Rare footage of wolves eating berries #Video

The berry season is here— the time of year when wolves in our area become omnivores! For some wolves and wolf packs, berries will likely be the primary food source for the next 4 or so weeks. Rare footage of this behavior above.

Some research we did a few years ago showed that berries can make up to 83% of a wolf pack’s weekly diet during the peak of the berry season. Of course, one has to wonder why wolves are eating berries in the first place?

It is almost certainly not because wolves prefer berries over other prey. Instead, berries are likely ’starvation food’. The availability of blueberries corresponds with a period of time when wolves main prey is less available and harder to catch.

By early-to-mid July deer fawns, which are wolves' primary prey during June, have grown older and most fawns are able to evade wolves. Similarly, beavers are likely spending less time on land because they have abundant aquatic vegetation in their ponds. Thus, mid-to-late summer is a lean time for wolves.

Eating berries is likely a way for wolves to minimize weight loss during this period. When berries are abundant, wolves typically just linger around berry patches which likely requires far fewer calories than searching a wide area chasing after prey.

Notably, wolves are almost certainly not getting as many calories from eating berries as they would if they could kill prey (i.e., wolves would likely get more calories out of a pound of meat than a pound of berries). However, wolves can taste sweetness so the berries probably taste good and most importantly, the berries probably make the wolves feel satiated.

However, when eating a predominantly berry diet, wolves are almost certainly losing weight. Studies on captive coyotes and foxes have shown that both of these species lose weight when fed a diet of fruit. There is little reason to think the same isn't true of wolves.

In the end, it likely just comes down to the cost-benefit of foraging on berries vs. hunting and killing prey!

Learn more about the Voyageurs Wolf Project:
Website: http://www.voyageurswolfproject.org
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