Wolves Filmed for the First Time Hunting European Bison in a Millennia-Old Forest

A Groundbreaking Scientific Observation in the Heart of Europe

The European bison is often called the king of the forest, a title that until now seemed uncontested in its territory. However, recent visual evidence casts some doubt on this dominance. For the very first time, wolves have been caught on video hunting this large bovine in the Białowieża Primeval Forest, an ancient forest located on the border between Poland and Belarus.

This intense interspecies interaction was recorded on September 15, 2025, by researchers from the Polish Academy of Sciences. These scientists used camera traps hidden deep within this forest ecosystem to capture the event. The canids’ determined behavior suggests that wolves may have achieved similar successes elsewhere on the European continent, even though no evidence of a direct kill was observed in these specific images.

The Chronological Sequence of a Morning Ambush

The event began precisely at 7:25 a.m., just after the first light of dawn. The video footage reveals the tactical approach of a pack of seven wolves targeting a herd of eleven European bison. The herd consisted of five adult cows, two adult bulls, one subadult bull, and three juveniles, including a newborn calf.

Unsurprisingly to animal behavior experts, the predators focused their efforts on the youngest and most vulnerable member of the group. Faced with this threat, the herd demonstrated remarkable instinct by immediately closing ranks around its youngest member, initially forcing the pack to retreat in the face of this defensive wall.

The herd’s fierce defense and the young calf’s escape

The situation took a turn when three bison cows broke away from the group to chase the wolves. This move inadvertently exposed the newborn. The pack seized this opportunity on the fly to grab the calf by the neck, attempting to drag it away before two adult cows charged and managed to drive them back. This decisive moment can be seen in the video of the incident.

The calf fled, but the wolves persisted in their efforts and managed to catch it a second time. At this critical moment, two adult bison charged the pack with their horns lowered, while the rest of the herd closed in around the calf to form a vast physical shield of muscle. Faced with this barrier of massive mammals, the wolves abandoned the attack. A few members of the pack were seen lingering around the scene for brief moments, but they appeared to have finally moved away around 7:47 a.m.

Documented Predatory Abilities Against a Historic Species

Wolves are expert predators capable of hunting prey weighing ten to twenty times their own body weight, including moose, elk, and bison. They achieve this through a combination of brute strength, endurance, intelligence, and essential teamwork. While they are known to hunt American bison in North America—a distinct species—such interactions are much rarer in Europe, with only a handful of recorded historical accounts.

“To our knowledge, we present the first video evidence of wolves attacking a herd of European bison in the Białowieża Primeval Forest, targeting a newborn calf,” write the study’s authors. They then clarify the scope of their work. “Although the video did not show a direct kill, our observation demonstrated that the European bison is in fact a potential prey species for wolves,” they add.

Ecological Perspectives and Maintaining the Natural Balance

These new images are particularly significant given the species’ historical context. The European bison was driven to extinction in the wild in 1919, before being reintroduced to the Białowieża Primeval Forest in 1952. The recent observation, documented in a study published in the scientific journal Ecology and Evolution, highlights the evolutionary dynamics of this shared ecosystem.

Researchers believe it is unlikely that predation by wolves is widespread enough to cause a decline in the bison population—a nuance that was explicitly clarified in the original scientific article to accurately reflect experts’ expectations regarding the current impact of this predation. Rather, this is part of nature’s normal functioning, with wolves acting as a natural regulator to keep bison populations in balance within the environment they now share.

Source: iflscience.com

Wolves Filmed for the First Time Hunting European Bison in a Millennia-Old Forest