Wolves and Ravens – Nature’s Odd Couple

The wolf’s effective hunt of large prey and striking, soulful appearance have attracted both
haters and lovers of this wild predator.
Wolves were so despised that the U.S. government established a bounty program that helped to
eliminate all but a few hundred wolves in the United States by the 1930s. But thanks to the
Endangered Species Act, the wolves are successfully being reintroduced to their place in nature,
and it is the raven who loves its ecosystem partner.
Nature’s Odd Couple
Much like their human counterparts, ravens and wolves have formed a mutually beneficial
relationship in which they seem to both respect and engage each other in playful activities.
Although many animals benefit from a wolf pack’s kill of an elk or deer, the ravens are first on
the scene. Yellowstone National Park biologists have closely studied grey wolves which were
reintroduced to Yellowstone in 1995 and found that it is the raven who has benefit the most from
the wolves. The average of ravens present at a wolf kill is 30 – and up to 135 have been recorded
to eat from the leftovers. Adirondack Wildlife, Inc. has reported a new study suggests the real
reason wolves hunt in packs is “to minimize the portion of a carcass lost to ravens!” These birds
constantly carry away chucks of meat and can steal up to one-third of an animal carcass.
How Wolves Benefit
While it may appear that ravens just take advantages of the wolves, Bernd Heinrich, author of
Mind of the Raven: Investigation and Adventures with Wolf-Birds, writes that the ravens repay
their wolf benefactors: “At a kill site, the birds are more suspicious and alert than wolves. The
birds serve the wolves as extra eyes and ears.”
Ravens may also lead wolves to animal cadavers or to nearby prey. It is believed that the wolves
may respond to the ravens’ calls or other behavior that indicates food. Sometimes when the
ravens fly, the wolves will follow. Ravens have been observed leading wolves to animal
carcasses too tough for the ravens to penetrate with their strong, sharp beaks.
When not competing for their next meal, wolves and ravens also play with each other. Observers
have seen ravens dive at the wolves and then quickly fly away. Raven may peck at the wolves’
tails to get the wolves to chase them, or the ravens may be teased themselves by wolf cubs
chasing after them.
While their relationship with ravens has certainly produced an odd couple in nature, wolves have
also created a staggered effect on the nature ecosystem as a whole. The Yellowstone National
Park wolf restoration program has been intensively studied and the wolves have provided a
greater understanding of the importance of their role as a predator in maintaining the integrity of
the entire ecosystem. They remind us that “in nature everything is connected to everything else”
(from “The Wolves of Yellowstone,” Brooks/Cole division of Thomson Learning, Inc.).