It is significant that the pack of five wolves had a lower kill rate per wolf than did single wolves and pairs. This is explainable because the ability of wolves to kill deer during early 1969 was much greater than usual (see Mech _et al._, p. 51). Thus single wolves probably could kill deer just as easily as could packs, but they did not need to share them. This differs markedly from the situation on Isle Royale, where lone wolves usually feed only on moose remains left by packs (Mech 1966a, Jordan _et al._ 1967).
That lone wolves had more of a food surplus than those in the pack is confirmed by the figures on the average number of days that the various wolves fed on kills (table 7). Wolf 1051 spent an average of only 2.2 to 2.4 days feeding at each of his kills, whereas 1059's pack of five spent an average of 5.8 to 7.5 wolf-days at each kill. Further confirmation is found in the fact that even when most wolves were leaving their kills partly uneaten, a pack of 8 to 10 wolves (probably that to which 1057 belonged) was seen completely devouring a kill.
_Table 7.--Kill rate of deer by radiotagged wolves and their associates_
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wolf-days Wolf Wolf-days Wolf-days Wolf-days feeding # Wolves Dates of data Kills per kill[14] feeding per kill -------------------------------------------------------------------------- # # # Mean # # Mean #
1051 1 Nov. 26 to 101 14-16 6.3-7.2 33-40 2.2-2.4 Apr. 3
1053[15] 1 Dec. 14 to 75 2-3 25.0-37.5 9-18 4.5-6.0 Mar. 27
1055 1-2 Jan. 9 to 61 4-9 6.7-15.0 13-25 2.8-3.3 Mar. 14
1057 1-13 Jan. 24 to 51 5-7 7.3-10.2 25-33 4.7-5.0 Feb. 28
1059 5 Jan. 25 to 180 10-13 14.0-18.0 75 5.8-7.5 Mar. 14 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summary 22 Nov. 27 to 468 35-48 [16]9.8-13.4 145-181 [17]3.8-4.1 Apr. 3
Before 142 7-9 [18]15.7-20.3 39-56 5.1-5.6 Feb. 1
After 326 28-39 8.4-11.6 106-125 3.2-3.8 Jan. 31 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
[15] Figures for this animal are so low because she was basically a scavenger.
[16] Average kill rate per wolf for all radiotagged wolves and their associates, derived by dividing total number of wolf-days by total number of kills.