Camera Trap Captures Wolves Attacking Newborn Bison Calf as Adults Fight to Defend It in Polish Forest

A camera trap recorded seven wolves attacking a herd of 11 European bison in Poland's Białowieża Primaeval Forest in September 2025. The footage shows the wolves targeting a newborn calf while the adults defended it. m.

While conducting research in the forest. The wolves bit and grabbed the calf by its neck on two occasions during the 20-minute encounter. Adult bison charged the wolves with their horns each time. The herd then surrounded the calf and drove the wolves away.

It remains unclear whether the calf survived. Wijnands said the observation surprised the team. “My mind was blown. I was really surprised because I really didn’t expect wolves to hunt bison, especially when there are so many other prey available in the forest,” Wijnands stated.

European bison became extinct in the wild at the beginning of the 20th century due to hunting and habitat loss. The species was reintroduced in the 1950s, including in the Białowieża Primaeval Forest. Approximately 9,000 European bison now live in scattered populations across Europe.

Wolf numbers in Europe have increased by 58 percent over the past decade. Only a few cases of wolves hunting bison have been documented since the reintroductions. Oswald Schmitz of Yale University, who was not involved in the observation, noted the rarity of such recordings.

“The chance that the camera is placed in a location that captures the wolf-prey interaction is very low. It’s a matter of the camera being in the right place at the right time. So this is a lucky recording,” Schmitz stated.

The researchers suggest wolf predation could help stabilize bison populations rather than cause steep declines. “We don’t really believe, even if predation occurs more frequently than we think, that it would steeply decline the bison population, but rather, it could potentially help a bit in stabilising the population,” Wijnands said. 73752.