U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

A Family of Wolves

about three quarters of a mile north of the 

den site. Scientists are not sure exactly 

why mother wolves move their pups. Some 

suggest the pups are moved away from 

the filth and fleas that have accumulated 

around the den, or moved to a location 

less accessible to predators or where they 

can more safely and successfully practice 

their hunting skills. Whatever the reason, 

such moves are so universally common in 

wolves that scientists have given the name 

“rendezvous site” to this new location. 

The word rendezvous in French means 

“all meet together” and that’s just what 

happened in this case. Over the following 

week, as they each returned from their 

travels, the wolves discovered the pups 

were no longer at the den site. The adults 

searched until they found the rendezvous 

site, and thereafter returned there from 

hunts. 

Now look through the spotting scope with 

me, and we’ll begin our observations of “A 

family of wolves.” ... 

It’s morning, a week after the pups were 

moved to the rendezvous site. Notice 

that the puppies are alone now. All the 

adult wolves are away hunting. I record 

into my notebook: 8 am, partly sunny 

with high overcast skies, little wind, and 

a temperature of 52 degrees Fahrenheit. 

I write that the pups are lying quietly 

among an open patch of 6 foot high 

willows, and I wait, along with the pups, as 

the minutes tick by. 

Later in the morning, while scanning the 

surrounding mountains and river valley, 

I see Pearl trotting steadily back home. 

She’s been away from her pups for a 

number of hours, and is heavy with milk. 

The pups have nothing to drink except 

her milk, so they wait thirsty as well as 

hungry when the adults are away. 

What’s this? Pearl passes below the 

willows where her puppies wait, and 

continues on until she arrives near the 

den. Surely she remembers where she left 

the pups? Pearl lies down on the sand and 

We commonly think of wildlife research as 

moose surveys or vegetation analysis, but 

I do a different type of science. I watch 

wild animals in undisturbed settings, to 

learn about how they spend their time, 

and how they interact with others. I’ve 

spent hundreds of hours watching caribou 

walk, wild sheep feed, and wolves sleep. 

During those times, I’m sometimes 

fortunate enough to catch an enlightening 

glimpse into a wild animal’s life. This story 

I’ll share with you is one such glimpse. It’s 

a true story that I observed while working 

on a wolf project in the Arctic Refuge in 

northeast Alaska. Like much work of the 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, this one 

was a partnership, between the Service, 

the National Park Service, and the 

University of Alaska - Fairbanks. 

There were three of us that summer 

watching the pack of wolves. We camped 

along a river about 2 miles from the wolf 

den, and rotated 6 hour shifts, watching 

the animals from a small tent three 

quarters of a mile from the den. We used 

a spotting scope on a tripod to view the 

wolves, and recorded our observations 

into notebooks. 

That summer, the wolf pack included 

eight adults and four pups. They lived 

on a mountainside, where a small, deep 

hole on a rocky ledge served as a den for 

the mother and pups. The adult wolves 

were not easy to tell apart because all 

of them in this particular pack were 

tan-brown color except one. The mother 

wolf was white. A wolf of great value and 

importance in the pack, we referred to her 

as Pearl when we wrote about her in our 

notebooks. 

This wolf pack hunted up into the 

mountains for Dall sheep, and down onto 

the river valley for caribou. They also 

caught ground squirrels and ptarmigan 

(arctic birds very similar to grouse and 

chickens). 

A week before this story occurred, Pearl 

had moved the pups to a new location 

gravel of the mountain side, and I record 

her actions in my notebook, and resume 

my watch. 

In a few minutes, another wolf trots up 

to Pearl and lies down nearby. Because 

all the wolves except Pearl are brown, it’s 

not possible to know if any one of them 

is male or female unless they happen to 

urinate, and even then I only know until 

they duck out of sight and I lose track of 

which wolf is which. Just like dogs, female 

wolves squat and males lift a leg. Since I 

don’t know if this newly arrived wolf is a 

male or a female, I just refer to it in my 

notebook as the babysitter. 

Pearl and the babysitter wolf lie a few 

feet apart from each other for about ten 

minutes. I don’t notice any noises or 

body movements, but they are looking at 

each other. How do they communicate? 

Does Pearl indicate “go get the pups and 

bring them back to me.”? She doesn’t 

speak those words, but that’s what the 

babysitter wolf attempts to do. 

The babysitter wolf gets up, trots slowly 

north across a quarter mile of low, widelyspaced willows, across a quarter mile of 

steep, unstable, rough rocks and cobbles 

called a talus or scree slope, and across a 

quarter mile of dense, 6-foot high willows. 

When it reaches the pups, they greet it 

with wild enthusiasm. (Ok, you’re right, 

I don’t know if it is wild enthusiasm. 

Scientists are careful not to assign human 

emotions to wild animals’ actions. So let 

me tell you what the pups do, and you 

decide for yourself). The pups run up to 

the babysitter wolf, their tails wagging 

so much that their hips wag. Their hips 

wagging so much that their shoulders 

wag. Their shoulders wagging so much 

that their heads wag, and their heads 

wagging so much that their noses wag. 

Adult wolves don’t have hands or 

backpacks with which to carry food back 

to the pups, so after a successful hunt, 

adults bring home chunks of meat in their 

stomachs. The pups indicate their hunger 
by jumping up and pulling on an adult’s 

lips with their sharp little puppy teeth. 

The hungrier they are, the harder they 

bite and pull. If the adults have eaten 

recently, this jumping and pulling by the 

puppies causes them to regurgitate the 

meat back up and onto the ground for the 

puppies to eat. 

While I watch, the puppies throw 

themselves up toward the babysitter’s 

face, all four of them pulling energetically 

with their sharp little teeth on the adult 

wolf. When they have a free moment, they 

jump back and forth, up and down, race 

around the newly arrived wolf, and yip. 

After a few minutes of this, the puppies 

realize that the babysitter wolf has no 

food for them, and they calm down. 

After another 5 minutes with the puppies, 

the babysitter wolf (does it remember that 

it has a job to do?) walks back toward the 

den, crossing the tall willows, picking its 

way across the talus slope, and crossing 

the short willows. When it arrives next 

to Pearl, it turns to look behind itself. 

If it were a human, I would say it was 

gesturing, “See, here are the puppies I 

was supposed to bring.” But the pups are 

not there. 

When the wolf pups were old enough to 

stay alone, Pearl joined the other adults 

in the hunt. Before she left the pups for 

the first time, she taught them when to 

follow her and when they should stay near 

the den: if she walked away slowly - at the 

speed short puppy-legs could keep up with 

- the pups were to accompany her; but 

when she walked away at an adult pace, 

they were to stay where they were until 

her return. 

Being well trained, the puppies know not 

to follow an adult walking at a normal 

adult pace, so they didn’t follow the 

babysitter wolf. They are still waiting back 

at the rendezvous site. The babysitter wolf 

lies down near Pearl. 

Do the two wolves communicate again? 

It seems that Pearl indicates something 

because soon the babysitter wolf rises 

and walks back toward the pups, across 

the low willows, the talus slope, and the 

tall willows. When it enters the clearing 

where the puppies wait, they mob it again, 

wagging all the way up to their noses, and 

pulling energetically on the adult’s face. 

But there is still no food for them, and 

soon the babysitter wolf moves off toward 

the den again. 

This time the babysitter takes only a 

few steps before it stops and looks back 

toward the puppies. The puppies scamper 

up to the adult, and the babysitter wolf 

walks off again. Over and over, the 

babysitter wolf takes a few steps and 

then waits for the puppies to join it. They 

travel in this halting manner most of the 

way through the tall willows. But then 

the babysitter wolf no longer stops to 

allow the puppies to catch up (did it think 

they would follow automatically now?). 

Whatever the reason, the babysitter wolf 

walks through the rest of the tall willows, 

across the talus slope, and across the 

low willows. When it reaches Pearl this 

second time, it looks behind itself (again it 

looks to me like it’s indicating “now here 

are your puppies”), but there are still no 

puppies. The babysitter wolf lies down 

near Pearl. 

Do the two wolves communicate again? 

Soon the babysitter wolf rises and walks 

back north. This time, when the pups 

see it coming, they aren’t as energetic, 

wagging only as far forward as their 

hips, and jumping less forcefully around 

the mouth of the adult wolf. Again the 

babysitter wolf stays for a few minutes 

with the puppies, and then moves off 

south toward the den. But this time it 

tries a new technique (did Pearl somehow 

remind it about walking slowly, or does 

it realize on its own?). As the babysitter 

moves away from the puppies, it moves 

with exaggerated slowness, s-l-o-w-l-y 

lifting one foot, then s-l-o-w-l-y putting it 

down, before s-l-o-w-l-y lifting the next 

foot. It travels at this snail’s pace across 

the willow clearing. The puppies watch 

this spectacle with what from a human 

I’d call “questioning glances,” but they do 

follow the adult wolf all the way through 

the tall willows. 

So far, so good. But when the puppies get 

to the talus slope, they refuse to follow 

the babysitter wolf out onto the sharp 

and unstable rocks. The babysitter wolf 

notices they’re no longer close behind it. 

Itself part-way across the talus slope, it 

turns to face the puppies, lowers its front 

shoulders, raises its hindquarters, wags 

its tail, and jumps up and down with its 

front paws extended, yipping. It looks to 

me like the babysitter wolf is indicating 

“Come on. Follow me. You can do it.” 

But try as it may, the babysitter wolf is 

unable to entice any of the puppies out 

onto the talus slope. Finally it walks back 

to the puppies at the edge of the rocks. 

Already the babysitter wolf has learned a 

great deal about how to work with young 

wolves. It has discovered under what 

circumstances they will stay when you 

leave, and how to have them follow when 

you want them to travel with you. At this 

new impasse the babysitter wolf pauses. It 

appears to me that the wolf is thinking of 

new actions to try, in its attempt to get the 

puppies home. 

Now the babysitter tries pushing. It 

stands behind a puppy, lowers its head, 

and gently pushes the puppy from the 

rear end, nudging it forward onto the 

rocks. But the puppy stumbles over the 

rough surface, yips, and runs back off 

behind the other wolves. Pushing doesn’t 

work. 

The babysitter wolf pauses. Is it thinking 

of another method? 

Next the babysitter wolf tries carrying. 

It turns away from the talus, picks up a 

puppy by the scruff of the neck, and turns 

back toward the rocks to carry the puppy 

across. When it swings the puppy across 

the rocks, however, the puppy’s hind end 

hits hard against the sharp stones. The 

puppy yips. The babysitter wolf opens 

its mouth and drops the puppy, and the 

puppy runs off the rocks behind the other 

wolves. Carrying doesn’t work. 

It looks like the babysitter wolf has run 

out of ideas. It walks back to the clearing 

in the tall willows, followed by the 

puppies. It hasn’t figured out how to move 

the young wolves over the talus slope 

yet, but on it’s walk back to the willows, 

it demonstrates that it has learned the 

proper pace to use when walking with 

baby wolves. The five animals lie down 

around the clearing. After recording all 

this in my notebook I wait to see what the 

babysitter wolf will do next. 

I don’t have to wait more than a few 

minutes before the babysitter wolf rises. 

It indicates by it’s slow walk (now just 

the right speed for young wolves) that 

the puppies should follow. They all walk 

through the tall willows, and again come 

to a halt at the edge of the talus slope. 

The babysitter wolf walks a few steps out 

onto the rocks, while the puppies huddle 

together on the soil nearby. As it did 

before, the babysitter turns to face the 

puppies, lowers its front shoulders, raises 

its hindquarters, wags its tail, and jumps 

up and down with its front paws extended, 

yipping. It jumps and yips over and over 

again, progressively adding more bounce 

to the jumps and more volume to the yips. 

It jumps and yips for a minute and more. 

Finally, one pup steps out onto the rocks 

of the talus slope. The adult wolf becomes 

even more energetic and noisy, and it 

backs slowly away from the puppies while 

still jumping and yipping. The puppy 

takes another tentative step, doesn’t have 

any major problems, and continues very 

slowly picking its way across the sharp, 

unbalanced stones toward the babysitter 

wolf. Now a second puppy moves out 

onto the talus slope. It misses it’s footing, 

stumbling between two rocks, but it picks 
itself up and slowly continues forward. 

The babysitter wolf moves backward 

toward the den, still with great energy. 

A third puppy follows the other two out 

onto the rocks. By now there is a string 

of wolves across the talus slope - the 

babysitter moving backwards with jumps 

and yips, and three tiny pups spread out 

and slowly picking their way across the 

steep slope. 

When the babysitter wolf arrives at the 

end of the talus slope, it continues moving 

backwards and leads the pups easily 

through the low willows. As soon as the 

young wolves see their mother lying on 

the gravel, they race past the babysitter 

wolf, lie down with their mother, and 

nurse. The babysitter wolf follows behind, 

then lies down close to Pearl and the 

feeding pups. 

I am bouncing up and down with 

excitement. The babysitter wolf tried 

repeatedly, learned new skills as it 

progressed, and finally succeeded in 

getting three of the pups back to their 

mother. 

But one puppy never found the courage 

to follow the others across the talus 

slope. It has returned by itself to the tall 

willows, where it lies very quietly in an 

unobtrusive shadow. This puppy has never 

been alone before. It’s always been at 

least with its brothers and sisters. I write 

in my notebook that it looks scared and 

lonely. 

Can wolves count? Do Pearl and the 

babysitter wolf know that there’s a pup 

missing? Will Pearl go get the final pup, 

now that the babysitter wolf has brought 

most of her puppies to her? 

Somehow, the adult wolves are 

communicating again. The babysitter 

wolf appears to know that it should go 

and bring back the final pup, because 

the babysitter wolf rises, crosses the 

low willows, the talus slope, and the tall 

willows, and finds the missing pup in the 

willow clearing. 

When the babysitter wolf arrives, the 

single puppy races over to it, wagging 

from tail to nose, and jumps all over the 

babysitter wolf. After a few minutes 

with the pup, the babysitter wolf walks 

slowly back to the talus slope, followed 

by the puppy. The babysitter wolf walks 

a few steps out onto the rocks, while the 

puppy waits on the soil nearby. As it did 

before, the babysitter turns to face the 

puppy, lowers its front shoulders, raises 

its hindquarters, wags its tail, and jumps 

up and down with its front paws extended, 

yipping. It jumps and yips over and over 

again for a minute and more. But never 

does the puppy try walking onto the talus 

rocks. 

Head drooping, the babysitter wolf 

gives up and walks back to the willows 

with the puppy. Both wolves lie down, a 

little ways apart. They remain lying for 

fifteen minutes. This is by far the longest 

the babysitter wolf has stayed at the 

willows during the attempt to get the 

puppies home. Has the wolf given up? Is 

it thinking of additional things to try, to 

get the puppy back to Pearl? Is it hoping 

Pearl will come and get her puppy herself? 

What would you do, if you were the 

babysitter wolf? 

Oh look, the babysitter wolf is up, slowly 

walking through the willows and sniffing 

the ground. The adult seems to be walking 

around aimlessly. The puppy, still lying 

down, watches it. 

Scattered among the willows are a few 

pieces of bone and horn the wolves 

brought to the rendezvous site over the 

past week. The babysitter wolf picks up 

one end of a caribou leg bone in its teeth. 

The wolf shakes the bone, turns its body 

left and right, and growls softly. It looks 

to me like a dog playing tug-o-war with a 

bone. 

It looks like that to the puppy, too, who 

bounds over, grabs the other end of the 

bone, and tries to pull and shake it away 

from the adult wolf. The two wolves 

play this way for a number of minutes, 

growling and shaking the bone. The adult, 

being larger, moves backward pulling 

the puppy left, right, uphill and downhill 

around the clearing and through the 

willows. 

It slowly becomes clear to me, even 

though the wolves are moving in all four 

directions, and appear to be moving 

randomly, that the babysitter wolf is ever 

so slowly moving more toward the south 

(toward the talus slope) than in any other 

direction. 

Sometimes while they are playing, 

the puppy lets go of the bone, bounds 

backward and then leaps forward to grab 

the bone again. When the two wolves are 

half way to the talus slope, the babysitter 
wolf changes the game. Now, it moves 

mostly just south. But more significantly, 

when the puppy leaps up for the bone, the 

babysitter wolf lifts its head at the last 

minute, moving the bone just out of the 

puppy's reach. The younger wolf stares 

up at the bone and leaps again. Again, the 

babysitter wolf moves the bone up and 

away at the very last second. The puppy is 

unable to get the bone. It knows it had it 

earlier. Surely it can get it again? 

All the while, the babysitter wolf is very 

slowly backing toward the talus. The 

puppy leaps again and again, with eyes 

looking only upward at the bone. The 

babysitter wolf shakes the bone close 

in front of the puppy’s nose, growling 

softly, but each time the puppy leaps, 

the babysitter moves the bone just high 

enough so the puppy can’t quite reach it. 

The puppy acts completely mesmerized 

by the bone. It doesn’t notice when the 

babysitter wolf very slowly moves out onto 

the talus slope. It’s focus is completely 

upward, toward the bone it can’t quite 

catch. In this way, the babysitter leads 

the puppy across the rough stones, then 

through the low willows, the puppy 

always watching and leaping toward the 

bone. When the puppy is close enough to 

notice Pearl, it abandons the bone, races 

over to lie next to its mother, and begins 

energetically nursing. The babysitter wolf 

wags its tail and lies down nearby. 

I am stunned. Pearl had confidence that 

the babysitter wolf would succeed. During 

the two hours it took to bring her puppies 

home, she never intervened in any way. 

And I was overwhelmed by the babysitter 

wolf. It never gave up. It stayed focused 

on the task, and overcame one challenge 

after another. It even used a tool of sorts 

to distract the last puppy and lead it safely 

home. This glimpse into the behavior 

of a family of wolves taught me a great 

deal about how wolves interact and solve 

problems. It even taught me lessons to 

improve my own mothering skills.

This is the text of a presentation given by 

Arctic Refuge biologist Cathy Curby to the 

public. The story appears on the Arctic 

Refuge web site at <http://arctic.fws.gov/

wolfstory.html>.