M1803 is a great dad. He’s got a few jobs. Primarily, starting when the female is pregnant, he provides food. He brings her food. He lets her take food from him. He repeats.

Another one of his jobs is to oversee his territory and keep his family safe. He does this from outside the den. Rarely, if ever, does he enter when the pups are newborn. He’ll be more directly involved with the pups when they start moving around on their own.

Typically at 4-5 weeks old, pups start eating solid (really regurgitated) food. Sometimes earlier. The pups’ teeth are not developed enough yet to pull apart rats, but that doesn’t stop M1803 from bringing them food.

Even before the pups were three weeks old, M1803 entered the den when F2062 was out. Check out the video from May 9th. M1803 enters, attends to his pups, and, with tail tucked, gets chased out by “mom”. He is not supposed to be there. (He then comes back in and drops a rat for his family).

As the pups age, and leave the den on their own, Dad’s job extends. Still providing food, and security, but also directly attending to the pups. In the video clip below, M1803 drops a rat for pup 2246.

Come hang out at the wolf exhibit and you just might get to see M1803 with his pups!