• HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Thursday, March 4, 2021
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News

Wolves prefer to feed on the wild side

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
February 18, 2021
in Science News
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Research team studies feeding behavior of wild predators in Mongolia

IMAGE

Credit: Nina Tiralla

When there is a choice, wolves in Mongolia prefer to feed on wild animals rather than grazing livestock. This is the discovery by a research team from the University of Göttingen and the Senckenberg Museum Görlitz. Previous studies had shown that the diet of wolves in inland Central Asia consists mainly of grazing livestock, which could lead to increasing conflict between nomadic livestock herders and wild predatory animals like wolves. The study has been published in the journal Mammalian Biology.

Around three million people live in Mongolia, making it the most sparsely populated country in the world. In addition, there are more than 40 million grazing animals. These animals are not just a source of food but also the only source of income for more than half of the population. Livestock cultivation is leading to a massive change in Mongolia’s landscape: areas close to nature are increasingly being converted into pastureland: in fact, one third of the country is now used for this purpose. This inevitably leads to conflict with the indigenous wild animals, especially large predators such as the wolf.

Biologist and forest scientist Nina Tiralla from the University of Göttingen studied the feeding behaviour of wolves for her Master’s thesis. Together with colleagues from the Senckenberg Museum, she analysed 137 wolf droppings collected during fieldwork in Mongolia between 2008 and 2012. “We were able to show that 89 percent of the wolves’ diet consisted of wild ungulates, predominantly Siberian roe deer,” says Tiralla. “The remaining 11 per cent consisted of small mammals such as hares or mice.” Even remnants of insects and berries could be detected in the faeces – but there was no trace of farmed animals. “This was surprising for us because previous studies had shown grazing animals to be the main food source for wolves,” says Tiralla.

The key difference could lie in the situation of the animals: unlike the earlier studies on Mongolian wolves, the samples examined in this study come from near-natural regions with high species diversity. “Although there is also a supply of grazing animals here, the wolves seem to prefer wild animals such as the Siberian roe deer as prey, possibly because they are easier and less dangerous to hunt,” the authors explain. They conclude that if wolves live in a near-natural and species-rich landscape with sufficient prey, they pose only a very low threat to grazing livestock. This could apply not only in Mongolia, but in principle also to other countries.

###

Original publication: Nina Tiralla, Maika Holzapfel, Hermann Ansorge (2021). Feeding ecology of the wolf (Canis lupus) in a near-natural ecosystem in Mongolia. Mammalian Biology 101: 83-89. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-020-00093-z

Contact:

Nina Tiralla

University of Göttingen

Faculty of Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology

Bioclimatology Group

Büsgenweg 2, 37077 Göttingen, Germany

Email: [email protected]

http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/197704.html

Media Contact
Melissa Sollich
[email protected]

Original Source

https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/3240.html?id=6177

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s42991-020-00093-z

Tags: Agricultural Production/EconomicsBiologyEcology/EnvironmentFood/Food ScienceSocial/Behavioral Science
Share12Tweet7Share2ShareShareShare1

Related Posts

IMAGE

Research contributes to understanding of hypersonic flow

March 4, 2021
IMAGE

New microcomb could help discover exoplanets and detect diseases

March 4, 2021

Purdue Research Foundation partners with IdentifySensors Biologics for COVID-19 technology

March 4, 2021

Air pollution fell sharply during lockdown

March 4, 2021

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

POPULAR NEWS

  • IMAGE

    Terahertz accelerates beyond 5G towards 6G

    665 shares
    Share 266 Tweet 166
  • People living with HIV face premature heart disease and barriers to care

    83 shares
    Share 33 Tweet 21
  • Global analysis suggests COVID-19 is seasonal

    38 shares
    Share 15 Tweet 10
  • HIV: an innovative therapeutic breakthrough to optimize the immune system

    36 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Tags

Cell BiologyTechnology/Engineering/Computer SciencePublic HealthEcology/EnvironmentInfectious/Emerging DiseasescancerBiologyMedicine/HealthClimate ChangeGeneticsMaterialsChemistry/Physics/Materials Sciences

Recent Posts

  • Research contributes to understanding of hypersonic flow
  • New microcomb could help discover exoplanets and detect diseases
  • Purdue Research Foundation partners with IdentifySensors Biologics for COVID-19 technology
  • Air pollution fell sharply during lockdown
  • Contact Us

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In