Breeding displacement in gray wolves (Canis lupus): Three males usurp breeding position and pup rearing from a neighboring pack in Yellowstone National Park.

Gray Wolves (Canis lupus) are territorial, group living carnivores that live in packs typically consisting of a dominant breeding pair and their offspring. Breeding tenures are relatively short and competitive, with vacancies usually occurring following a breeder's death, and are often filled by unrelated immigrants or by relatives of the previous breeder. The frequency and conditions of active breeder displacements are poorly understood. Position changes in the dominance hierarchy are common yet rarely documented in detail. We describe a male breeding position turnover in a wolf pack by males from a neighboring pack in mid-summer 2016 in Yellowstone National Park. Over the course of two months, three males from the Mollie's pack displaced the breeding male of the neighboring Wapiti Lake pack, joined the pack's two adult females, and subsequently raised the previous male's four approximately three-month old pups. In the five years following the displacement (2017 to 2021), at least one of the intruding males has successfully bred with the dominant female and most years with a subordinate female (who was one of the pups at the time of displacement). The pack reared pups to adulthood each year. Male breeding displacements are likely influenced by male-male competition and female mate choice. These changes are the result of individuals competing to improve breeding position and may lead to increased pack stability and greater reproductive success. We report in detail on the behavior of a closely observed breeding displacement and we discuss the adaptive benefits of the change.

Implications of Harvest on the Boundaries of Protected Areas for Large Carnivore Viewing Opportunities.

The desire to see free ranging large carnivores in their natural habitat is a driver of tourism in protected areas around the globe. However, large carnivores are wide-ranging and subject to human-caused mortality outside protected area boundaries. The impact of harvest (trapping or hunting) on wildlife viewing opportunities has been the subject of intense debate and speculation, but quantitative analyses have been lacking. We examined the effect of legal harvest of wolves (Canis lupus) along the boundaries of two North American National Parks, Denali (DNPP) and Yellowstone (YNP), on wolf viewing opportunities within the parks during peak tourist season. We used data on wolf sightings, pack sizes, den site locations, and harvest adjacent to DNPP from 1997-2013 and YNP from 2008-2013 to evaluate the relationship between harvest and wolf viewing opportunities. Although sightings were largely driven by wolf population size and proximity of den sites to roads, sightings in both parks were significantly reduced by harvest. Sightings in YNP increased by 45% following years with no harvest of a wolf from a pack, and sightings in DNPP were more than twice as likely during a period with a harvest buffer zone than in years without the buffer. These findings show that harvest of wolves adjacent to protected areas can reduce sightings within those areas despite minimal impacts on the size of protected wolf populations. Consumptive use of carnivores adjacent to protected areas may therefore reduce their potential for non-consumptive use, and these tradeoffs should be considered when developing regional wildlife management policies.