I don’t think his arguments that wolves are not cooperative hunters are all that convincing. I think his measures all wrong.
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Pack behavior doesn’t actually have that much to do with hunting large game.
Case in point.
The Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis) lives in packs– just like the other wolves. At one time it was considered a species of jackal, but now it is known to be far more closely related to Canis lupus than any species of jackal, which is why we now call it a wolf.
Although it is a pack animal, it doesn’t often hunt large game specie. Although it occasionally goes after a few small antelope, but most of its diet is rodents In fact, their diet consists mostly of big-headed mole rats.
Yes, there actually is a wolf that lives almost solely on rodents.
If only Farley Mowat had gone to Ethiopia!
hmmmm… then I guess the 2 wolves I saw “herding” a large bull elk between them into the deep snow weren’t really cooperating? Just coincidentally running after the elk in the optimum direction at the same time?
“If only Farley Mowat had gone to Ethiopia!”
If only, indeed! He would have made it a most fascinating, enchanting, humorous journey to imagine.
L. David Mech isn’t even 100% sure all wolves hunt cooperatively (specific tactic discussed in his book is ambushing). The biologist in the video is right in some ways – cooperative hunting with larger groups of animals should, theoretically, increase the chance of a kill. It’s one measurement used with lionesses, for example, whose kill rate improves with an increase in pride size and who is a species that is known for its cooperative hunting tactics.
When “Wolves” was written, there were many biologists who weren’t sure that wolves used ambushing (the example in book) as a cooperative hunting strategy but all thought wolves capable of cooperative hunting, in some form. Mech also suggested that one reason cooperative hunting may not be ideal for some wolves is that, unlike lionesses, wolf pack membership and size varies throughout the year…while a lioness will spend her whole life with her pride, a female wolf may leave her pack at 2-3 years of age and start her own.
It was a mistake to use that measure. I think wolves do hunt cooperatively. It’s just that their social nature sometimes takes precedence over expediency and efficiency.
The reason why wolves form packs is far more complex than simple predatory advantage. I think it has more to do with the fact that in a lot of wild dogs, there are often adult pups that cannot find territories of their own. So they remain with their parents. It’s been observed in all species of Jackal and the coyote.