Data from: Competition between sympatric wolf taxa: an example involving African and Ethiopian Wolves

Carnivore populations are declining globally due to range contraction,
persecution and prey depletion. One consequence of these patterns is
increased range and niche overlap with other carnivores, and thus an
elevated potential for competitive exclusion. Here we document competition
between an endangered canid, the Ethiopian wolf (EW), and the newly
discovered African wolf (AW) in central Ethiopia. The diet of the
ecological specialist EW was dominated by rodents whereas the AW consumed
more diverse diet also including insects and non-rodent mammals. EWs used
predominantly intact habitat whereas AWs used mostly areas disturbed by
humans and their livestock. Still, we observed 82 encounters between the
two species, of which 94% were agonistic. The outcomes of agonistic
encounters followed a territory-specific dominance pattern, with EWs
dominating in intact habitat and AWs in human-disturbed areas. For AWs,
the likelihood of winning encounters also increased with group size.
Trapping data indicated that rodent species consumed by EWs were also
available in the human-disturbed areas, suggesting that these areas could
be suitable habitat for EWs if AWs were not territorially dominant there.
Increasing human encroachment not only affects the prey base of EWs, but
also may impact their survival by intensifying competition with sympatric
AWs.