Have you ever wondered what wolves eat and what the wolves hunt? Let’s just say their tastes are both impressive and a little all over the place! For the most part, wolves are all about that big game life. Wolves eat large hoofed mammals like bison, mountain goats, deer, moose and elk. Can you imagine taking down prey that size? The pack has insane feats of teamwork and raw power. They also hunt small animals like beavers, snowshoe hares, and other rodents.

Their hunting strategies get pretty clever, too, based on the season. During summer, they’ll typically target younger, more inexperienced prey. Smart wolves! Then, in autumn, many packs make a point to load up on nutrient-rich salmon. Speaking of winter, that’s the prime time for wolves to hunt young deer since they’re all weak and vulnerable to harsh conditions.

Wolves are generally carnivores, but sometimes wolves eat grass to fulfill the herbivorous part of their diet. However, it is not clear what vegetables they eat. Wolves around Gustavus, Alaska, 28% of the wolf’s diet has moose, while other marine mammals comprise 22%; bears are on the menu, too, at 11%. And when salmon is in season, that’s 10% of what they’re chowing down on.

The pack has survived over thousands of years and thus has adapted to accommodate different conditions, like seasons, environments, and, most importantly, food availability. Due to their enormous global distribution and their adaptive tendency, wolves have risen to the position of top predators in every ecosystem they inhabit.

Wolf’s Diet According to the Seasons

Wolf’s winter diet: Winter is a very uncertain season for wolves. It can be either favorable or unfavorable. The primary prey for wolves in this season is the snowshoe hare. It is challenging to hunt deer during slow snowfall, but in heavy snowfalls, deer become vulnerable, which is an excellent chance for the wolves to hunt down their prey cunningly. Gray wolves eat two and a half pounds of food every day. To reproduce offspring, a female gray wolf needs about five to seven pounds of flesh. They live a feast-or-famine lifestyle.

Wolf’s Spring Diet: Grey wolves hunt large animals this season, especially hoofed animals like caribou, bison, deer, and moose. Sometimes, beavers also become their prey. The proof that wolves are carnivores comes in this season. Since it is the mating season, they put on weight to prepare for reproduction. Recent studies in Northern Minnesota have found that wild wolves living in Minnesota may also have fish as a significant source of food in the spring.

Wolf’s Summer diet: Wolves hunt heavily at this time of the year, which is also called hunting season for wolves. This season gives wolves plenty of choices for hunting their prey Since the beaver population drops in summer, the number of beavers in the wolf’s diet also drops. Ungulates take their place and make the most of their diet in the summer season. A wolf eats meat from about 15 to 19 adult-sized deer in a year.

Wolf’s fall diet: In the fall season, wolves depend on stacked food and prepare themselves to stay low. In this season, their diet consists mainly of fish and salmon. Since their way of hunting is aggressive, which often leads them to injuries. As a result of this, in the Fall season, they try to hold back from it because of the scarcity of food, and the healing process becomes slow and can lead to the wolf’s death. 

How Does Wolves Hunt?

• Wolves are smart hunters, but they don’t go solo when it comes to big game like bison, deer, or wild boar. They roll in packs and have strategies for different prey.
• If the prey is going to fight back, they’ll plan an ambush or attack from behind while keeping their distance from those kicking hooves.
• But if it’s a small creature like a moose or elk without any hooves to worry about, wolves will happily take it on solo, charging straight at it from the front. There’s no danger there.
• Once they get their prey, wolves ain’t picky eaters. They just start chowing down right at the bite area, tearing into that flesh.
• A basic eating technique for wolves is to start eating the prey from the bitten area. They tear the flesh from the bitten area. No matter who hunted down the prey, no wolf is allowed to eat before the alpha male and the alpha female wolf does. The rest of the pack has to wait their turn for the leftovers, even if that means munching on bones sometimes.

Do Wolves Ever Stash their Food for Later? 

Gray wolves and other animals totally stash their food. This caching thing is real popular up in the northern and Arctic areas. Basically, they bury that meat underground using their front feet to dig it up whenever they’re hungry again. It’s like having a secret meat fridge that only they know about!