Salmon should be scared of the big bad wolf
Fairy tales would have you believe wolves enjoy nothing more than eating a trio of pigs or chasing girls with red coats
But scientists have discovered that given the choice wolves would rather got fishing and prefer salmon to meat.
Researchers from the University of Victoria say that when salmon is available, wolves will reduce deer hunting activity and instead focus on seafood.
Studying the feeding habits of wolves in a remote area of British Columbia - and sifting though their droppings - it was found wolves opt for salmon in the autumn.
Project leader Chris Darimont said: "One might expect that wolves would move onto salmon only if their mainstay deer were in short supply.
"Our data show that this is not the case, salmon availability clearly outperformed deer availability in predicting wolves' use of salmon."
The wolves' taste for fishy fare is likely based on safety, nutrition and energetics. Darimont added.
"Selecting benign prey such as salmon makes sense from a safety point of view. While hunting deer, wolves commonly incur serious and often fatal injuries.
"In addition to safety benefits we determined that salmon also provides enhanced nutrition in terms of fat and energy".
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