It’s not as healthy to be a lone wolf, especially if you have mange.
That’s the conclusion of a recently published study of Yellowstone National Park wolves that examined survival of animals suffering from an infestation of itch-causing mites.
“There are lots of other examples — humans being one of them — that animals benefit from cooperative care,” said Emily Almberg, a research scientist at Penn State and the lead author of the study. “But it was a little surprising that a mangy individual could survive as well as a healthy wolf.”
That’s right, wolves infected with mange that were living in a pack with at least five other healthy wolves had the same rate of death as their healthy companions, the study found.