how does an arctic wolf get its food
Arctic wolf In the wild, Arctic wolves' primarily prey on muskoxen and Arctic hares. They have also been found to prey on lemmings, reindeers, Arctic foxes, birds and beetles. It has been also found that Arctic wolves scavenge through garbage. This sort of food source will not always be found in the Arctic wolves diet because of regional and seasonal availability.[19] Sometimes there is debate whether the muskox or the Arctic hare is the primary prey for the hare-wolf-muskox predator-prey system. Studies provide evidence that the muskoxen are indeed their primary prey because wolf presence and reproduction seems to be higher when muskox is more available than higher hare availability.[20] More supporting evidence suggests that muskoxen provide long-term viability and other ungulates do not appear in wolves diet.[21] Evidence suggesting that Arctic wolves depend more on hares claims that the mature wolf population paralleled the increase of hares rather than muskoxen availability.[22] The study goes on to say that degree of reliance between the two sources of food is uncertain and that the amount of consumption between the two species depends on the season and year.[22] Debate continues when seasonal and diet of young wolves is discussed. According to one study, muskox calves serve as a primary food source because the needs of pups are greater[23] but another study suggests that "when hares were much more plentiful (Mech, 2000), wolves commonly fed them to their pups during summer."[22] These differences may be attributed to location as well. Polar bears are rarely encountered by wolves, though there are two records of wolf packs killing polar bear cubs.[24]