Diet study of Arctic wolves in Sirius Passet, North Greenland ecosystem

Abstract

In the Arctic, terrestrial wolves are an important top predator to prey on a variety of animals from small rodents and birds to large ungulates. Although wolves have been studied well, we have few information in high Arctic areas. To investigate the diet of high Arctic wolves, we collected 13 fecal samples in Sirius Passet in North Greenland for three years from 2016 to 2018. By analyzing the fecal components with a microscope, we determined the diet composition of the wolves. We found that a majority of prey was lemmings (54.2% of occurrence) and the second was birds (33.3%). We also detected hairs and bones of muskoxen (8.3%) and Arctic hares (4.2%). These results are not in accordance with the one in a previous study in early 1990s in the same site that the main food sources were muskoxen. Our findings suggest that wolves are highly dependent on lemmings and birds in this area and the diet compositions may have changed with the limited ungulate population.