungles of the Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary.THE BEGINNING...
In the extreme north-western corner of Odisha, in the district of Bargarh abutting Chattisgarh, lies the wildlife sanctuary of Debrigarh. Largely unknown and unsung, this 353 sq. km. Protected Area (PA) has undisturbed dry deciduous and mixed bamboo forest, fringed by the deep blue waters of the Hirakud reservoir spanning its entire northern and eastern boundaries. Together with the lay of the land, a combination of factors – natural protection offered by the reservoir, negligible human pressure, sustained protection efforts by frontline staff and infusion of much-needed funds by the Forest Department – have made this PA a wildlife haven of the state.
While taking charge of the Hirakud Wildlife Division under which the sanctuary falls, back in November 2009, one of us (MVN) had already heard of its importance as a gaur habitat. But little did he know that the ensuing years would keep throwing up surprises at regular intervals like the incident recounted above. The approved Management Plan of the sanctuary then had a list of 16 mammal species (now it is 44). Of them, only one member of the dog family (Canidae) was recorded – the Indian wolf.
But soon, interviews with local villagers, old-time shikaris and experienced field staff as well as first-hand observations in the field revealed the regular presence of jackal, fox and hyena, the latter two mainly in the fringe areas. This was further validated by subsequent direct sightings. However, no one ever mentioned having come across the wolf or the dhole in the last decade or so, nor did we see either during the first few months.
Quote:Dholes first made their appearance during the winter of 2009, when a pack of eleven arrived, possibly from the adjoining forests of Chattisgarh. They grew in number to about 24 during 2011, fell again to 12 in 2012, and continue to be present in small numbers (five to six).
We kept a close lookout for signs of wolves, as their confirmed presence would mean that the sanctuary could claim the rare distinction of being one of the very few PAs in the country to harbour all four canid species of peninsular India. We also noticed that the habitat, especially the western fringes seemed quite suitable for the wolf, and supported good populations of the chousingha and even some nilgai. But all our efforts to locate Canis lupus drew a naught.
Which is why the news that a wolf had been photographed by a visitor from Bengal, inside the park on December 2, 2012, caught us completely by surprise. @Pckts
We were not overly optimistic though, as all purported wolf photos hitherto captured by visitors and staff, on verification, had turned out to contain jackals. Nevertheless, when we finally got to see the image, we were delighted – it was indeed a handsome male wolf. Having alerted all the staff to keep a sharp lookout for the animal, we laid PIPs (pugmark impression pads) and fixed camera traps in likely areas, but to no avail. Then, the wolf chose to reveal himself in a manner much more dramatic and entirely unique.
*This image is copyright of its original author
Photograph by Manoj V. Nair and Saroj Kumar Panda.ODD ASSOCIATION
On March 15, 2013, one of us (SKP) spotted the wolf along with two dholes and observed them together for about 20 minutes. He also captured some stunning images of the two species together in the same frame, possibly the first such images known from the wild. According to him, he chanced across the dholes on the main forest road near Chaurasimal beat, with the wolf in close attendance. They were apparently quite used to each other, though the dogs would lunge and make mock charges at the wolf if it tried to approach too close.
From the images, it was evident that the dholes were both females and the wolf, a male. Diagnostically, it had the tip of the tail truncated. One of the dholes had appeared to be restless and excited, intermittently urinating and rolling on the ground. They were also seen defecating on the road, while the wolf was seen marking trees by the typical leg-up urination characteristic of male canids. While the dholes allowed very close approach by our vehicle, the wolf tended to keep its distance (Indian wolf is shy it seems). The nearest it could be approached was about 10 m.
Quote:Odd as it might seem, an even stranger turn of events was noticed by Dr. Kishalay Das, a local naturalist, who also managed to take some long-range record shots using his point-and-shoot camera. This sequence of events played out near the Chaurasimal Forest Rest House, on the grassy meadows fringing the reservoir. There, on the morning of March 28, at half past nine, he along with the local staff observed all three animals lying on the grass a few feet from each other, and for about 45 minutes, witnessed a series of interactions among them. After lounging around for a while, they apparently started gambolling with each other, ‘playing in the manner of domestic dogs’ as a Forest Guard put it.
Dr. Das also insisted that the wolf managed to catch a Jungle Crow and promptly wolfed it down! It appeared that the dholes had fed recently, as indicated by their distended bellies, and went into the water to cool themselves. Incredibly, the wolf was also seen entering the reservoir and lying down, submerged neck-deep in water!
Quote:And a day later, while supervising ongoing construction work of a water-harvesting structure, the staff of Chourasimal beat witnessed an amazing scene where the wolf and dholes were chasing a sambar fawn (W**
On March 31, after getting news of this, I spent some time in the locality trying to find some remains of a possible kill, but without success. But I was rewarded by a brief glimpse of the wolf as it ran into the bushes some 30 m. away, having been unduly alarmed, as I was on foot. Of the dholes, there was no trace.
However, they were again seen together
, at least on four different occasions by frontline staff during the first week of April, culminating in the account narrated at the beginning of this article.
*This image is copyright of its original author
Photograph by Manoj V. Nair and Saroj Kumar Panda.CONJECTURE
Thus, it appears that rather than being a one-off accidental strange interaction between two unrelated types of canids, the strange association among these three animals may be more stable and persistent here at Debrigarh. At the time of writing, they have been consistently seen together for a period of about a month. How long this alliance persists will be extremely interesting to monitor. Which brings us now to the possible explanations for this rather bizarre and weird association. Though short-term interactions (mostly antagonistic) among canids have been recorded the world over, this phenomenon merits a more thorough study and greater understanding before one can conclude anything.
However, after discussing the issue with canid experts and wildlife biologists, it seems that the most likely explanation for this behaviour would be as follows:
The two female dholes may have been left alone when the rest of the pack moved away. Alternatively, they could have splintered off from the main pack temporarily. The ‘dry-humping’ and mock-mounting behaviour exhibited by one might be construed as an oestrous-related behaviour shown by "bitches" in heat
. But given the fact that dholes are known to come into season mainly during October-November, it is more likely a dominance display sometimes seen among female dholes. As for the wolf, he is possibly a dispersing male, who, having entered the sanctuary from his natal territory, temporarily chose to settle down here on account of abundant prey and lack of disturbance. He might have accidentally chanced across the dholes and might have started following them initially from far, gradually closing in and gaining familiarity and acceptance in the course of time. The three animals might also be sticking together as an anti-predator strategy against big cats
, especially the leopard, of which a good population exists in Debrigarh. Further, both species being quintessential social canids and pack-hunters, they have a predisposition to form packs. The alliance might also have led to an increased success rate in hunting prey, especially large-sized ones like sambar, further reinforcing the bond.But it has to be borne in mind that as of now, most of this remains conjecture. Detailed observations over time will be needed before the dots can be joined with confidence.
Thinking over these imponderables over a cup of black tea on the terrace of the Chourasimal Forest Rest House, we ask Chakra Kalet, one of the oldest and most experienced of our anti-poaching staff for his explanation. Pat comes his reply – ‘Kichchi nain, sar. Semane sanga saathi, au kaun!’ (Nothing sir, they’re just friends, what else!)
.For the moment, though not sure, we too will leave it at that, this strange and unlikely tale of amity among two dholes and a wolf..
First appeared in: Sanctuary Asia, Vol. XXXIII, No. 3, June 2013.
RE: Canids Interactions - Interspecific Conflicts - Pckts - 01-27-2019
Chimps intimidating AWD's
Baboons and AWD's
RE: Canids Interactions - Interspecific Conflicts - Sanju - 02-15-2019
Wolves and Wolverines: A Complicated Relationship
Quote:The larger mammal will prey on the smaller, but wolverines prefer areas occupied by wolves over areas that aren’t
*This image is copyright of its original author
A wolverine feeds from the carcass of a caribou killed by wolves in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Credit: Peter Mather
I stood up on my snow machine as we approached, back straightened and muscles tensed. One of our satellite-collared wolverines, a young female named Avalanche, had stopped moving 48 hours ago, long enough to warrant investigation. Now, after a cold, hour-long ride from our base camp, we were greeted by a conspicuous mound of black and brown fur. My heart sank.
Our effort is part of a larger Wildlife Conservation Society program in Alaska. We’re combining intensive field studies, cutting-edge wildlife research technology, and the knowledge of indigenous peoples to better understand the ecology of this remarkable species on the harsh Arctic tundra, in habitats that include the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve. Only through such efforts can we learn how to effectively protect these animals, and other iconic wildlife, in these expansive, largely undeveloped places. Ours is the first collar-based research effort on the Arctic tundra since 1981, so our days often bring surprises.
When we arrived at the scene, Avalanche lay on her back, front paws extended, as though frozen mid-bound. A red gash ran across her neck and, transferring her carefully to the back of my snow machine, I could feel that her body was savagely broken. Dense wolf tracks nearby clearly marked her struggle. After five weeks of watching her small red dot move around a map on my computer screen, of visiting the snow dens she slept in, marveling at the caribou she killed, and collecting her scat for analysis, I held back tears.
*This image is copyright of its original author
Avalanche the wolverine at night, captured by a motion-activated camera, in one of the last photographs taken before her death. Credit: Tom Glass/WCS
Wolves are a common predator of wolverines, but the relationship is more complicated than simply predator-prey. Across their range, wolverines can be seen tentatively approaching days-old wolf kills, crunching bones and tearing at leftover flesh. They are what is considered a “facultative scavenger”—they eat carrion when it’s available but are quite capable of hunting their own prey when it’s not.
Although it’s difficult to examine interspecific relationships of wide-ranging species such as these in the wild, scientists have learned a lot in the last decade thanks to some innovative studies. Through track-transect surveys, a group at the University of Oulu in Finland found that wolverines prefer areas that are occupied by wolves over those that aren’t. We also know wolves benefit wolverines by creating scavenging opportunities, thanks to a Norwegian group that analyzed wolverine scat both inside and outside of wolf-occupied areas in 2008.
Wolves present a threat to wolverines and the smaller and often more solitary animal must respond accordingly. By placing motion-activated cameras at wolf-killed moose carcasses, a bachelor’s student from Hedmark University College in Norway recently revealed that wolverines are sensitive to the frequency and duration of the wolves’ visits. The wolverines, in fact, moderate their enthusiasm for food (which is legendary, and the root of their Latin name Gulo) in accordance with the risk of being killed.
Much of wolverines’ ability to strike this balance with wolves probably has to do with their sense of timing; get to the carcass after the wolves have left, but before the ravens and foxes have picked it bare.
Here on Alaska’s North Slope, Avalanche’s timing was off. The snow surrounding her body was packed hard with wolf tracks, and the remains of a freshly killed caribou lay 50 feet away. When we had caught her five weeks before, we had interpreted her clean, unchipped teeth and small mammaries as indications of her youth. Perhaps this lesson, of wolves and timing, was one she simply hadn’t learned yet.
As we rode back across the tundra, I thought over the last month of Avalanche’s life, this brief glimpse into a wolverine’s world that we had been offered. Avalanche, like all of our study animals, had used snow holes extensively. During the five weeks she had been collared, she traveled 221 miles, and we visited 20 GPS clusters (locations where she had spent more than 40 minutes). At 19 of these, she had dug down into the snow, possibly to retrieve a cached bone, to find a peaceful place to rest, or to avoid wolves. These sites were typically in deep drifts, and her dens were excavated 10 feet or more into the snowpack, narrow tunnels and small caverns, protected by a hard wind crust.
*This image is copyright of its original author
Motion-activated camera image of a wolf investigating a wolverine's den. Credit: Tom Glass/WCS.
At several of these sites, wolves visited. We saw them on our motion-activated cameras and we saw their tracks in the snow. At one site, Avalanche sat inside a snow hole adjacent to a cliff while a wolf paced back and forth just below. At another, a wolf paid a midnight visit to a hole that Avalanche had just vacated. We had previously thought that these snow holes were simply resting sites, but at least in the cases when wolves came to visit, they had provided the shelter necessary for her to avoid being killed.
I am awed by wolverines. No bigger than a cocker spaniel, they hunt and kill caribou up to 10 times their size. They may travel 18 to 25 miles in a day on legs only as long as your forearm. One of our study animals traversed Alaska’s North Slope in 11 weeks last spring, effectively traveling the distance from Washington, D.C. to Atlanta.
Though I contest their typical characterization as ferocious and mean, they are undoubtedly endurance machines. They choose some of the most expansive, challenging and beautifully intact natural landscapes on Earth for their homes, and in many ways we are still grasping to understand how their living is made. If there’s any lesson in Avalanche’s story, wolves and snow are surely at its heart.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/wolves-and-wolverines-a-complicated-relationship/
RE: Canids Interactions - Interspecific Conflicts - Sanju - 03-11-2019
Camera traps document polar, grizzly and black bears in same Arctic camp
Quote:Scientists say the surprise overlap of all three North American bear species challenges some of the most fundamental assumptions about conservation
This article was originally published on Mongabay.
In 1998, Douglas Clark witnessed Manitoba’s second recorded grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) sighting of the century.
Then a warden in Canada’s Wapusk National Park, he remembers swooping down near the shores of Hudson Bay in a Bell 212 helicopter to confirm the distinctive, muscular hump of a lone grizzly running along a gravel beach ridge.
Grizzlies had been considered extirpated in this sliver of the province since the late 1800s, and Wapusk — literally meaning “white bear” in Cree — was a land ruled by the polar bear (Ursus maritimus), an apex predator that was protected at all costs.
“Get down there with a trap and a rifle and get rid of that thing!” he recalls a senior park manager telling him.
*This image is copyright of its original author
Douglas Clark initially aimed to collect data on polar bear visits to human-occupied areas in Wapusk National Park. Photo: University of Saskatchewan.
Grizzly sightings on this polar bear turf by researchers and locals increased over the next two decades. The lethal control approach has been touted by some conservation communities, with fears that grizzly bear range expansion would threaten polar bear populations.
Now, with recently captured camera trap footage showing grizzlies, polar bears and black bears (Ursus americanus) roaming the park in close proximity, Clark said he suspected his latest research may shift the conservation status quo in Canada’s ever-changing north.
“Many conservationists don’t look positively on the idea of environmental changes, especially when it affects high-profile species, like the polar bear,” Clark said.
“Grizzlies are the new kids on the block…so, it poses the question, is this change good or bad? And are we valuing polar bears more than grizzlies?”
*This image is copyright of its original author
A lone grizzly passes by a camera trap in Wapusk National Park, appearing to be foraging for food. Photo: University of Saskatchewan.
*This image is copyright of its original author
A grizzly inspects the team’s camera trap. There has been at least one grizzly bear sighting every year since 2008 in Wapusk National Park, but scientists do not yet know the extent or the drivers of their presence in what was previously polar bear country. Image: University of Saskatchewan.
A study led by Clark, published in Arctic Science, is the result of a chance encounter in 2011, when he returned to Wapusk as a conservation scientist with the University of Saskatchewan. Rigging a set of Reconyx heat- and motion-activated camera traps to the outposts of his research camp, Clark aimed to gather data for his studies on human-polar bear interactions.
However, one year in, while sifting through images triggered by park staff on snowmobiles, wandering birds and the occasional polar bear, he noticed an unexpected face wander across the frame: the first on-camera documentation of a grizzly in northern Manitoba.
Cameras snap species overlap
Shortly afterward, his team’s camera traps were picking up visits from black bears as well.
Although neither species was entirely new to the area, these snapshots were the first tangible evidence that polar bears weren’t the only carnivores to roam these lands, or perhaps, to even call them home.
*This image is copyright of its original author
A black bear moves through the tundra of Wapusk National Park, Canada. Photo: University of Saskatchewan.
“It is and it isn’t surprising…Trappers have known about this for years,” Clark said. “But having these cameras out over time, we were able to show that it was more than one bear of all of the species and that it’s repeated. It’s not just one random bear wandering through.”
Set at 85 centimetres (2.8 feet) high, the cameras could not distinguish individual bears but used an infrared flash to count bear visits to a given camera by an individual or family of bears within a one-hour period. In six years of recording, the cameras have successfully captured 401 polar, grizzly and black bear visits at three camps within the park. More than 90 per cent of these visits were by polar bears.
*This image is copyright of its original author
The camera traps are bolted to the fence posts of an approximate 15 x 30-meter (50 x 99-foot) camp compound in Wapusk National Park in northern Manitoba, Canada. Photo: Parks Canada.
The trap setup consists of four cameras facing each of the cardinal directions around the perimeter of each camp, and one additional camera for redundancy. The team lucked into a trap arrangement — in terms of height, location and distance apart — that could adequately capture the trio of species, and so its positioning has remained essentially untouched to this day.
Although no interspecies interactions have emerged, one set of photos captured a polar bear and a black bear passing by the same camera some three hours apart from one another.
It’s likely, Clark says, that this narrow time frame indicates these bears were aware of each other and could quite possibly be adapting to the other’s presence. Other footage has prompted the team to suspect that some grizzly bears are even denning in the area and not just passing through.
The politics of polar bear conservation
“Suddenly, this takes us into the terrain of values,” Clark said, “and it forces us to really take a hard look at bear and park conservation in an area where a bunch of ecosystems converge, and in a time where all of these ecosystems are changing very rapidly as a result of climate change.”
How best to approach this influx of non-native predators is a question that remains unanswered. The common approach to conservation, within national parks especially, is to preserve an environment in its known state. But as much of Canada’s subarctic regions rapidly thaw and evolve, this approach becomes less realistic and more difficult to achieve. To ensure a thoughtful approach, Clark says, undoubtedly involves the local people, who harbour a deep knowledge of the land and the ecological changes it’s undergone.
However, many residents of northern Manitoba are at odds with the initiatives of polar bear conservationists and researchers, as local perspectives have historically been cast aside or, in some cases, ignored entirely. For example, researchers have fitted bears with tracking tags to understand their movements, but many communities consider the tags an interference with local hunting traditions and insulting to the bears who, in some cultural views, are considered to be non-human persons.
*This image is copyright of its original author
According to Parks Canada, Wapusk National Park has one of the highest known concentrations of polar bear maternity dens in the world. Image: University of Saskatchewan.
“The politics of polar bear conservation has been going bad for about 14 years. Conservation-wise, policy-wise, wildlife management-wise, it’s a train wreck,” Clark said. Northern Canada has been the epicentre of debates surrounding these matters, often between researchers and media, who put polar bears on an ecological pedestal, and Indigenous peoples for whom polar bears are a primary resource.
Indigenous knowledge and science ‘often tell the same story’
Chris Darimont is an interdisciplinary conservation scientist with the University of Victoria and the Raincoast Conservation Foundation who has conducted much of his research in partnership with Indigenous governments along Canada’s west coast. Darimont promotes the fusion of scientific methods with traditional wisdom and management strategies.
“Management intervention that isn’t carefully considered has a track record of making things worse,” Darimont said. Indigenous communities, he said, had managed natural resources for thousands of years in a way that was inherently sustainable and woven into their culture.
Government agencies, lacking that kind of relationship and working with limited knowledge, are “more likely to commodify resources,” Darimont said.
Generally, in Darimont’s experience, Indigenous governments on the west coast have values that align with those of area conservationists. “We find that [Indigenous knowledge and science] are frequently complementary. They often tell the same story, perhaps in slightly different ways,” he said.
“But Indigenous knowledge might, for example, provide things that science cannot, and vice versa.”
*This image is copyright of its original author
A polar bear snacking on snow. Image: University of Saskatchewan
A study co-authored by Darimont and fellow researchers in 2014 successfully combined these two schools of knowledge. Noticing an increase in grizzly bear sightings throughout the archipelago off British Columbia, his team deployed camera traps and non-invasive hair-snagging sites to track bear movements and genetics.
“We combined our photographs and genetic detections with interview data from elderly knowledge holders in two [First Nations] communities on the coast,” Darimont said. “What that did is give us data that our Western science data could never do, and that is, go back in time. What we couldn’t do is put remote cameras on these islands 60 years ago, so each knowledge source provided something the other knowledge source couldn’t … it was a pretty powerful story.”
Clark, too, said he hoped to further marry camera trap data collection with the expertise of local people in northern communities. “You can combine the robustness of the cameras with the ingenuity and knowledge that the local people have about the land that they live on,” he said. “This also gives them a way to gain a voice and some real traction in these debates about bear conservation that really do affect them a great deal.”
Rethinking conservation assumptions
In his next phase of bear conservation research, Clark plans to arm communities in northern Manitoba and Nunavut with camera traps of their own. His off-the-shelf Reconyx suite has provided a reliable view of the changing landscape. So far, however, he’s been able to capture only snapshots within the cameras’ 25-meter (82-foot) sensor range, and his curiosity of what lies beyond camp perimeters has prompted him to continue documenting the tale of the three bears in Wapusk National Park.
Clark said he thinks the information gained in Wapusk can help the conservation community around the world grapple with parallel situations. “Preserving a steady-state environment in the subarctic on the coast of Hudson Bay, or probably pretty much anywhere, is no longer an option,” he said.
“These doctrines and these assumptions in orthodox conservation thinking are really powerful, very deep-seated and hard to dislodge. Yet, the world is now forcing us dislodge them if we’re going to be able to do anything effective on the conservation front, now and in the future.”
RE: Canids Interactions - Interspecific Conflicts - Sanju - 03-11-2019
Unusual Friendship Between Wolf And Bear Documented By Finnish Photographer
“It’s very unusual to see a bear and a wolf getting on like this”
*This image is copyright of its original author
Nature photographers will often come across some rather eyebrow-raising things out in the wild.
Nothing is a better example of this than what Finnish photographer Lassi Rautiainen managed to capture – a wild bear and wolf keeping a close friendship out in the wilderness.
“It’s very unusual to see a bear and a wolf getting on as this” Lassi explains, yet the female grey wolf and male brown bear seem to be getting on fine as evidenced by the photographs of them with one another.
They were actually spotted together for a whopping ten days, where they would enjoy each other’s company for quite some time, often between 8 pm and 4 am.
“No-one can know exactly why or how the young wolf and bear became friends,” Lassi told the Daily Mail.
“I think that perhaps they were both alone and they were young and a bit unsure of how to survive alone…It is nice to share rare events in the wild that you would never expect to see.”
This unlikely pair was spotted by Finnish photographer Lassi Rautiainen
*This image is copyright of its original author
He photographed the female grey wolf and male brown bear every night for ten days straight
*This image is copyright of its original author
“No one had observed bears and wolves living near each other and becoming friends in Europe”
*This image is copyright of its original author
The two “friends” were even seen sharing food
*This image is copyright of its original author
“No one can know exactly why or how the young wolf and bear became friends”
*This image is copyright of its original author
“I think that perhaps they were both alone when they were young and a bit unsure of how to survive alone” (above pic is so lovely
)
*This image is copyright of its original author
“I came across these two and knew that it made the perfect story”
*This image is copyright of its original author
*This image is copyright of its original author
“It seems to me that they feel safe being together”
*This image is copyright of its original author
@epaiva @Shadow
RE: Canids Interactions - Interspecific Conflicts - Lycaon - 04-20-2019
Ross Forsyth
With 2 other members of the pack looking on from behind this Indian Grey Wolf chases a female striped hyena away from the packs kill in the open grasslands of Velavadar National Park,Gujarat — atThe Blackbuck Lodge Velavadar.
*This image is copyright of its original author
RE: Canids Interactions - Interspecific Conflicts - Sanju - 04-20-2019
@Lycaon
The actual video ...
(Click to play)
Amit Velavadar
Wolf driving a hyena away ...
Wolf chase Hyena
March 19, 2019.
RE: Canids Interactions - Interspecific Conflicts - Sanju - 04-23-2019
RE: Canids Interactions - Interspecific Conflicts - Pckts - 04-26-2019
Ross Forsyth
With 2 other members of the pack looking on from behind this Indian Grey Wolf chases a female striped hyena away from the packs kill in the open grasslands of Velavadar National Park,Gujarat
*This image is copyright of its original author
*This image is copyright of its original author
*This image is copyright of its original author
RE: Canids Interactions - Interspecific Conflicts - Sanju - 04-27-2019
Striped hyenas feed extensively on wolf-killed carcasses in areas where the two species interact. Wolves may encounter striped hyenas in Israel, Central Asia and India, usually in disputes over carcasses. One-on-one, hyenas dominate wolves, and may prey on them, (Hyenas around the cities. The case of Kaftarkhoun (Kashan- Iran), but wolf packs can drive off single or outnumbered hyenas. (Hyaenas: status survey and conservation action plan, Nayak, S.; Shah, S.; Borah, J. (2015) "Going for the kill: an observation of wolf-hyaena interaction in Kailadevi Wildlife Sanctuary, Rajasthan, India"). However, there was a case of a female striped hyena dominating 12 Arabian wolves. ("BBC Two – Wild Arabia, The Jewel of Arabia, Wolves vs hyena")
Interestingly, there are two cases are known however from southern Israel, where wolves and striped hyenas associated closely with each other in an apparently amicable way. (Dinets, Vladimir; Eligulashvili, Beniamin (February 2016). "Striped hyenas in gray wolf packs: cooperation, commensalism or singular aberration?") (Continuation to my prev post about this matter)
RE: Canids Interactions - Interspecific Conflicts - Sanju - 04-27-2019
Wolves and Cougars coexist by employing an evolution strategy to mitigate direct competition effects... Wolves encounter cougars along portions of the Rocky Mountains and adjacent mountain ranges. Wolves and cougars typically avoid encountering each other by hunting on different elevations.
However in winter, when snow accumulation forces their prey into valleys, interactions between the two species become more likely. Wolves in packs usually dominate cougars and can steal their kills. They have been reported killing mothers and their kittens. Cougars too do the same thing and lone or two wolves are in danger due to cougars. (Wolves: Behaviour, Ecology and Conservation, "Cougar Wolf Interactions: It's a Lot Like Cats and Dogs")
But wolves couldn't coexist with humans and rather became domesticated during late Pleistocene from don wolf. Other than humans, only other predator with which wolves couldn't mange to coexist is the Amur tiger coz they couldn't co-evolve like dhole to find an evolutionary strategy to be in the race of direct competition and other reason is low prey base in Siberian far east but may or may not find a way to coexist with tigers in future.
Mammals of the Soviet Union Vol. II Part 1a, SIRENIA AND CARNIVORA (Sea cows; Wolves and Bears)
Perry, R. (1964). The World of the Tiger, Cassell & Company
Lopez, Barry H. (1978). Of Wolves and Men.
Mech, L. David; Boitani, Luigi, eds. (2003). Wolves: Behaviour, Ecology and Conservation.
Heptner, V. G. & Sludskii, A. A. (1992). Mammals of the Soviet Union: Carnivora (hyaenas and cats), Volume 2
Wolf and tiger interactions are well documented in Sikhote-Alin, where tigers depress wolf numbers, either to the point of localized extinction or to such low numbers as to make them a functionally insignificant component of the ecosystem.
Wolves appear capable of escaping competitive exclusion from tigers only when tiger numbers decreases in recent times due to low and limited herbivore population in boreal forests. The main reason for low wolf population in Siberia is due to greater efficiency of tiger as keystone species and ultimate apex predator; driving away or taking over kills by chasing wolves from wolf made kills by tigers most of the time successfully and dominantly as an example of kleptoparasitism (it happens same with brown bear but due to inefficency to take over kills from wolves "all the time" but seldom and lifestyle as omnivore apex predator made brown bear-wolf coexistence possible) resulting in intense competition for very limited resources ranther than due to direct predation or killing of wolves by tigers. In fact, proven cases of tigers killing wolves are very rare and seldom occur with only four proven records of tigers killing wolves without consuming them concluding severe competition from tiger coupled with brown bear as major culprit of wolf low population or almost competitive exclusion in Siberia.
"Tigers and Wolves in the Russian Far East: Competitive Exclusion, Functional Redundancy and Conservation Implications"
Unlike Eurasian grey wolf spp. Indian wolf spp is quite well managed and comfortably coexisting with Bengal tigers and pallipes with caspian once.
RE: Canids Interactions - Interspecific Conflicts - Sanju - 04-29-2019
Quote:Sanju wrote:
Wolf interactions with American black bears are very rare, because of differences in habitat preferences. Interactions are rare as sometimes both can survive in other habitats too if they have to and during occasional ventures to other habitats by chance. Likewise, Tiger-Lion. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf#Enemi...ompetitors)
RE: Canids Interactions - Interspecific Conflicts - Luipaard - 05-17-2019
"Dogs and wolves are close relatives, but different species. Sometimes they form mixed packs, joining during mating season. As a result, hybrids are born which might affect genetic purity of the wolves population. Here in Sarigol National Park, northeastern Iran, a wolf is following a herd dog, judged based on its cut ears in mid-winter" (link)
*This image is copyright of its original author