Ecology

What Vancouver's Coastal Sea Wolves live off of, hide from, and their hunting grounds around the islands off of British Columbia.

Prey

Pacific Salmon

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Teleostei
Order: Salmoniformes
Family: Salmonidae
Genus: Oncorhynchus
Species: Nerka

Salmon are one of the most plentiful, important species in the food chain of Vancouver. VCSW's will hunt them around the mouths of rivers as they travel inland to spawn.

Sea Otters

K: Animalia
P: Chordata
C: Mammalia
O: Carnivora
F: Mustelidae
G: Enhydra
S: Lutris

River otters are a middle of the food chain species, hunting smaller aquatic fish and mollusks. They are feisty, but much smaller than wolves, so lose their pups to VCSW hunts.

Blue Mussels

K: Animalia
P: Mollusca
C: Bivalvia
O: Mytiloida
F: Mytilidae
G: Mytilus
S: Linnaeus

Blue mussels are mollusks that grow in large numbers on rocks at the high tide mark around Vancouver Island. High in protein and little to no danger in eating them, they are a favorite for VCSWs.

Acorn Barnacles

K: Animalia
P: Arthropoda
C: Maxillopoda
O: Sessilia
F: Balanidae
G: Megabalanus
S: Coccopoma

Acorn Barnacles grow on rocks all around Vancouver Island. VCSWs teeth are specially evolved in order to pry apart the mantle, the barnacles' only defense, to get to the edible interior.

Humpback Whales

K: Animalia
P: Chordata
C: Mammalia
O: Cetacea
F: Balaenopteridae
G: Megaptera
S: Novaeangeliae

Humpbacks migrate in large numbers up and down the Pacific Coast. They are not endangered in number, but the VCSWs love feasting on the occasional carcass that will wash up with the tides.

Harbor Seals

K: Animalia
P: Chordata
C: Mammalia
O: Carnivora
F: Phocidae
G: Phoca
S: Vitulina

Harbor seals inhabit the bays and shores all over Vancouver Island. While the VCSW's won't catch seals in the water, they don't stand a chance outmaneuvering a wolf on shore, which makes seal pups a favorite food.

Predators

Grizzly Bears

K: Animalia
P: Chordata
C: Mammalia
O: Carnivora
F: Ursidae
G: Ursus
S: Arctos

With Grizzly Bear population thriving, they have recently started showing up in Northern Vancouver. They have a lot of the same prey as VCSW's, especially salmon, so their paths cross frequently. Catching a pup or a wolf away from the pack is easy prey for a Grizzly.

Bald Eagles

K: Animalia
P: Chordata
C: Aves
O: Accipitriformes
F: Accipitridae
G: Haliaeetus
S: Leucocephalus

After a long stretch as an endangered species, the Bald Eagle has made a strong comeback. With their numbers flourishing, they not only compete with VCSW's for salmon, but can get territorial and are known to launch aerial attacks on VCSW's to protect their nests.

Flora

Bull Kelp

K: Chromista
P: Ochrophyta
C: Phaeophyceae
O: Laminariales
F: Laminariaceae
G: Macrocystis
S: Pyrifera

Bull Kelp, an aquatic vascular plant, used to be numerous up and down the Pacific coast. Thankfully there are a good amount of Bull Kelp forests around Vancouver's islands for salmon and otter to live in and around, but with more human interference those forests could decline, leaving VCSW prey looking for a new home.

Oyster Mushrooms

K: Fungi
P: Basidiomycetes
C: Agaricomycetes
O: Agaricales
F: Plurotaceae
G: Pleurotus
S: Ostreatus

Oyster mushrooms are a fungus that typically grow inland on trees in damp forests. While 90% of VCSW's diet come from the sea and they don't eat oyster mushrooms, they play an integral roll in the food chain on Vancouver Island. The 10% of VCSW's diet that does not come from the sea loves to eat these fungi.

Wolves in the Wild

Vancouver Coastal Sea Wolves play an integral part in the ecosystem around Vancouver Island by scavenging, cleaning, and protecting the last wild stretch of the coastal Pacific Northwest

Food Web

While VCSW's spend most of their time on and around beaches an the ocean, they are a large driving force to keeping the ecosystem functioning. They will scavenge dead marine life that washes up ashore. They drag fresh salmon, otter, or seal pup kills off the beach to eat, bringing nutrients with them that will end up in the forest floor, feeding trees, mushrooms, and other scavengers. As these plants are nourished, herbivores have more to feed on. Smaller organisms also flourish, giving larger predators like the wolves, bears, and birds plenty to hunt and live on. They also have a fierce pack mentality that can keep larger predators at bay, forcing them to other parts of Vancouver Island instead of preying on small mammals or young deer and elk.

Environment

A tell-tale sign of a VCSW is a salmon with its head, brain, and gills eaten - especially if it was already dead - and the rest of the body intact. This technique allows the wolves to feed on the nutrient and blood rich parts without developing worms or parasites from the fish. A lot of these wolves will spend days feasting on whales that sporadically wash up on the beach. This allows nutrients from parts of the whale and their droppings to spread amongst the forest as well. They also play amongst the piles of washed up kelp, allowing for the decomposition to accelerate as more of the kelp is exposed to the sun, and nutrients to be washed back into the sea to feed smaller aquatic organisms like crabs, lobsters, and algae.

References:

Call Of The Coastal Wolves - British Columbia sea wolf mini-documentary. (2020, December 26). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cev7hGXRvME
Coastal wolf • Canis lupus. (n.d.). Biodiversity of the Central Coast. https://www.centralcoastbiodiversity.org/coastal-wolf-bull-canis-lupus.html
The Extraordinary Sea Wolves. (2018b, September 25). PANTHALASSA. Retrieved September 12, 2022, from http://www.panthalassa.org/the-sea-wolves/
Wildlife on Vancouver Island. (2019, January 2). Discover Vancouver Island. https://www.discovervancouverisland.com/wildlife-on-vancouver-island/

Key Words: Chordata, mollusks, mantle, vascular plant, fungus, scavenge, nutrients, pack mentality, parasites, decomposition

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