“When Mama Wolf’s ‘Me Time’ Gets Interrupted By Needy Pups”

Being a wolf mom is hard. At birth, her pups weigh only one pound, and their eyes are closed, and it’s her job to allow them to become the intelligent, brave members of the ecosystem they are destined to be.

So naturally, after the pups get big and strong enough to step out of the den, the mom wants to take a break and relax. Which is exactly what Belle tried to do when the darn kids came back and interrupted her!

In 2017, the Wolf Conservation Center, a not-for-profit environmental education organization working to protect and preserve wolves in North America, uploaded a video to YouTube titled When Wolf Mama’s “Me Time” Gets Interrupted By Needy Pups.

“Although Belle has all the qualities of a great mother, raising six youngsters isn’t always easy and this [footage] captures that,” Maggie Howell, a spokesperson for the organization, told Bored Panda. “Beyond her irritability, however, Belle was fulfilling her parental obligations by setting some rules in the cozy den.”

However, don’t mistake Belle’s grimaces for aggression. Howell highlighted that wolves mainly use body language to convey the rules for the family. “Wolf families usually consist of the breeding pair (mom and dad) and their offspring of varying ages. Sometimes unrelated wolves will join a family too. To maintain order, wolves will rely on their posture, tail position, facial expression, and ear position to articulate their status and role within the family. Wolves will also use body language to communicate intentions or to initiate some fun.” In this case, the mom was simply telling her kids to behave!