Camera Trap Records Wolves Attacking Bison Calf, Herd Drives Pack Away

M. in September 2025. The wolves focused on a newborn calf, biting and grabbing it by the neck on two separate occasions during the chase.

Adult bison charged the wolves with their horns each time the calf was seized. The herd then surrounded the calf and chased the wolves away. The entire skirmish lasted 20 minutes. The footage does not show whether the newborn calf survived.

Robin Wijnands of the Polish Academy of Sciences and colleague Tomasz Borowik recorded the event while conducting research in the forest where the first European bison were reintroduced in the 1950s. Wijnands said the observation was unexpected. “My mind was blown,” she said.

The European bison became extinct in the wild at the beginning of the 20th century due to hunting and habitat loss. Conservation efforts led to reintroduction in the 1950s. Approximately 9,000 individuals 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 1950s reintroduction. Oswald Schmitz of Yale University, who was not involved in the observation, noted the low probability of capturing such an event.

“The chance that the camera is placed in a location that captures the wolf-prey interaction is very low,” he said. “It’s a matter of the camera being in the right place at the right time. ” Wijnands and Borowik suggest predation could help stabilize bison numbers rather than cause steep population declines.

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