Big wolf pack chasing bull moose

Crazy footage from about a week ago: a large wolf pack chasing a bull moose!

Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, the camera glitched out after recording for 2 seconds, something that rarely happens. However, the camera was back to working just fine the next minute as we caught some footage of a few wolves that were just behind the main group.

Nonetheless, this is something we have never captured on camera before!

The pack was not successful in this hunt. Three of the pack members, including the breeding male, come back past the camera 6 minutes after the chase. Additionally, we followed the tracks of the moose and wolves into a large beaver meadow where it was clear the wolves stopped their pursuit and turned around.

Ultimately, that is not surprising for two reasons.

#1.) Wolves in our area almost never kill moose. In 12 years of studying the predation behavior of wolves, we have found 3 moose killed: 2 calves and 1 adult. For perspective, during this time we have documented 2,314 kills of beavers and deer. Much of this is because of the low density of moose, and the abundance of other prey.

#2.) Even if wolves killed moose more regularly in our area, the hunting success rates of wolves when hunting moose is quite low. An excerpt from Mech et al.’s authoritative book on wolf hunting behavior published in 2015 states:

“Moose defenses are many, varied, and highly effective again wolves. Where moose make up the only important food of the wolf…wolves spend just about all their waking hours—when not actually feeding—searching for, chasing, or confronting, catching, and killing moose…

Based on 115 direct winter encounters between wolves and moose on Isle Royale, wolves succeeded only 6% of the time (Mech 1966a, Peterson 1977). In Denali National Park from 1969-1970 to 1973-1974, wolves succeeded in killing only 6% of the 346 moose they tested during winter (Haber 1977).”

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Written by Voyageurs Wolf Project