Food habits of gray wolves in the Bogdkhan Mountain Strictly Protected Area, Mongolia

抄録

A study of the diet of the gray wolves (Canis lupus) in the Bogdkhan Mountain Strictly Protected Area (41,651ha), Mongolia, was conducted by analyzing 126 scats in June 2004 and 122 scats in June 2005. Horse hairs occurred in 62.7% of the scats in 2004 and 50.0% of the scats in 2005, and goat hairs occurred in 31.0% in 2004 and 41.8% in 2005. These values were significantly higher than for other prey species. The size of the Bogdkhan Mountain Strictly Protected Area is not large enough to maintain the five wolf packs that roam there, nor is the number of wild prey in the area sufficient to support them. Consequently, the wolves also hunt outside the protected area and depend on free-ranging livestock within and around the protected area.