The food-habits of wolves (Table 4) could serve as an indicator to the wildlife values of an area. Areas where wild-prey species abound more in wolf scats are likely to have higher survival values for wolf populations, since these areas would have lower intensity of human-wolf conflicts and therefore lower levels of persecution of wolves by resident human population. In all the 3 study areas, domestic livestock dominate the diet of wolves. This situation exists for almost over 90% of the wolf population in India - a direct consequence of drastic declines of natural prey populations and increasing livestock numbers. Wolves in the Mata-no-Madh area have livestock remains in only 30% of their scats compared to the other 2 sites that have livestock remains in over 50% of the scats analyzed.

Table 4. Food-habits of wolves at the 3 proposed lignite mining areas in Kutch as determined by the frequency of occurrence of different prey species in wolf scats.

 (The figures in bracket represent percentage of total food items)