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Wolf Kills Provided Plenty of Food for Red Foxes

Red Fox in Valsavarenche, Italy
Research: Ecology, Behaviour

When a grey wolf (Canis lupus) kills a red deer (Cervus elaphus), red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) can benefit from the meal too. In Stelvio National Park in the Italian Alps, foxes appeared at all 26 deer carcasses monitored by researchers. They made greater use of carcasses with plenty of meat remaining, while wolf visits mattered much less for when foxes appeared.

Carrion offers foxes energy-rich food without the effort of catching the prey themselves. But a wolf may return. The researchers therefore wanted to know whether foxes timed their visits to avoid the larger predator.

From November 2022 to December 2024, they monitored wolf-killed deer with camera traps for up to 25 days per carcass. Wolves returned to 20 of the 26 carcasses. The cameras recorded more than 8,700 fox events, compared with around 400 wolf events, and both species visited mostly at night.

More meat, more fox visits

Foxes were recorded more often at carcasses that were less depleted when monitoring began. Visits also declined over the monitoring period. Foxes were somewhat more common at carcasses in areas with greater human activity, whereas vegetation and terrain mattered little.

The researchers found no clear tendency for foxes to stay away during hours with wolf visits or immediately afterwards. Because visits were compared hour by hour, this does not show how a fox reacted during a direct encounter with a wolf. Nevertheless, food availability and daily activity rhythms mattered more than the timing of wolf visits.

Abundant deer and relatively few wolves

The study area had plenty of deer relative to the number of wolves. The researchers suggest that this may have eased competition at carcasses: wolves could move on before consuming all the meat, leaving substantial meals for foxes.

The return of wolves to the Alps therefore also brings new feeding opportunities for smaller carnivores. The researchers expect competition at carcasses could intensify if wolf numbers rise relative to their prey.

Sources and image credit

  1. Donini, V., Corlatti, L., Pedrotti, L., Borsani, G., & Nava, M. (2026). Balancing Risk and Reward: Red Fox Exploitation of Kill Sites in a Wolf-Occupied Landscape. Journal of Zoology.Primary research article first published 21 September 2026. Camera traps monitored 26 wolf-killed red deer carcasses in the southern sector of Stelvio National Park from November 2022 to December 2024 to test whether fox use was shaped by carcass characteristics and fine-scale wolf activity.

Image: Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) in Pont, Valsavarenche, Valle d’Aosta, Italy, 18 June 2010. Photo: Uazzino / Wikimedia Commons. Representative image from the Italian Alps; not a study animal. · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source

About this content: This story was produced with AI assistance within an editorial workflow developed by Wildlife Vagabond. Editorial responsibility remains with Wildlife Vagabond.How AI is used

Ecology

SPECIES IN THIS STORY

Species in this story

Red Fox Vulpes vulpes Explore species Red Deer Cervus elaphus Explore species

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