Balancing Risk and Reward: Red Fox Exploitation of Kill Sites in a Wolf‐Occupied Landscape

ABSTRACT

In carnivore guilds, apex predators and mesocarnivores may interact through mechanisms ranging from antagonism to facilitation. The recent recolonization of the gray wolf Canis lupus in the Alps offers a valuable opportunity to investigate how wolf kill sites influence mesocarnivore behavior. We analyzed interactions between wolves and red foxes Vulpes vulpes at red deer Cervus elaphus carcasses in the Stelvio National Park (Italian Alps). Using camera traps deployed at 26 wolf‐killed carcasses between November 2022 and December 2024, we assessed whether foxes exploited wolf kills and exhibited temporal avoidance of wolves, controlling for carcass characteristics and environmental factors. Fox presence–absence was modeled at an hourly resolution using generalized linear mixed models. Four variables were derived from camera‐trap data to assess wolf influence on fox presence: wolf presence in the same hour, wolf presence in the preceding hour, time elapsed since the last wolf visit, and total wolf visit duration per hour. Foxes were detected at all monitored carcasses, whereas wolves were recorded at 20 of the 26 sites, with most activity occurring at night. Fox presence was most strongly associated with initial carcass consumption and, to a lesser extent, by human activity and habitat features. Our results provide limited evidence that fine‐scale wolf activity influenced fox scavenging at wolf‐killed carcasses, with no detectable temporal avoidance or attraction. Carcass profitability explained fox occurrence more strongly than any of the measured wolf variables, suggesting that foxes may respond primarily to carcass profitability rather than to fine‐scale predation risk. Carcass sites represent high‐value food resources, highlighting the ecological role of wolf kill provisioning in Alpine ecosystems.