Does the season change where wolf scats are easiest to find?

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Wolves are recolonising their historic range in France. Collecting scats is a widely used non-invasive way to monitor wolf population size, but seasonal changes in where wolves deposit them may affect survey results.

Researchers used a detection dog and camera trapping (CT) to compare adult wolf scat detectability in winter and during the nursing season. They collected 113 scats deposited by adult wolves at 29 marking sites on forest roads in the Sainte-Baume Regional Park, Provence, France.

After parturition, the mean number of adult wolf scats increased by 160% inside the nursing territory and decreased by 80% outside it. Around the time pups were born, the probability of finding scats was 87% per wolf marking site around the den, compared with 11% outside the nursing territory. In winter, the chance was similar inside and outside the nursing territory, at 38 to 40% per wolf marking site.

Using a detection dog and camera traps together allowed the researchers to gather data on wolf defecation patterns non-invasively. They concluded that adult scat detectability varies much more during the nursing season than in winter because seasonal behavioural changes affect scat location. To avoid sampling biases, they recommended conducting surveys to collect samples and estimate wolf population size exclusively during winter.