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An American photographer filmed a wolf begging for food from a grizzly. The gray wolf saw the meat and in an instant turned into a playful puppy begging for a piece.
by /u/Additional_Berry_977 | 108 comments | 2026-06-12T22:27:36+00:00 Central
Comments
| /u/RazzSheri Wolves do this with each other too. They basically go: "you can't be mad at/hurt me- look! I am just a silly baby!" |
| /u/DeathAngel_97 Its probably just a tactic to make it clear they don't mean any harm. The wolf obviously isn't going to fight a bear, and the bear also isn't going to risk injury fighting the wolf if it doesn't have to. By not being threatening, the bear while probably still wary isn't as concerned and knows it doesn't want a fight. The wolf probably came back for the scraps later. |
| /u/RazzSheri It is- plus packs are familial units and work with the elders protecting and caring for the young. So they learn to ham that up when another wolf snaps at/corrects them. There's a cute video that floats around on Reddit from time to time, of a wolf chewing on a log and a younger one wants the log and does the baby wiggle to get him to give up and give her the log. |
| /u/WistfulMelancholic Dogs are the same. It's complicated when they meet cats who have no clue. The cat swatts the dogs and they're like "heyyyy peaaace, loooove. Look! I want to play, let's go" wiggling their tails and butts, bowing down and the cats like "tf you dare to prepare your attack so blatantly, here's another swatting" |
| /u/Dx-Human_NOS This is such a perfect comment lol this is EXACTLY the stage my dog and cat are at rn as they get to know each other |
| /u/Expensive_Heron_171 It took mine a few years but they are best friends now and snuggle. I believe it's because I got my dog as a puppy and my cats were already adults. And did not like the usurper. |
| /u/Daemon_Darkhole Sounds about right. You a cat? |
| /u/ClairLestrange Part of the reason is conflicting body language - for the dog wagging the tail is a sign of happiness and play. For a cat it means aggression and imminent attack. |
| /u/K-teki This is pretty much why there's the classic cat vs dog stereotype, that and dog's prey drive |
| /u/Matman161 "aww look at me I'm just a funny little guy, you wouldn't mind giving me a bite?" |
| /u/Kingsnake417 "Come on, fat ass! Not even a nibble??" |
| /u/Talvinter He's trying to get food from the bear, not seduce her. |
| /u/_thro_awa_ He's trying to get food from the bear, not seduce her. That's what he WANTS you to think |
| /u/Omwtfyu Cocaine Wolf-Bear incoming. |
| /u/SortovaGoldfish I'm interested in this bedtime story, continue. |
| /u/_thro_awa_ Sure, right after these ads. |
| /u/Relative_Buffalo_165 Comes back from commercial and it's just the wolf and bear smoking a cigarette. |
| /u/JR_LikeOnTheTVshow George Washington had two dreams; that one day wolves and bears would get along and that one day there would be MMA fights on the WH lawn |
| /u/TrueMead Too big, too small, just right. Goldicocks. |
| /u/EddyConejo This technique apparently worked in ancient humans. |
| /u/loserbmx It also worked about 10 minutes ago on me. |
| /u/Inca_Kola_ maybe you are an ancient human |
| /u/radedward76 10,000 years later, we'll see a dapperly dressed bear walking his pet wolf |
| /u/Electrical_Catch9231 Shit, you can see this in Portland right now. |
| /u/Salute-Major-Echidna Also select areas of San Francisco |
| /u/BeneficialStruggle42 💯 But did he end up getting any from the bear? If not I offer to buy him a meal or even pay for a BARF subscription, just send me his address. |
| /u/Sensitive-Peak-3723 I think it would still work on current humans |
| /u/chumpette I love like he's looking around, like: damn this is so embarrassing, I hope my bros don't see me |
| /u/redmixer1 Wolves are gigantic too I bet this one is like 150 lbs hungry |
| /u/ComfortableRelevant1 He's actually pretty damn big compared to that bear, I expected a bigger size difference between them |
| /u/bringbackfuturama Come on Mr. Frampton you're not going to eat all that watermelon |
| /u/vtosnaks This is how one approached humans like 30000 years ago and now among his descendants are pugs and wieners. |
| /u/Daveisahugecunt I like to think humans started bowing to each other because they saw wolves doing it... |
| /u/Highland-Ranger That's actually a super interesting proposition. |
| /u/theXYZT More likely, it's because we're both mammals and get it from the same ancestral source. |
| /u/Horskr I don't think bowing is like an inherited instinctual thing as much as a learned cultural thing. |
| /u/Sea-Consequence7156 Many, many animals lower themselves and make themselves smaller as a sign of deference |
| /u/Daveisahugecunt Handshakes showing you didn't have a weapon. Salutes. Cheers/clinking glasses to spill and mix drinks showing they were safe.. culture is super neat |
| /u/ladypbj ACTUALLY!! Handshakes are super interesting, we do it so we can more easily smell the other person. Studies have shown that most people after shaking hands will subconsciously raise their hand near their face, allowing them to smell the scent of the other person that lingers on their hand. We do this to try and feel the other person out, because humans actually have a lot of scent based communication. You can actually smell when someone is depressed, it just doesnt register like a scent does, instead likely directly signalling to the parts of the brain that interpret social signals. We are just animals at the end of the day, and just like most other mammals we sniff each other out. |
| /u/fckspzfr The clinking glasses/cups thing is 100% a myth btw. lol |
| /u/spreadbutt Well why the fuck we still doing it? |
| /u/fckspzfr no one can force you to do it and i will defend your right to refuse with my life |
| /u/lastingmuse6996 When I took animal behavior in college we looked at different body language things like that. The "play bow" does exist across many mammal species. Showing one's belly and vulnerable areas in general. Human flirting follows these same trends. Expose the inside of your wrist and neck in one motion by playing with your hair. Expose your chest by straightening your posture. I used it at a bar once to show someone and like magic a girl came up in 30 seconds. I bet the wolf intends to steal some of the food, but wants the bear to know it's not going to attack it when it runs up so that the bear is more passive about it... But it's a bear and isn't going to be that nice. |
| /u/AgentCirceLuna I've noticed I do it with people - I slouch to make myself appear smaller. |
| /u/PhiCloud I think it's both, kinda. I don't think there's a bowing gene or anything, but I do think bowing comes from a practice of showing submission or vulnerability in a way that transcends species. |
| /u/lovelyxbabydoll Some theories suggest that we potentially gained such high cognitive ability due to not needing as much energy in the brain focused on vision, hearing and smell since wolves started doing that part for us. So the person joking a dapper bear walking a wolf might happen in a few years (maybe a few tens of thousands would be more accurate) could be on to something! 🎩 🐻 |
| /u/Great_Scott7 Who doesn't like a good wiener? |
| /u/thisisfreakinstupid I ❤️ tiny wieners |
| /u/CountryRoads8 I literally have a pair of pug wiener mixes, and one thinks she's still a wolf |
| /u/keepcarmandhurryon Showed this to my dogs in an attempt to teach them about their ancestors |
| /u/Ok-Detective-5687 Thanks for my beagle! |
| /u/SchillMcGuffin This is pretty fascinating. This wolf behavior probably evolved from pups doing it to get food from elders, and to some extent continuing to do it within the pack to maintain social bonds. But sometimes they do it to other predators too. And historically, when they did it with humans, some of those humans responded favorably... and the canine-human partnership was born. |
| /u/OffaShortPier Let's just hope the bears don't domesticate wolves |
| /u/PussiesUseSlashS Wolf & Bear pair were documented traveling, hunting, and sharing food together for 10 days https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/s/kB14nSj 2pa |
| /u/joecitizen79 So its already begun... |
| /u/JerkGurk They haven't learned to fly yet right? RIGHT?! |
| /u/AnimationOverlord Brought to you by Wolf x Crow ink |
| /u/Teknekratos I seem to remember reading about instances of wolves buddying up with bears, crows, and badgers (or mayyybe wolverines)? They truly the dog's friend-shaped ancestor... |
| /u/Sunny_Hill_1 Wolf-raven pairs are apparently so ubiquitous they made their way into Nordic mythology. |
| /u/AnimationOverlord First Nation arts as well |
| /u/bitteroldladybird I was told that the Cree word for raven literally translates to wolf bird |
| /u/watch4coconuts Ravens want to eat the dead animals they find, but they can't tear through the skin. They know the wolves can. So they hang with wolves and lead them to dead animals that they find. Once the wolves open up the carcass and eat their share, the ravens clean up the leftovers. |
| /u/CritMemes Not just carcasses, ravens have been known to work together with wolf packs by flying above fleeing animals to guide the hunt to where the prey is located. Nature's version of a surveillance copter gets to eat the remains afterwards. |
| /u/Perfect-System2504 wolf bear eagle, this the start of some cartoon right? |
| /u/calilac ManBearPig is very real, and he most certainly exists. I'm serial. |
| /u/RealLavender *bear throws wolf at human* |
| /u/Ole_St_John Hopefully they don't align themselves with tigers or we're really fucked. |
| /u/joecitizen79 Thankfully a different continent. Moose, though... |
| /u/Cringe_Meister_ They do in Siberia or Northern Asia. Tiger, brown bear, wolf and the much rarer Amur leopard live in the same region |
| /u/turn_for_do My first thought with this was "That's a Disney movie waiting to happen" and the top comment in there was the same thought. 😭 |
| /u/CosyBeluga There kinda was a disney movie...Nikki Wild Dog of the North. |
| /u/hypnogoad Mine was that it was a group of friends playing Druid builds in Diablo. |
| /u/user-unknown-404 Wasn't there also a pair that had a raven or crow tag alone too so it could pick on the leftovers? |
| /u/Dallas2houston120 imagine a big ass Grizzly bear in a pack of 5 wolves. The wolves chase the prey and tire it out and pin it in a corner and the grizzly goes in for the kill. |
| /u/OP_Scout_81 They'd be running the world in 8 days. Either that or running a drug ring somewhere in Alaska. |
| /u/Funtwo34 That sounds unbearable. |
| /u/DarksideGustavo Too doggy for the bears |
| /u/Lenient-Hug Aw c'mon, "hi-bear-nation" was right there! |
| /u/SpaceCampDropOut Ladies... would you rather be alone in the woods with a bear and its pet wolf or.... |
| /u/DuragJeezy I'm writing a science fantasy story that takes place in 2150AD where Squirrels & Bears roam together and the squirrels can be projectile shot from the bear. Don't ask about what the orcas can do. |
| /u/cylonrobot This sounds interesting. When is it coming out? |
| /u/DuragJeezy We're 3 games deep & the webtoon is ongoing. It's called Godtail. The Bearrels will be in our next game with other mons you can catch & interact with |
| /u/teamfupa Wait until they find cocaine again, have you seen that documentary with Ice Cube's son? |
| /u/Uncaring_Dispatcher I really wish they'd have named him Trey. |
| /u/slickyeat Unique friendship between wolf and bear documented by Finnish photographer |
| /u/Wakkit1988 Sounds like we're Finnished. |
| /u/AndreasDasos Crows are on their way there |
| /u/DrPeterBlunt "Help! A bear is attacking me; with a pack of wolves!" |
| /u/--Sovereign-- yeah it's definitely a juvenile behavior. one of the hallmarks of domestication is retaining juvenile characteristics and behavior into adulthood, makes sense that wolves are just halfway there naturally. |
| /u/definitive_solutions Oh so I'm not immature, I'm just happily domesticated, thank you for that |
| /u/K-teki Humans actually do show the same type of physical and mental signs of domestication that animals do, like decreased aggression and less robust bodies. |
| /u/JimMarch We already know of examples of play behaviors between dogs and bears: https://youtu.be/JE-Nyt4Bmi8 We also know of occasional literal friendships between wolves and bears: https://youtu.be/eUXWyKrnIWQ I've personally seen a ferret weighing about a pound and a half run to dogs of up to 80lbs with the same ferret "play bow" body language seen in dogs and lots of other carnivores...and successfully get the dog to play with them. Oh, and we also have more than one documented case of a coyote befriending a badger lol: https://youtube.com/shorts/uSGIKsi9DOA You can see the "play bow" body language again. Ferrets and badgers are both mustelids so if ferrets have it, odds are badgers can at least recognize it. |
| /u/alwayssunnyinskyrim My dog has successfully used this play bow to get donkeys to play with him from the other side of a fence on multiple occasions |
| /u/stilljustacatinacage I'm torn because on the one hand I'm picturing how brave the first wolf must have been, going up to the tall monkeys with sharp sticks to plead for food. Then on the other hand it makes me sad imagining how hungry the poor baby must have been to be so brave 😭 |
| /u/Wes_Warhammer666 It makes me happy to think of it, because that little bugger helped to eventually give me one of the greatest loves I've ever known. RiP Fishdog you magnificent beast. And thank you to the brave and/or starving good boi who started the chain that led to me getting her as my dog all these millennia later. |
| /u/PigabungaDude Thank you camp wolf! You were a good doggoe even if you weren't a doggoe yet |
| /u/three_crystals Thinking about Fishdog and all the wonderful little puppers that came before her 💗 |
| /u/FineScratch I like to call it the bargain so every time I'm talking to my dog and he's looking at me to do something it's like so is 'the bargain first struck by our ancestors so shall it be fulfilled' |
| /u/Eshneh If they were anything like my greedy little Huskies, they are always hungry and will beg regardless or not if they just ate |
| /u/hillswalker87 you don't know when the next meal is coming...gotta get it whenever. |
| /u/Tomsboll I would guess said hunters was sitting on a carcass to big to eat themselves and too much to carry it all back to the camp. So when the wolves circled around them, maybe doing this puppy dance, they threw some scraps to them and the wolves dared to get closer and closer for every toss. They would then follow the hunters and repeat every time they made camp until the bond was formed. Many animals associate humans with food, not necessarily that humans are the food but rather a source of it. Birds today display this behaviour the most. |
| /u/Legitimate-Tell2126 So basically, the first dog was just a wolf with excellent begging skills. |
| /u/AntikytheraMachines i watched something recently that said dogs were domesticated wolves, but cats just figured out that human granaries were pretty good places to hunt rodents. so cats were not so much domesticated, but rather, they just co-habitated with humans. |
| /u/Preeng I'd like to know how close the domestication of wolves was to the human development of "baby talk". https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/news/dogs-respond-to- baby-talk/ |
| /u/__dying__ Okay is there evidence though that bears positively respond to canine puppy behavior? |
| /u/YoungLittlePanda The bastards always knew cuteness was out weakness. |
| /u/Will_X_Intent I've heard there is interbreeding of wolf and dog going on. |
| /u/SchillMcGuffin That's their business. |