The Liboki Forest is one of the largest forests in Eastern Europe, where there were originally many wolves, but now the wolves here are quickly driven away by the forest's lynx, red deer, moose, bears and other animals.
Although wolves are carnivores and fierce, their lives and reproduction are seriously disturbed in the forests surrounded by strong enemies.
The first is the lynx, which is a total of four species: Iberian lynx, Eurasian lynx, Canadian lynx and short-tailed cat, while the local forest is mainly distributed with Eurasian lynx.
Eurasian lynx are medium beasts of prey, weighing between 15-30 kg. Although they are not comparable in size to wolves, they like to clean up the local forest during brooding.
In our impression, wolves belong to social animals, but in fact, during the season when food is abundant, wolves will live a solitary lifestyle, because wolves living alone can also catch enough food and do not have to share food with other members, so that the wolves can get more energy.
In the season when food is abundant, and it is also the season of wolf brooding, wolves usually form small families to brood. At this point, the lynx will bite the young wolf while the adult wolf is not there. Sometimes larger male lynx also hunt down heavily pregnant she-wolves, controlling the local wolf population.
Scientists have observed that if a forest is small in number of lynx, the wolves can still function normally. But once the density of lynx is large, then the development of wolves will be inhibited. In turn, the presence of wolves does not inhibit the survival of lymes.
The reason why lynx kill wolves is not that adult wolves hunt them, but because of energy competition. We know that wolves, like lynxes, are carnivores and that there is a great deal of overlap in food. However, the energy in the local forest is limited, and if there are too many wolves, the lynx will spend more time hunting. And if there are more wolves in the local forest, the survival rate of lynx broods will also drop significantly.
In order to improve their hunting efficiency, but also for the survival rate of their cubs, the larger male lynx risked killing wolves to the benefit of the population, so the way of survival was retained by them. Wolves, however, did not learn to control the population of local lynx so that they did not suppress the development of lynx.
If the lynx kills wolves to eliminate potential competitors, then moose kills to defend lives.
During the season of food scarcity, wolves prefer to live in groups, so that they can hunt larger animals, such as moose and red deer.
Moose and red deer are larger and faster, and it is reasonable to say that they have never been afraid of anyone but tigers, but in the face of the attack of wolves, moose also have the probability of being preyed upon.
In order to eliminate future predators, moose will trample back and forth when they encounter wolf cubs or wolf dens, making it difficult for wolf cubs in the forest to survive.
According to the study, wolf pups before the age of half a year are attacked and die with ungulates account for 10% of their total deaths. And as there are more and more ungulates in the area, so do the number of wolf pups that are trampled by ungulates.
In terms of combat effectiveness, wolves are not without the ability to fight back. First of all, wolves are larger than lynxes, and lynx dare not hunt adult wolves, especially healthy adult male wolves. Whether in groups or during solitary periods, they are well placed to clean up local lynx, especially lynx cubs.
But they don't, and they rarely hunt lynxes, in part because lynx are also carnivores and have a strong attack power, and wolves, although they can beat lynx, will also have a certain probability of hanging or dying. What's more, even hunting lynx can't meet the energy needs of the wolves, so the wolves set their sights on large animals such as red deer and moose that are better bullied.
Male red deer and moose have sharp and sharp antlers that can withstand the attack of the wolves, but once successful, the wolves will gain a lot of energy and will no longer eat for the next few days.
Red deer and moose cannot resist attacks from adult wolves, but they attack wolf cubs, and they attack cubs in the absence of adult wolves, and the number of young cubs is reduced, and the wolves are unable to completely suppress the red deer and moose.
Under the suppression of lynx and red deer, moose and other animals, researchers found that the number of wolves in the Liboki Forest was decreasing, and some wolves that reached the reproductive age gradually left the forest to find breeding places elsewhere.
With the gradual strengthening of human environmental awareness, the main threat to many wild animals is no longer humans, but the local ecological chain, if a strong local species rises, it is possible to squeeze out the animals in the original ecology, such as the wolf of the Liboki Forest.