Stephanie Edwards is the Engagement Specialist at Discover Magazine, who manages all social media platforms and writes digital articles that focus on archaeology, the environment, and public health.
Grey wolves are often portrayed as supremely adaptable survivors, capable of thriving almost anywhere. But new fossil evidence suggests that even these iconic predators feel the strain of a warming world.
By examining microscopic wear patterns on wolf teeth spanning more than 200,000 years, researchers have uncovered that as the climate warms, wolves work harder for their meals — and literally grind their teeth down in the process.
The findings, published in Ecology Letters, show that wolves living during warmer periods relied more heavily on hard foods like bone to survive. That same pattern now appears in modern wolves living in Poland, where winters are growing shorter, and snow cover is disappearing. Together, the results challenge the assumption that wolves are largely immune to climate stress and raise new questions about how best to protect them in the future.
“The findings have major implications for wolf conservation across Europe and beyond,” said lead author Amanda Burtt in a press release. “Grey wolves are often assumed to be resilient to climate change, but this research shows that warming temperatures should be considered a significant factor in conservation planning.”
Top: the area of a wolf molar selected for analysis. Middle: a color 3D surface scan showing microscopic wear from chewing hard foods. Bottom: a greyscale rendering of the same tooth surface.
(Image Credit: Amanda Burtt)
How Teeth Record Wolves’ Diet History
To trace how wolf diets change through time, researchers turned to a technique known as Dental Microwear Texture Analysis (DMTA). This method focuses on microscopic scratches and pits on molars that form as animals chew, effectively preserving a record of what they ate in the final weeks or months of life — a phenomenon sometimes called the “last supper.”
In this study, the team analyzed wolf teeth from three distinct periods. One set dated to around 200,000 years ago when summers resembled our own but winters were colder. Another came from roughly 125,000 years ago, a warmer interglacial period with milder winters. The team also compared these fossils with teeth from modern wolves in Poland, a region experiencing ongoing winter warming and declining snow cover.
What Did The Wolves’ Teeth Reveal?
The fossil wolves from the two ancient warm periods showed clear differences in how much hard food they consumed.
“Tooth surface features indicate that the dietary behavior of wolves from the older interglacial included the consumption of less hard food than those from the younger interglacial period. Wolves during these warmer temperatures appear to have been consuming carcasses more completely,” said co-author Danielle Schreve in the release.
Even more unexpected was what the modern samples revealed, as Schreve explained: “The real surprise was that modern wolves from Poland, where climate warming is also ongoing, show the same patterns as those from the younger interglacial, highlighting that they are also experiencing hitherto hidden ecological stress.”
Overall, the results showed a consistent trend where warmer climates pushed wolves toward durophagy — the consumption of hard materials like bone.
“The findings suggest wolves were working harder to extract nutrition during warmer climate periods, scavenging more extensively or consuming parts of prey they would normally avoid,” said Burtt in the release.
Why Wolves Need Cold Winters
Cold, snowy winters are an advantage for wolves. Deep snow slows herbivores — a wolf’s main source of food — by restricting their access to food and making escape more difficult. Wolves, meanwhile, move efficiently over snow and ice. Colder conditions are also linked to heavier body weights and higher wolf pup survival.
When winters warm and snow cover declines, that balance shifts. Hunting becomes more difficult, pushing wolves toward riskier or more energetically costly feeding strategies. In Poland, some wolves have been offsetting this stress by hunting grazing animals near farmland or scavenging roadkill. Without these options, wolves living farther from human-modified landscapes will likely be the ones that face greater challenges as climate change intensifies.
As climate change continues to reshape ecosystems, this study is a reminder that even the most adaptable predators have their limits.
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Stephanie Edwards is the Engagement Specialist at Discover Magazine, who manages all social media platforms and writes digital articles that focus on archaeology, the environment, and public health.View Full Profile
