Wild Wolf Cubs

A few Summer's ago during one of our yearly expeditions to Bayan Ulgii Province we stumbled across what must be one of the most unique wild animal encounters I have ever experienced in Mongolia.

In a very remote valley just a stones throw from the Chinese border (the snowy mountains you can see in the background of the photo) this pack of wolf cubs played fearlessly on a patch of open ground right in front of us.

For almost 20 minutes I had free reign to shoot both photographs and video before the animals retreated back to the safety of the bushes behind.

. . .

Later, a man from the only family living in the area informed us that the cubs had already been visiting his ger regularly for a few weeks searching for food... a fact that led him to conclude that they were orphaned.

"We've been giving them meat scraps..." he told us. "In a few weeks time, their wild instincts will develop and we'll never see them again".

"Unless of course I catch them hunting our livestock, in which case I will shoot them"

Mongolian pragmatism at it's finest.

@timothyallen