Climate Change Challenges Grey Wolf Resilience: Insights From Dental Microwear

The grey wolf exemplifies ecological resilience, having survived major climatic fluctuations since the Middle Pleistocene. Once the world's most widely distributed mammal, its range has been drastically reduced by human-driven habitat loss, persecution and competition for resources. Although listed as of Least Concern globally by the IUCN, the omission of climate change as a threat raises critical questions about its future persistence. This study examines dietary flexibility in European grey wolves (Canis lupus) using dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA). We compare British Pleistocene wolves from the Last Interglacial (MIS 5e) and the penultimate interglacial (MIS 7a-c) and contemporary wolves from Poland. Results suggest that during periods of elevated global temperatures, wolves exhibit evidence of increased durophagy. These data demonstrate deep-time dietary plasticity and recurrent behavioural shifts, indicating that while the grey wolf is resilient, future warming winters may significantly reshape wolf diets in the mid-latitude ecosystems.