Wolf pup walks out of den to meet researchers

Wolf pups start developing personalities from a young age, which, in part, helps pups to quickly form a hierarchy of sorts amongst their littermates. This small pup, with a bold and perhaps reckless streak, was letting us know who the boss was, even though it was just a month old (volume up)!

Typically, when we go in to count pups at dens, all the pups scurry into the den and remain together there as far back in the den as they can get.

This is the only instance we can recall of a pup walking out to the edge of the den to stand there and growl at us. In other words, this behavior is uncommon.

Why is this behavior rare? We suspect it is because pups that come out of the den to ‘fend off’ predators or danger probably would be killed pretty readily if predators visited the den. The purpose of the den is to provide protection/shelter should danger approach.

We do not know what this pup’s fate was. We think that 2 or 3 pups from this litter of 4 survived so good decent change he was one of the pups who made it but we won’t ever really know.

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Written by Voyageurs Wolf Project