Researchers have generally thought that wolves stay pretty close to home after their pups are born, as young wolves are born without basic senses, like being able to hear and see.
But a new study published this week in Current Biology found that near Yellowstone, gray wolves are traveling across rugged terrain with their pups in tow to get closer to elk.
Researchers tracked 19 gray wolves and 99 members of the partially migratory Cody Elk herd for three years.
That herd, like other migrating ungulates, has been able to escape some predation when it migrates to higher elevation summer range. But lead researcher Avery Shawler said elk may not be as safe there as they have been.
“Our study shows that predators might not be spatially constrained to their young during migration, because we found that wolves actually were able to follow elk along a migration route and into their summer range and maintain close proximity to elk,” she said.
Shawler said the Wyoming Game and Fish Department has been observing wolves moving farther distances with their pups for years, but this is the first study to document this evolving behavior. The department helped with collaring efforts and field work for the study.
She said she laughed when she saw a photo of a mama wolf carrying her 1 to 2 month old pup.
"It's just a funny photo, because [the mom is] carrying [the pup] by its butt,” she said. “You can draw parallels to moms having to deal with squirming children and just being like, ‘Come on!’”
Shawler said the wolves being able to track elk during their rearing period could be another factor elk have to deal with, in addition to pressures on their migration routes related to climate change and land use.
