Striking first-of-its-kind footage has captured the moment a red fox preyed on a 1-month-old gray wolf pup in a nature reserve in Italy.
Scientists monitor gray wolves (Canis lupus) in the Castelporziano Presidential Estate, a nature reserve about 25 kilometers from Rome, had noticed a woman with a swollen stomach. GPS monitors showed her repeatedly visiting a secondary den, suggesting she had already given birth.
At this point, the clip cuts out, so the footage does not show the fox or the pup leaving the den, but researchers believe the fox likely ate the wolf pup.
The study documenting the observation was published on 13 February in the journal Current Zoology.
Mortality in wolf pups is high, approx 40% to 60% of wolf pups die each year. They usually die of hunger, disease, extreme weather and poor body condition. But this video shows that predation may also play a small role in their high mortality.
The assignment is part of a long-term project led by the study co-author Marco Apollonioa researcher at the University of Sassari, to understand more about wolves in Italy.
Tracking the birth and survival rates of wolf pups is important to help researchers better understand long-term population dynamics, the study’s lead author said Celeste Buellia PhD student at the University of Sassari, who led the fieldwork and cave monitoring. But it is not easy.
Direct observations of wolf pup deaths are rare as they spend their time in dens that are difficult to monitor, she said. The footage is “striking” as it shows an “intense event with a very young animal,” she told LiveScience.
Study co-author Rudy Brogia researcher at the University of Sassari, told LiveScience that it’s likely the fox ate the pup, as foxes are usually opportunistic feeders — meaning they don’t depend on a particular type of prey and adapt their diet depending on availability. In later footage, only one puppy can be seen.
It could also be that the fox simply removed competitors from the area. But Brogi thinks this is unlikely given that foxes sometimes take advantage of wolves by scavenging on the kills left behind.
David Macdonalda zoologist at the University of Oxford in the UK, has spent decades researching foxes and was not involved in the study. He told LiveScience that competing species can kill or prey on each other, but this behavior “usually involves larger dogs harassing or even killing smaller ones.”
Whether this behavior is common is unclear from a single video. Brogi said it is “plausible” that it occurs more often than reported, but more research from “multiple dens and contexts” is needed.
Buelli, C., Zanni, M., Brogi, R., Cavazza, S., Corbia, M., Luccarini, S., & Apollonio, M. (2026). First video-documented observation of a red fox preying on a wolf pup in a den. Current Zoology. https://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoag009
