The study led by Ph.D. student Chris Darimont of the University of Victoria in collaboration with Canada's Raincoast Conservation Foundation shows that when salmon is available, wolves will reduce their deer hunting activity and instead focus on seafood.

The researchers studied the feeding habits of wolves in a remote area of British Columbia.

"Over the course of four years, we identified prey remains in wolf droppings and carried out chemical analysis of shed wolf hair in order to determine what the wolves like to eat at various times of year," Darimont said.

Most of the year, the scientists said, wolves tend to eat deer. But during the autumn, when salmon becomes available, the wolves shift their preferences.

"One might expect that wolves would move onto salmon only if their mainstay deer were in short supply," said the scientists. "Our data show that this is not the case; salmon availability clearly outperformed deer availability in predicting wolves' use of salmon."

The study appears in the journal Ecology.