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Scientists have for the first time documented a red fox preying on a wolf pup, upending what was known about the pecking order among the two related species.
Wolves are typically much larger and have been known to occasionally kill foxes, but the reverse had never been documented by science.
That is until video footage from a nature reserve in Italy showed a red fox attacking and killing a wolf pup in its den.
Researchers from the University of Sassari in Italy were studying how wolves moved through the Castelporziano Presidential Estate, a protected area on the outskirts of Rome, and had installed a number of motion-activated cameras at a den site to monitor how wolves raised their young.
One night, one of the cameras captured a red fox probing the den’s entrance, and feeding on unidentified food remains. It then ventured inside and dragged a live pup out.
The wolf cub was able to struggle free and escaped back into the den, but the fox went in a second time and was seen taking the cub away.
Researchers said it was safe to presume that the fox killed and ate the pup, as it’s not seen again in the footage.
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Red fox preying on a wolf pup in May 2025 (Current Zoology)
“In this work, we report the first video-documented evidence of a red fox repeatedly attacking and likely preying upon a wolf pup, approximately one month old, at the den site, representing a novel observation of direct predatory interaction between the two species,” the researchers wrote in a study published in the journal Current Zoology.
“Only a single pup was subsequently detected across a substantially larger number of recordings, indirectly corroborating red fox predation.”
In the aftermath, the wolf pack permanently abandoned the den site, presumably because it was compromised.
Scientists said the fox’s behaviour was particularly surprising as this individual had plenty of other food available in its forest habitat, including young deer.
They said it was likely an example of red foxes’ “extreme opportunistic feeding strategy”.
“Our observation broadens the known range of antagonistic interactions affecting wolf offspring, demonstrating that even mesocarnivores (small-to-medium sized carnivorous mammals) can exert direct pressure on the reproductive performance of this apex predator,” they wrote.
“This single observation provides novel insight into fox–wolf interactions and underscores the value of field-based monitoring in capturing unexpected behaviours that warrant further investigation.”