30/03/2026
You may have read in the press over the weekend about the sad situation at Wildwood Kent, where five wolves were euthanised after their pack structure rapidly broke down, resulting in severe aggression and fighting between the wolves. Wolves and Humans director Richard Morley was interviewed and quoted in several newspaper and online articles with varying degrees of editing. We would like to share our full statement on the incident:
Keeping wolves in captivity is very difficult in the long term, as the animals do not have the space or freedom to express their full range of social behaviour. Wolf behaviour in captivity is therefore very different to that of wild wolves, and this can result in increased aggression between individuals or even the whole group. Our early understanding of wolf social behaviour, including the idea of a pack hierarchy led by an alpha pair and enforced by aggression, was largely based on observation of wolves in captivity, and has been shown by extensive research on wild wolf packs since the 1990s to be almost completely untrue of wolves in the wild - the reality is much more complex, with all members of the pack (or family group, as it is more accurately termed) playing an important role according to their strengths and individual characters. Fighting and fatal injury does however occur in wild wolf packs, and is also a major cause of mortality between wolves of different packs, usually competing over territory. Read Rick McIntyre’s excellent ‘The Alpha Wolves of Yellowstone’ series of books for an honest insight into the life of wild wolves.
This does raise the question as to whether wolves should be kept in captivity at all. The Wolves and Humans Foundation has always advocated that any facility with captive wolves should have contingency plans for this kind of situation, including regular observation to spot early signs of trouble, the ability to quickly separate the wolves, and a network able to offer re-homing of individual wolves if appropriate (bearing in mind that wolves are a social animal and keeping them in isolation for a long period causes severe stress and depression). The wolves should also preferably be hand-raised and socialised to humans (as pioneered by Wolf Park in the USA https://visitwolfpark.org ) to make moving the wolves and giving veterinary treatment easier and less stressful for the animals.
Having said that, we believe that captive wolves contribute significantly to education and support for conservation of the species in the wild. If we hope to have wolves back in the UK one day, it is important that people can see them in the flesh and learn more about them, particularly at places like Wildwood, which has an excellent record in supporting conservation and reintroduction of native species.
Having spoken to Wildwood Director General Paul Whitfield, we are confident that every option was explored prior to making the difficult decision to euthanise the wolves, and advice was sought from experts in the UK and Europe. The Wildwood Trust has announced that it will be reviewing whether it will continue to keep wolves at its parks in Kent and Devon, and Wolves and Humans has offered any support it can give.
(Archive photo of a wolf at Wildwood - not one of the animals involved in the recent incident).
