4 variation in Diet and Resources

The diet of maned wolves (MW) was investigated during a general study of the ecology of the species in Noel Kempff Mercado National Park, Bolivia. Qualitative field records of scat contents were recorded from 2001–2007, and a quantitative analysis comparing wet and dry seasons was based on scat collections from 2008–2009. Like other studies, we found the diet to be composed of about half each of fruit and animal prey, with ratios that changed slightly with seasons. Prey included all small mammal species found on the savanna, and fruit eaten included a wide array of seasonally changing species, but frugivory was dominated by Alibertia edulis, present in 47% of all scats, and by Solanum gomphodes, in 18% of scats. Rodents declined by >90%, and a major prey species, Cavia aperea (cavies; over 60% occurrence), went to extinction in the study savanna from 2003–2006. No other species replaced cavies in importance, and their loss coincided with changes in maned wolf territory size and body condition. Savanna fires influenced the fruiting of major dietary taxa, which peaked in the diet 2–3 years following burns, but were almost absent in the first year postfire. We estimate daily energy consumption and foraging return based on the biomass of items enumerated in scats and the nightly distances MW traveled.