Red fox predation on wolf pups has been theorized but never documented on film — until a monitoring camera at an Italian nature reserve captured exactly that in May 2025.
Scientists tracking gray wolves (Canis lupus) at the Castelporziano Presidential Estate, a nature reserve roughly 15.5 miles (25 kilometers) from Rome, had identified a female wolf with a swollen abdomen whose GPS data showed repeated visits to a secondary den. Cameras placed near the site confirmed two male pups venturing outside the den in the days prior to the incident. On May 16, 2025, night vision footage recorded a red fox (Vulpes vulpes) entering the den. One pup escaped; the fox emerged seconds later carrying the other in its mouth. The study, published February 13 in the journal Current Zoology, documents what researchers describe as the first filmed instance of this behavior.
The footage cuts before showing the fox departing the site, but according to the announcement, researchers believe the pup was consumed. Rudy Brogi, a researcher at the University of Sassari and study co-author, explained that foxes are opportunistic feeders that adapt their diet based on availability — making predation of a vulnerable pup plausible. In footage recorded after the event, only one pup is visible.
Rethinking Wolf Pup Mortality
Annual mortality among wolf pups already runs high, with approximately 40% to 60% dying each year from starvation, disease, extreme weather, and poor body condition. The study suggests predation, while likely marginal, may contribute to that figure in ways previously unobserved. Direct documentation has been scarce because pups spend their early weeks inside dens that are difficult to monitor.
Celeste Buelli, a doctoral student at the University of Sassari who led the fieldwork and den monitoring, described the footage as “striking” — an “intense event with a very young animal,” she said. Tracking birth and survival rates, she noted, is essential for understanding longer-term wolf population dynamics.
The paper forms part of a long-term research project led by co-author Marco Apollonio, also of the University of Sassari, focused on wolf behavior in Italy.
What the Science Can and Cannot Confirm
Brogi acknowledged an alternative interpretation: the fox may have been eliminating a competitor rather than seeking food. He considers this unlikely, however, given that foxes frequently benefit from wolves by scavenging leftover kills — a relationship that cuts against direct antagonism.
David Macdonald, a zoologist at the University of Oxford with decades of fox research, was not involved in the study. He told the report’s source that competing species do kill one another, but that such behavior “generally involves larger canids harassing or even killing smaller ones.” Whether this event reflects a broader pattern cannot be determined from a single observation, and the researchers do not claim otherwise.
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