Wolves in a Human World: Social Dynamics of the Northern Hemisphere’s Most Iconic Social Carnivore

Wolves are one of the most studied wildlife species in the world, yet we only have an emerging picture of how humans affect wolf social dynamics. This chapter provides an overview of wolf social dynamics, including the fundamentals of how they live, breed, hunt, and survive, the advantages and disadvantages that coincide with group living, and how human pressures may affect their social behavior. Wolves are a short-lived species with a fast-paced life history who display a high degree of behavioral flexibility. Their primary social unit is a multigenerational family group, also called a “pack.” Group dynamics (e.g., number of individuals, age structure, composition, and cohesion) and foraging strategies (e.g., prey selec-tion, hunting tactics, and scavenging behavior) vary widely and are generally context dependent. In other words, they differ between systems, seasons, prey type, size and density, the density of conspecifics and other competitors, habitat type and landscape characteristics, and levels of anthropogenic disturbance. Regardless of the system, group living provides a range of advantages to wolves, including territorial defense, breeding, hunting, and food defense. However, these must be balanced with inherent disadvantages of group living, such as intraspecific competition within the pack, e.g., competition for food. 90 A. Tallian et al. Anthropogenic disturbance can directly and indirectly alter wolf behavior. For example, wolves alter their spatial and temporal movement patterns and space use within human-modified landscapes and in response to human disturbance, which can dampen their ecological role as apex predators. Humans also directly affect pack dynamics and social behavior by killing individuals, via both legal and illegal harvest. By reviewing recent research conducted on wolf populations living under different levels of protection, we suggest that wolf pack social structure appears to be comparatively more complex (i.e., include more age classes and complex relation-ships) in systems where anthropogenic mortality is low. In addition, high anthropo-genic mortality across all age and sex classes may alter dispersal patterns and reduce pack cohesion and functionality, which may ultimately foster pack dissolution. In turn, this may increase pack turnover rates and reduce both individual lifespan and pack longevity, with potentially relevant ecological and conservation implications. The consequences of anthropogenic disturbance on social dynamics is likely particularly important, as there are few wolf populations inhabiting landscapes free from humans and their impact. Wolves are often considered a resilient species, meaning you can hunt them and their numbers will quickly rebound. Indeed, wolves may appear numerically resilient, but their pack composition and social dynamics are likely more fragile. This is important because changes to pack size and compo-sition can affect a pack’s ability to successfully hunt prey, rear pups, and defend their territories, as well as their overall ecology, population dynamics, and cascading effects through an ecosystem.