Yellowstone wolves have been filmed bringing toys to their pups in a touching video.
In the video, wolves can be seen walking past the camera with various objects, such as bones and tree branches, to their den.
These wolves belong to the Mollie's Pack—a well-known group of wolves living in the Yellowstone National Park.
The carnivores are meat eaters, meaning these objects were brought to the pups with a different purpose.
"This spring, Yellowstone biologists documented adult wolves from the Mollie's Pack traveling back to their den with some interesting items," Yellowstone National Park said in a caption to the video. "Pups await food deliveries from successful hunts, but in the absence of food adults bring 'toys.' The instinct to bring items back to the den may be reinforced by evolution, and probably helps keep adults from being mobbed by sharp puppy teeth."
This behavior may be reminiscent of dogs, which as domestic animals, often enjoy fetching sticks and playing with toys. Although wolves do not fetch like dogs do, and are certainly not playful with humans, wolf pups will take any opportunity to chew and play with sticks, twigs, or whatever they can find.
Yellowstone wolves usually mate in February and give birth in April. The packs typically have one litter of four to five pups every year.
"Pups that survive the winter have learned to help the pack hunt large prey like elk and bison and will help raise the pack's next litter of pups—delivering food, and sometimes toys," Yellowstone said in the video caption.
Wolf young usually emerge from the den at 10 to 14 days. They are dependent on the mother's milk for the first month, before they are weaned off and fed meat by other members of the pack. When they reach around 7 to 8 months in age, the wolves begin traveling with the older members of the pack.
In January 2023, an estimated 108 gray wolves were counted in the park, consisting of 10 packs in total.
Wolves are incredibly social animals and depend on their packs to survive. Each pack is a complex social system, where individuals hold different roles. Alpha wolves, which tend to be older members, often take on a leader-type role above their subordinates, which are the younger members.
As well as defending their territories from other wolves and threats, wolves often coordinate the care of their offspring.
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