Wolf-pack buffer zones as prey reservoirs

Science. 1977 Oct 21;198(4314):320-1. doi: 10.1126/science.198.4314.320.

Abstract

In a declining herd, surviving deer inhabited overlapping edges of wolf-pack territories. There, wolves hunted little until desperate, in order to avoid fatal encounters with neighbors. Such encounters reduce wolf numbers and predation pressure and apparently allow surviving deer along territory edges to repopulate the area through dispersal of their prime, less vulnerable offspring into territory cores.