Mountain Lions Kill Wolves

Mountain Lions Kill Wolves

Mountain lions kill wolves? Never heard of that one before, but supposedly some hound hunters ran this mountain lion near Garden Valley, Idaho a few weeks ago. The lion hunters heard a big fight going on and by the time they got there, the tom was treed over a dead wolf. Pretty cool.

Do Mountain Lions Kill Wolves?

A recent study in northwestern Montana by the Hornocker Wildlife Institute which is affiliated with the University of Idaho was the first ever done on wolf / mountain lion interactions. Radio collars were put on 40 mountain lions for the study.

Project leader Toni Ruth says, “wolves and grizzly bears tend to harass and cause the deaths of mountain lions to a greater degree than was previously understood. When wolf packs encountered mountain lions, the cats were generally chased off or killed.” The lions were then forced to make additional kills in order to survive.

Seven of the cats died of starvation. “The starvations are probably related to mountain lions getting bumped off of their kills,” Ruth said. “They’re expending the energy to make a kill but are not able to reap the benefits. There is also the compounding problem of a decline in prey availability.”

So, it sounds like it was an isolated incident. At least that’s what I took from it.

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