Eight Wolf Pups Scampering Along the Trail
The Half-Moon Pack of wolves at Voyageurs National Park had the largest litter of any pack observed at the park this year with eight pups. The largest litter ever documented by the Voyageurs Wolf Project was nine pups. The project is focused on understanding the summer ecology of wolves in the park, located about 120 miles north of Duluth.
“A large litter of pups does not necessarily translate into more wolves in that pack come winter,” the project notes in the YouTube description for this video. “The pups have to run the ‘summer’ gauntlet, so to speak, of surviving low food availability/starvation, avoiding disease, and evading predators. Case-in-point: the Lightfoot Pack had 7 pups last year but all of the pups died. We know that a few pups died of starvation and one was killed by the Half-Moon pack. We are not sure what killed the others but suspect starvation. And so the Lightfoot Pack remained only a breeding pair this winter despite their large litter. We will see whether the Half-Moon litter fares better!”
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