New scientific findings revealed a surprising influence on wolf-pack dynamics: A mind-controlling parasite that makes a gray wolf engage in riskier behavior.
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Wolves are pack animals, living in family groups led by a matriarch and her mate. Some wolves stay with their pack their whole lives, helping hunt and raise pups like aunts and uncles as they mature, but others split off to find a mate of their own and start their own packs.
Pack behavior is observed via trail cameras and plane flyovers, and about a quarter of the wolves wear radio tracking collars and undergo blood tests. These tests revealed that some of the wolves are infected with T. gondii, likely the result of sharing habitat space with cougars. The presence of T. gondii caught the eye of researchers, including the study’s co-lead author Connor Meyer, a doctoral student at the University of Montana’s Ungulate Ecology Lab. Since T.
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