Ravens anticipate wolf kill sites across broad scales

Scavengers generally rely on patchily distributed, unpredictable carrion. a long-standing hypothesis suggests scavenging ravens reliably locate such food by directly following large carnivores to their kills. however, by satellite tracking 69 ravens, 20 wolves, and 11 cougars in Yellowstone National Park, we found that following of predators over large distances rarely occurred. Instead, ravens routinely revisited sites where wolf kills were common—returning from distances of up to 155 kilometers to find carrion. Much like navigating to permanent anthropogenic subsidies, ravens appear to remember potential sources of carrion shaped by previous encounters with wolves or their kills. These findings suggest that spatial memory and navigation play a considerably greater role than previously assumed among scavengers, and possibly other wide-ranging species, in search of ephemeral resources.

University of Washington
Universität Konstanz
Max-Planck-Institut für Verhaltensbiologie
Senckenberg Biodiversität und Klima Forschungszentrum
Goethe Universität Frankfurt
Yellowstone National Park