Wolves hunting deer in winter in Northern Minnesota
Some pretty fascinating and rare footage of wolves hunting deer this past winter from 7 hunting sequences. Of course, wolves hunting deer is a regular occurrence in many areas but observing multiple hunting sequences is practically impossible given the dense forests and lack of visibility.
Trail cameras, however, have been fantastic ways to get little snippets of insight on these hunts. The drawback is: you only get snippets, and often have no idea what the outcome was.
We captured 7 different hunting sequences this winter and each one is a bit different ranging from wolves only seconds behind a large buck in December to wolves chasing a seemingly exhausted deer to wolves many minutes behind other deer.
In a few observations, it is possible that wolves were not “actively chasing/pursuing” deer but rather just scent-tracking deer in hopes of eventually getting close enough to launch a chase.
One interesting observations about all these hunts (and several others we have captured on camera): there generally appears to be one wolf leading the chase, often by several minutes, with others well behind.
And often, the pups are well behind (like in the first sequence where one pup is about 40 mins behind the pack), likely because they don’t have the stamina to keep up with the adults over long periods.
Lastly, numerous aerial observations of wolves hunting deer in Minnesota and other places has shown that most hunts are not successful. Wolves might chase and pursue deer for a period to test them and see if they are vulnerable.
In many cases, wolves give up the hunt, presumably because they realize they will not be able to catch the deer, or the effort needed to do so likely outweighs the benefits from the kill.
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