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Study shows predators take animals of little interest to hunters.
1/28/02
BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- Researchers said a three year study of predator behavior showed that cougars and wolves prefer different elk then hunters.
The observation that the predators prefer elk calves while human hunters generally like older animals is just one made during the Idaho Department of Fish and Game study in the Salmon Region.
For three winters, Gary Power, the Lemhi County Project Coordination, and Jason Husseman, of the University of Idaho's Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, recorded 214 big game animals killed by cougars and wolves. That included 160 elk, 52 deer, 1 bighorn sheep and one mountain goat. Both wolves and cougars preferred elk calves.
Researchers said the predators favored calves 60 percent of the time, followed by older animals 25 percent of the time and one- to nine-year-olds 15 percent.
Over the three-year period, cougars began eating more deer and fewer elk. Their consumption of deer moved from 14 percent to 41 percent while elk consumption went from 83 percent of cougar kills to 56 percent. Wolves' preferences did not change.
The study showed that antlered bull elk made up only a small portion of the wolves' and cougars' kills.
Researchers also noted that wolf predation seems to be changing elk behavior. Elk herds now tend to encircle their calves when threatened, a behavior that was not seen in the area before wolves were reintroduced in 1996.
1/28/02
BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- Researchers said a three year study of predator behavior showed that cougars and wolves prefer different elk then hunters.
The observation that the predators prefer elk calves while human hunters generally like older animals is just one made during the Idaho Department of Fish and Game study in the Salmon Region.
For three winters, Gary Power, the Lemhi County Project Coordination, and Jason Husseman, of the University of Idaho's Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, recorded 214 big game animals killed by cougars and wolves. That included 160 elk, 52 deer, 1 bighorn sheep and one mountain goat. Both wolves and cougars preferred elk calves.
Researchers said the predators favored calves 60 percent of the time, followed by older animals 25 percent of the time and one- to nine-year-olds 15 percent.
Over the three-year period, cougars began eating more deer and fewer elk. Their consumption of deer moved from 14 percent to 41 percent while elk consumption went from 83 percent of cougar kills to 56 percent. Wolves' preferences did not change.
The study showed that antlered bull elk made up only a small portion of the wolves' and cougars' kills.
Researchers also noted that wolf predation seems to be changing elk behavior. Elk herds now tend to encircle their calves when threatened, a behavior that was not seen in the area before wolves were reintroduced in 1996.
