What Animals Are Predators of the Arctic Wolves?
Arctic wolves are generally safe from predators because they live in harsh conditions in which few other mammals can survive, but sometimes polar bears prey on them. Other arctic wolves occasionally pose a threat when rival packs kill during a fight for food, territory or mating rights. Young wolf pups may be eaten by other animals if the pups wander away from the den or the pack.
Arctic wolves rarely encounter humans, but global climate change has reduced the wolf’s traditional food supply, which threatens its survival. Exploration for natural resources in the wolf’s territory also interrupts its food supply. Arctic wolves live along the northern edge of North America and northward to the North Pole. They also live along Greenland’s eastern and northern shores. Arctic wolves have white fur year-round to blend in with their snowy environment. They live in packs with a complex social order. Each pack has a dominant male and female who mate for life and are the only couple that breeds. Hunting in packs allows wolves to kill larger animals. A subspecies of the gray wolf, arctic wolves are carnivores and eat mostly musk oxen, arctic hares and caribou, but they also eat arctic foxes, seals, nesting birds and lemmings.
