Trophic facilitation by introduced top predators: gray wolf subsidies to scavengers

Wilmers and colleagues showed that reintroduced wolves in Yellowstone act as ecosystem benefactors by providing a steady, more evenly distributed supply of carrion to scavengers, buffering them against the loss of late-winter starvation carcasses expected under climate warming. Although the focal predator is the wolf, the study is a key reference for carcass ecology relevant to big cats, demonstrating how apex-predator kills subsidize ravens, eagles, coyotes, bears and many other species. It quantified the timing and amount of carrion provisioned and argued that top predators stabilize scavenger food supplies. The framework directly informs research on how pumas and other large felids provision scavenger communities through their kills.