Environment Life

Yellowstone wolves stealing kills from cougars, study finds

Fahad Redha

March 4, 2026
3 min read

Yellowstone wolves stealing kills from cougars, study finds

A study has shed new light on the relationship between Yellowstone wolves and cougars in the US. Researchers found that many encounters between the two carnivores begin when wolves attempt to steal prey that a cougar had already killed. To prevent this, the cats appear to have changed their habits, choosing to target smaller animals and avoid crossing paths with packs of wolves.

The study, conducted by Oregon State University and published in PNAS, comes as the territories of wolves and cougars in the Western US increasingly overlap. While wolves are sometimes found to have killed cougars, researchers found no evidence of cougars killing wolves.

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It also found that the cats, also known as pumas and mountain lions, stay away from areas where wolves have recently made a kill, preferring to remain close to escape terrain including trees that they can climb up to escape when threatened.

As the number of elk in Yellowstone declines, cougars have increasingly targeted deer, which are smaller and can be eaten more rapidly. This reduces the amount of time a cougar spends with a carcass and thus reduces the chance of a pack of wolves arriving.

The study drew on nine years of GPS tracking data from collared Yellowstone wolves and cougars. The team conducted field investigations at nearly 4,000 possible kill sites in Yellowstone. The findings suggests that a peaceful coexistence between the two animals depends less on the availability of prey and more on their being a variety of prey species and access to a safe escape route.

“In North America and worldwide, carnivore communities are undergoing major changes,” lead author of the study and doctoral student at Oregon State University, Wesley Binder said. “Our research provides insight into how two apex predators compete, which informs recovery efforts.”

Federal and state policies in the US nearly wiped out both animals during the 20^th century, with cougars only beginning to recover in the 1960s and 70s, with wolves being reintroduced into Yellowstone from 1995. Cougars are under legal protections and both species have been expanding into the western USA where they have been absent for a long time.

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