ETHIOPIAN WOLVES ► Food & foraging ecology

Although Ethiopian wolves live in close-knit territorial packs they forage and feed alone on small prey, contradicting the general trend in carnivores for grouping and cooperative hunting.

In the Bale Mounntainsthe wolves feed almost exclusively upon diurnal small mammals of the high altitude afroalpine grassland community, such as the giant molerat (Tacyoryctes macrocephals. 300 - 930 g), a rare root-rat endemic to Bale Mountains, and other endemic species such as grass rats Arvicanthis blicki, Lophuromys melanonyx, and Starck's hare Lepus starcki.

Rodents accounted for nearly 96% of all prey occurrences in faeces, with 87% belonging to the first three species listed above. Other prey species included Otomys typus, Lophuromys flavopunctatus, and occasionally goslings and eggs and rock hyrax (Procavia capensis).

Wolves are most active during the day; peaks of foraging activity suggest
that they synchronize their activity with that of rodents above the ground. Digging prey out is common, and is the most favoured technique to catch giant molerats or reach a nest of grass-rats, with the effort varying from a
few scratches at a rat hole to the total destruction of a set of burrows leaving conspicuous mounds of dirt. Kills are often cached and later retrieved.

Although the Ethiopian wolf is a pre-eminent rodent hunter it is also a facultative, cooperative hunter. Occasionally small packs have been seen chasing and killing mountain nyala (Tragelaphus buxtoni) and reedbuck calves (Redunca redunca), lambs, and hares.

Outside Bale, where the giant molerat is absent, it is replaced in the diet by the smaller common molerat, Tachyoryctes splendens. Towards the drier and less productive northern highlands, the bulk of the diet shift stowards the smaller rats, including significant porportions of nocturnal species.

This dietary study, spanning across the species distribution also confirmed that wolves rarely predate on livestock. Where livetsock remains where found on feaces, people also reported negative attitudes towards wolves due to predation conflicts. Hyenas and common jackals, however, are the main livestock killers of the highlands.

See Food & foraging publications.