Three wolves of the Nashata Pack in Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota were spotted frolicking and playing during a recent snow storm.
It appears that a perfectly-placed trail cam was used to capture the footage.
Watch as the wolves chase each other around in the freshly-fallen snow. They look just like our dogs playing at the park!
The Voyageurs Wolf Project is a University of Minnesota research project that studies the behaviors of wolves during the summer.
The project studies at least 16 separate packs across northern Minnesota.
Here’s more information about what The Voyageurs Wolf Project was able to deduce from the video above. It’s actually very telling about the health and status of the Nashata Pack:
Checked a camera on Saturday and realized we got some dynamite footage of the Nashata Pack!
Here is a snippet for some Monday morning zen…enjoy a few moments of a couple wolves being wolves in a snowstorm!
Aside from the footage being pretty cool, it is also quite informative for understanding the size and composition of the Nashata Pack.
The Nashata Pack appeared to be down to 3 wolves by late summer this year, and we did not get footage of any pups. The female, however, clearly was pregnant in April and then was nursing in late April/May.
So the pack certainly had pups but it appears none made it. Unfortunately, we don’t know why or even how many pups they had.
The video also lets us determine pack composition: the first wolf in the video is the breeding female (she is very distinctive!), the second wolf is a subordinate female (you can see her parts so to speak!), likely a pup born in 2021, and the last wolf is the breeding male who is a bigger light gray wolf.
We have a few more gems of these wolves that we will share soon!