{"id":270901,"date":"2025-11-19T03:33:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T03:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/270901\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T03:33:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T03:33:15","slug":"trail-camera-didnt-capture-wolf-protecting-piglets-from-mountain-lion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/270901\/","title":{"rendered":"Trail camera didn’t capture wolf protecting piglets from mountain lion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Claim:<\/p>\n

Trail camera photographs authentically show a wolf protecting piglets from a mountain lion in Montana.<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/p>\n

\"Rating:<\/a><\/p>\n

Rating: Fake<\/p>\n

Two images that circulated online in November 2025 claimed<\/a> (archived<\/a>) to show a wolf protecting a litter of wild piglets from a prowling mountain lion in Montana.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the story that circulated on Facebook, a local farmer one night “heard panicked squeals and a roar echo through the trees” and then found a dead mountain lion on his property the next day. When the farmer checked footage captured by his trail camera, according to the claim, he saw the wolf had defended the piglets from the mountain lion “with everything she had.”<\/p>\n

The Facebook page StoryTime shared<\/a> the images and story on Nov. 3, 2025, writing, “Trail cam captures a wolf protecting piglets.” The post claimed unidentified experts called the incident “one of the rarest interactions ever caught on film.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other<\/a> Facebook<\/a> and X<\/a> users also shared the claim (archived<\/a>, archived<\/a>). Snopes readers wrote in to ask whether the story was real.<\/p>\n

Searches of Bing<\/a>, DuckDuckGo<\/a>, Google<\/a> and Yahoo<\/a> found no news media outlets reporting on the purported photos (archived<\/a>, archived<\/a>, archived<\/a>, archived<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rather, the person or people behind the rumor fabricated the story about and images of the wolf and piglets.<\/p>\n

It was one of many fictional tales about animals in unusual or implausible situations on social media, created by users to drum up attention from people who believe them to be real.<\/p>\n

Artificial-intelligence tools appeared to have created the images of the animals; the mountain lion had two front legs in the top photo, was missing its front right leg in the bottom photo and did not appear to be bleeding from the alleged fight. Missing or additional limbs is a common characteristic<\/a> of AI-created images.<\/p>\n

The in-question Facebook post did not have a disclaimer to tell onlookers it was not real. However, the StoryTime profile stated in its Intro<\/a> section, “story (noun) – an account of imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment.”<\/p>\n

An examination of the Facebook page’s posts found multiple<\/a> indications<\/a> of artificial intelligence-generated images and text.<\/p>\n

Snopes contacted a manager of the StoryTime Facebook page to ask about the fictional story and will update this report if we receive more information.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For further reading, Snopes previously reported on AI-generated stories about a mountain lion<\/a> allegedly raiding a Colorado pet store and mask-wearing chimpanzees<\/a> raiding local markets in “the Congo.”<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/p>\n

Invasive Wild Pigs: Rooting toward Montana – MSU Extension | Montana State University. https:\/\/www.montana.edu\/extension\/lila_extn\/spring_summer_2025\/invasivewildpigs.html<\/a>. Accessed 12 Nov. 2025.<\/p>\n

Mountain Lion | Montana FWP. https:\/\/fwp.mt.gov\/conservation\/wildlife-management\/mountain-lion<\/a>. Accessed 12 Nov. 2025.<\/p>\n

Trail Cam Montana Wolf Protecting Piglets Mountain Lion – Google Search. https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?sca_esv=60f6aa36f2538904&rlz=1C5CHFA_enGB1138GB1138&q=trail+cam+montana+wolf+protecting+piglets+mountain+lion&tbm=nws&source=lnms&fbs=AIIjpHxU7SXXniUZfeShr2fp4giZ1Y6MJ25_tmWITc7uy4KIeqDdErwP5rACeJAty2zADJgYJpo1blvMpITBRgbnARM6y8KwxzRsF24u6g33NutBQg5oTaOPEjih5eaMj6wzNwV6XxSRQAWh3N3C-OcFalMGEXLKhO8uvEtBAgDCqpGe5FRlLXz2wudEAVz6YQt9mVfNp5bMYidvA9GA8nq3f874oPkSTg&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiRnNOEwO2QAxXVW0EAHSfEFXoQ0pQJegQIFRAB&biw=1920&bih=845&dpr=2<\/a>. Accessed 12 Nov. 2025.<\/p>\n

Trail Cam Montana Wolf Protecting Piglets Mountain Lion – Search News. https:\/\/www.bing.com\/news\/search?q=trail+cam+montana+wolf+protecting+piglets+mountain+lion&FORM=HDRSC7<\/a>. Accessed 12 Nov. 2025.<\/p>\n

Trail Cam Montana Wolf Protecting Piglets Mountain Lion – Yahoo Search Results. https:\/\/uk.news.search.yahoo.com\/search;_ylt=Awr.RMii9BRpFQIAH6RLBQx.;_ylu=Y29sbwNpcjIEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3BpdnM-?p=trail+cam+montana+wolf+protecting+piglets+mountain+lion&fr2=piv-web&fr=yfp-t<\/a>. Accessed 12 Nov. 2025.<\/p>\n

Trail Cam Montana Wolf Protecting Piglets Mountain Lion at DuckDuckGo. https:\/\/duckduckgo.com\/?origin=funnel_home_website&t=h_&q=trail+cam+montana+wolf+protecting+piglets+mountain+lion&ia=news&iar=news<\/a>. Accessed 12 Nov. 2025.<\/p>\n

Wolf Conservation & Management Program | Montana FWP. https:\/\/fwp.mt.gov\/conservation\/wildlife-management\/wolf<\/a>. Accessed 12 Nov. 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Claim: Trail camera photographs authentically show a wolf protecting piglets from a mountain lion in Montana. Rating: Rating:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1325,5587,77507,90,111489,37846,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-270901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-facebook","tag-montana","tag-mountain-lion","tag-science","tag-trail-cam","tag-trail-camera","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}