Study finds that wolves prefer cattle
I’m sure this news comes as no surprise to ranchers in Colorado, but a University of California Davis study found that cattle made up 72 percent of wolf diet samples from two Northern California wolf packs.
A team of researchers gathered wolf scat because it was easier than locating animals that had been killed by the wolves. And, obviously they can’t study the content of their stomachs without harming the wolves.
The team studied two wolf packs in 2022 and 2023 and cattle were the most frequent food consumed by wolves and were detected in 86 percent of samples in 2022 and 55 percent in 2023.
“Whether it’s through scavenging or whether it’s through depredation, it’s a huge component of the wolves’ diet,” said lead author Tina Saitone, a professor of Cooperative Extension in the UC Davis Agricultural and Resource Economics Department. “Their conservation success is because of livestock producers in the state.”
But depredation isn’t the only problem associated with the increased number of wolves in cattle country.
According to a UC Davis article, “A second study, published in Ecology and Evolution, measured cortisol levels in tail hair samples collected from beef cattle grazing rangelands in northeastern California — some herds sharing territory with wolf packs, others in areas without wolves. Cortisol, often called the stress hormone, accumulates in hair over time, making it a reliable indicator of chronic stress rather than a momentary response to fright.
“Cattle herds living among wolves had cortisol levels 58% higher than those in control herds — a significant physiological difference. This marks one of the first times hair cortisol analysis has been used to study how the reintroduction of predators reshapes livestock physiology in the field.”
As you can expect the animal activists aren’t happy with the study’s results. According to an article in the Sacramento Bee, written by Sharon Bernstein, 18 scientists sent a letter to UC Davis criticizing the scat study and the results of the cortisol levels study.
“Amaroq Weiss, the organization’s senior wolf advocate, said, “Collecting scat along roads and trails does intersect with where wolves like to travel. But it avoids the wild, brushy areas where they also go. Scat from such areas, far away from ranches and grazing land, might show that the wolves had a diet made up of smaller prey found off the beaten path.
“Weiss also questioned the presence of wolves causing cortisol levels to spike in the cattle. For example, she said, the herd could have been stressed because of the management techniques used by ranchers or from the move to the summer grazing lands.
“Different management techniques as well as the introduction of cattle breeds that are more aggressive in dealing with predators could also help ranchers with herds in areas where wolves also live, she said.”
Yes, and ranchers love to deal with aggressive cattle.
I have to applaud the researchers at UC Davis, and I believe their results show a true picture of the conflict between wolves and cattle. I hope the results of this study will prompt wildlife officials to allow California ranchers to use the tools they need to protect their cattle herds.
