Wolf pups playing with a deer bone

Some neat footage from last year of 3 Half-Moon pups playing keep-away with a deer bone. All 3 of these pups actually looked pretty good for this time of year (August) and pup survival was quite high for the Half-Moon Pack for most of the summer. However, sometime between August and December, two of these pups died and there was only 1 Half-Moon pup left but that pup did survive. All-in-all, 1 of the 4 pups made it. This pattern is not uncommon for many packs: high pup survival through mid-to-late summer and then an uptick in mortality in late summer or early fall, largely due to starvation. Meeting the energetic/caloric needs of increasingly larger wolf pups is likely too demanding for the pack and so some pups don’t make it. Learn more about the Voyageurs Wolf Project: Website: Facebook: Instagram: Twitter: