So, what’s the meaning of all this? Have … have wolves gone vegan? Probably not. Instead, it looks like researchers are only now discovering a fairly big dietary thing about wolves that has been there all along, but no one has really thought about. There are many sightings of wolves treating themselves to a blueberry or sixteen when lounging about, but until this, no one had thought to join the dotted lines between this behavior and its larger dietary meaning. Since the whole “regurgitating blueberry throw-up porridge for our young” situation appears to be a thing within the wolf community, all those blueberry-munching adults have now started to make sense, and researchers now theorize that fruit may be an “underappreciated food source” for wolf pups in particular. This is part of a larger realization within the scientific community: Wolves have a vastly varied diet, and while they’re most famous for the whole “hunting hooved animals” thing, they’re happy to chow down anything from fish to small mammals … and, it now appears, fruit. 

Apart from granting us more understanding of a species that both fascinates and terrifies the human race, the discovery of blueberry wolves has opened new, interesting avenues of research. For instance, Austin Homkes hopes to study the exact nutritional value of blueberries and other fruit on the animals. For instance, a pack might find itself in a world of trouble if the berry year is bad and they have grown too reliant on that sweet, sweet blueberry fix.