Reconstruction of the extinct Ezo wolf's diet to understand their ecological role in the past ecosystem

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K18627
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Ecology/Environment
• Research Institution: Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (2017); Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (2016)
• Principal Investigator: MATSUBAYASHI Jun 国立研究開発法人海洋研究開発機構, 生物地球化学研究分野, 特別研究員(PD) (30756052)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: エゾオオカミ / 同位体 / 絶滅種 / 食性復元

Outline of Final Research Achievements

On Hokkaido, Japan, the Ezo wolf (Canis lupus hattai), an apex predator, became extinct at the end of the 19th century. To infer the ecological role of the Ezo wolf in the past ecosystem, I performed carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis and radiocarbon dating of bone specimens of the wolf and its prey species. Radiocarbon dating suggested that most of the wolves examined came from different populations or generations. The discrimination-corrected isotopic ratios of five of the seven wolves were almost the same as those of Sika deer at the same sites. In contrast, those of two wolves had clearly higher isotopic values than those of deer, suggesting that these wolves depended partly on marine prey such as salmon and marine mammals. Thus, Ezo wolves had similar ecological roles to Canadian grey wolves, and were a second subspecies shown to have fed on a marine diet, in addition to the 'coastal wolves' of British Columbia.

Free Research Field

同位体生態学