Photo ©Monty Sloan
On the DogRead list we have been discussing resource guarding. On a routine check of Monty Sloan’s Wolf Park’s Photo of the Day site, what should I find but this wonderful photograph of two wolves in conflict over a tomato! Here is Monty’s description of the interaction:

“I have an extensive garden once again with all kinds of vegetable plants. Among them are elongated purple eggplants and 24+ tomato plants of various varieties. I brought one of each. Wolfgang grabbed the eggplant and ran off to the woods and did not return until it was pretty much devoured. Tristan got the tomato but Ruedi managed to ‘convince’ him that it was better off in Ruedi’s possession than Tristan’s. Ruedi then successfully guarded it from even Wolfgang. For some reason Ruedi really wanted it. However, Ruedi did not really want to eat it either. He nibbled a bit, but eventually left much of the remains for Wolfgang and then Wotan to nibble upon. It was only much later when Renki discovered the smutched remains of a tomato that it was swallowed in one big gulp…”