Rare camera-trap footage from May 16, 2025, shows a red fox entering a wolf den near Rome and emerging carrying a roughly one-month-old gray wolf pup. Researchers publishing in Current Zoology say the clip — likely the first recorded case of its kind — suggests fox predation could be a small, previously underreported cause of wolf pup mortality. Wolf pup death rates are already high (about 40%–60% annually), and the authors call for more monitoring across multiple dens to determine how common such attacks are.
Rare Footage Shows Red Fox Carrying Gray Wolf Pup — First Recorded Case
A night vision camera frame documenting a red fox preying upon a wolf pup in May 2025 within the Castelporziano Presidential Estate, Central Italy. This captures the the second and successful dragging attempt. | Credit: Buelli, C. et al. (2026)
Rare, first-of-its-kind footage captured on May 16, 2025, appears to show a red fox (Vulpes vulpes) entering a wolf den at the Castelporziano Presidential Estate, a nature reserve about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) from Rome, and emerging with a roughly one-month-old gray wolf (Canis lupus) pup in its jaws.
Researchers monitoring wolves with GPS collars had noted a female with a swollen abdomen repeatedly visiting a secondary den, indicating recent birth. Strategically placed camera traps recorded two male pups exploring outside the den just days before the encounter. Video from May 16 shows one pup escaping the den while the fox leaves seconds later carrying the other pup; the clip ends shortly after, so the final fate of the pup is not directly shown.
What the Researchers Say
The finding is described in a study published Feb. 13 in Current Zoology. Study co-authors from the University of Sassari — including Marco Apollonio (project lead), Celeste Buelli (lead fieldworker and doctoral student), and Rudy Brogi — say the footage is "striking" and documents an intense event involving a very young animal. Buelli noted that direct observations of wolf pup mortality are rare because pups spend most of their time in dens that are difficult to monitor.
"The footage is striking — it shows an intense event with a very young animal," said Celeste Buelli, who led the fieldwork and den monitoring.
Brogi told Live Science that red foxes are opportunistic feeders and that it is plausible the fox consumed the pup; later footage showed only a single pup at the den. Independent zoologist David Macdonald of the University of Oxford, who was not involved in the study, noted that interspecific killings typically involve larger canids harassing or killing smaller ones, making this recorded interaction noteworthy.
Context And Significance
Wolf pup mortality is already high: roughly 40%–60% of pups die annually from causes such as starvation, disease, extreme weather and poor body condition. The new footage suggests that predation by other carnivores — even smaller canids like foxes — may be a previously underreported contributor to pup losses at some dens.
The observation comes from a long-term research project led by Apollonio to better understand wolf ecology and population dynamics in Italy. The authors emphasize that a single video cannot determine how commonly foxes prey on wolf pups and call for continued monitoring across multiple dens and contexts to assess frequency and drivers of such interactions.
Bottom line: The clip documents an unusual and potentially important interaction between species; it highlights the value of remote monitoring for revealing hidden ecological behaviors and underscores the need for more systematic data to understand how often such events occur and whether they meaningfully affect wolf populations.
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