Kurt und seine Wölfe (360° - GEO Reportage)

How do wolves tick? Who is smarter, dogs or wolves? Which wolfish abilities have dogs given up to live with humans? To find out, Professor Kurt Kotrschal and his research team are working in Ernstbrunn near Vienna at the world's only Wolf Science Center. A film by Markus Schmidbauer © 2017, Licensed by MedienKontor / ARTE Subscribe to wocomoTRAVEL: https://goo.gl/tIk2Qc Follow us on Facebook:   / wocomo   Press release: Twelve wolves, 17 dogs. Researchers at the Wolf Science Center near Vienna are working with these animals to discover how dogs and wolves differ and what they have in common. This year, the center is taking in a new litter of timber wolves, which will be hand-reared and integrated into existing packs at five months of age. 360° - GEO Reportage visited the researchers and their charges during this exciting time. As the ancestors of our dogs, wolves have always fascinated us humans. Some love them, others fear them. These animals have not yet been properly researched. The Wolf Science Center in Ernstbrunn near Vienna is taking on this challenge. Here, the differences and similarities between wolves and dogs are being investigated, and, among other things, the extent to which wolves resemble humans in their social behavior is being investigated. The director of this facility is Professor Kurt Kotrschal. Currently, in addition to 17 dogs, the center houses twelve wolves, all adults hand-reared by the researchers. This spring, new pups will be added from Russia and Canada. These young animals will form a new pack in Ernstbrunn until they are reunited with the adults in the fall. Only through this intensive rearing can the wolves be trained to become the partners the scientists need for their experiments. The project has been running for eight years now, and various findings have already been gained. However, much remains a mystery to researchers. For example, why wolves howl. These new cubs represent an important step toward understanding the nature of wolves. To do this, however, the researchers led by Prof. Kotrschal must first gain their trust.