When you buy through links on our internet site , we may earn an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it work .

mamma are fierce — particularly when they ’re wildcat .

In a dramatic fresh video from an upcoming PBS documentary onArctic wolves , a pack of female wolves defends its den from a bedraggle , strange wolf who attempts to make a meal of the pack ’s naked sonny .

A pack of female wolves defends its den from an intruder in a new PBS documentary.

A pack of female wolves defends its den from an intruder in a new PBS documentary.

Well , defenseless except for their mother and her three distaff packmates .

In a snarling , brutal sequence , the pack drags , bites and root for the encroacher forth from the puppy . Within moments , the pups are good from peril , and the stranger is on the run . [ In pic : lovely Baby Wolf ]

The footage is part of a new installment in the series " Nature . " The sequence , " Arctic Wolf Pack , " airs on PBS on Jan. 17 . The documentary film follow a pack of frigid masher ( Canis lupus arctos ) living only 500 miles ( 800 kilometers ) fromthe North Pole . The snowy - furred canines birth their foggy , unreasoning whelp in den tunnel into the Arctic tundra . Their female parent , dub Snow White , is n’t alone in caring for them . Her packmate , Black Spot , nurses Snow White ’s pups — a mystical behavior never before capture on motion picture . To make Milk River , Black Spot must have recently given birth herself , but the fate of her mate and her own bedding material is a mystery .

A photograph of a Yellowstone wolf pack surrounding a bison during a hunt.

Arctic wolves are found in Greenland and the far northerly reaches of Canada . It ’s the only subspecies of grey-headed wolf that is not threaten by hunting or exit of home ground , allot to the World Wide Fund ( WWF ) — an advantage it pull in by go so far north that it seldom encounters homo .

Beyond its livid pelt , the Arctic wolf ’s unforesightful muzzle and small ear distinguish this subspecies from its more southerly gray cousins . These adaptations make it easier for the wolves to retain body heat energy , according to the WWF . The wolves survive off of Arctic hares , caribou and musk ox , the latter of which get to at least 10 time the wolves ' weight . With such enceinte prey , endurance is a matter of cooperation between packmates — whether that means ring together to trace or to protect the next coevals .

The documentary " Nature : Arctic Wolf Pack " from THIRTEEN premieres Wednesday , Jan. 17 , at 8 p.m. on PBS .

A female polar bear and two cubs lie in the snow surrounded by scrubby plants.

Original article onLive Science .

Screenshot from a video of a family of four snow leopards prowling through the snow in the mountains of northern Pakistan.

Wild and Free Running Wolves in Yellowstone National Park, USA.

a pack of orcas

two adult dire wolves

A close-up of the head of a dromedary camel is shown at the Wroclaw Zoological Garden in Poland.

This still comes from a video of Julia with cubs belonging to her and her sister Jessica.

In this aerial photo from June 14, 2021, a herd of wild Asian elephants rests in Shijie Township of Yimen County, Yuxi City, southwest China�s Yunnan Province.

The pup still had its milk teeth, suggesting it was under 2 months old when it died.

Hagfish, blanket weed and opossums are just a few of the featured characters in a new field guide to slime-producing critters.

The reptile�s long tail is visible, but most of the crocodile�s body is hidden under the bulk of the elephant that crushed it to death.

An image comparing the relative sizes of our solar system�s known dwarf planets, including the newly discovered 2017 OF201

an illustration showing a large disk of material around a star

a person holds a GLP-1 injector

A man with light skin and dark hair and beard leans back in a wooden boat, rowing with oars into the sea

an MRI scan of a brain

A photograph of two of Colossal�s genetically engineered wolves as pups.

two ants on a branch lift part of a plant