It’s a warm August night. Wolf pups from the pack in the Świętoszów Forest District in Bory Dolnośląskie are already quite grown up and do not require constant adult care. However, they are not yet able to accompany adult wolves during hunting. They patiently await the return of their parents and older siblings to rendez-vous – the place of rest and gathering of the wolf family. Tired of waiting, they fell asleep on the forest road overgrown with grass.
Finally, after midnight, the long-awaited howl of adults can be heard in the distance. This is a signal that the rest of the wolf family have returned from hunting and intend to share the prey. The young wolves respond eagerly – their howl quickly turns into a desperate howl, which means, more or less, “I’m about to starve.” Finally, an adult wolf appears, and one of the pups crawls towards him, showing submission with his body. It reaches the parent’s mouth and begins to ask for food, licking it insistently. Licking the mouth is a stimulus for wolves (and many other dogs) that causes regurgitation, i.e. vomiting the previously eaten food. It is a very practical solution that allows you to transport food for pups even over long distances – adult wolves can hunt up to 10 km from rendez-vous. Interestingly, wolves are able to dose the amount of returned food, and thus, they can distribute them to all pups.
The pup finally gets his way and receives a portion of nutritious, already digested food, probably roe deer or deer. After thoroughly licking the leftovers, the pup moves away in search of the rest of the adults – maybe there is something left in someone’s stomach?
You can see the described scenes on the video , which was recorded by the Institute of Nature Conservation of the Polish Academy of Sciences as part of the project of the Regional Directorate for Environmental Protection in Wrocław “Wolf monitoring in the Natura 2000 areas Dolina Dolnej Kwisa PLH020050, Wrzosowisko Przemkowskie PLH020015 and Wrzosowiska Świętoszowsko-Ławszowskie PLH020063” [“Monitoring wilka w obszarach Natura 2000 Dolina Dolnej Kwisy PLH020050, Wrzosowisko Przemkowskie PLH020015 i Wrzosowiska Świętoszowsko-Ławszowskie PLH020063”]. As part of this project, since the beginning of 2020, we monitored four wolf families in Bory Dolnośląskie.
Katarzyna Bojarska