Trail Camera Captures First-Ever Footage of Fox Attacking a Wolf Pup
A trail camera has recorded a world-first: a red fox attacking and presumably killing a wolf pup.
While the pups are smaller than the fox, it is highly unusual for a smaller species to prey on an apex predator. While recordings exist of wolves killing foxes, this is the first time the reverse has been documented.
Phys.org reports that the researchers from the University of Sassari in Italy were studying how wolves roam around the protected Castelporziano Presidential Estate on the edge of Rome.
The researchers had five trail cameras set up around a wolf den that were motion-activated. They were surprised to see a red fox sniffing around the den where two pups were living. In one clip, the fox makes a beeline into the den and drags one of the pups out. In another, it re-enters the den and the pup can be heard in distress.
They were the only two clips the trail camera captured of the fox’s attack but afterward the second pup was never seen again. In their paper published in Current Zoology, the researchers conclude that the fox killed one of them.
“Our observation broadens the known range of antagonistic interactions affecting wolf offspring, demonstrating that even mesocarnivores can exert direct pressure on the reproductive performance of this apex predator,” the researchers write.
The adult wolves were away hunting when the fox attacked. Two days later, when they returned, the pack abandoned the den and moved to a new home. Researchers believe it’s because the den had been compromised.
Foxes are opportunistic hunters, and the researchers note in their paper that there were plenty of deer available to the fox at the time of the attack. The team is unsure whether foxes do this regularly or if it was a one-off.
The paper is part of a long-running project led by study co-author Marco Apollonio, a researcher at the University of Sassari, aimed at learning more about wolves in Italy.
Trail cameras are useful tools for capturing unusual animal behavior: last month a sleepy mountain lion posed for a few amusing selfies after a nature photographer set up a remote device right next to a kill.
Image credits: University of Sassari
