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Wolf Pack Size And Food Acquisition

Many workers have proposed or accepted the idea that the reason gray wolves (Canis lupus) live in groups, or packs, is because group hunting facilitates their acquisition of large prey (Murie 1944; Mech 1970; Zimen 1976; Nudds 1978; Pulliam and Caraco 1978; Bekoff and Wells 1980; Rodman 1981). In other words, a pack of eight wolves, for example, would be more than twice as successful as a pack of four. If this proposal is valid, then the amount of food acquired per individual should increase as pack size increases, at least to some optimal size (Nudds 1978). Nudds (1978) utilized sparse data from the literature and detected an apparent relationship between wolf pack size and food acquired per wolf that implied that packs smaller than optimal size acquired substantially less food per wolf than those of optimal size. He also speculated that there were different optimal pack sizes for wolves preying on moose (Alces alces) and other large prey than for those preying principally on deer (Odocoileus virginianus), by analogy to the situation described by Caraco and Wolf (1975) for lions (Panthera leo). However, Thurber and Peterson (1993) used considerably more data and demonstrated that for wolves preying primarily on moose on Isle Royale, food acquisition per wolf decreased with increased pack size. Hayes (1995) found the same for wolves preying on moose and caribou (Rangifer tarandus), and Dale et al. (1995) concluded that the larger packs they observed killing moose, caribou, and Dall sheep (Ovis dalli) acquired no more food per wolf than did the smaller packs. Their findings not only contradicted Nudds’s (1978) notion of optimal pack size but also tended to refute the claim that wolves live in packs in order to facilitate the killing of larger prey. The relationship that Thurber and Peterson (1993) found implied that, for example, each member of packs of six to 12 gained only 60%–70% of the food that single wolves or pairs acquired. Hayes’s (1995) figures indicated that each member of packs of six to 12 acquired only 35%–60% of the food that individual pair members did. In neither