Many parasites manipulate the behaviour of their hosts to their own advantage. Few, though, help their victims rise up through the social hierarchy. But that is exactly what happens when wolves become infected with a common parasite.<\/p>\n

Toxoplasma<\/em> is a single-celled parasite that spreads through contact with the faeces or meat of an infected animal. It can only reproduce sexually in members of the cat family, but can proliferate asexually in most mammals, including humans, where it induces changes in behaviour.<\/p>\n

More related content:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
What wildlife can I see in Yellowstone National Park, USA?<\/a><\/p>\n
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<\/p><\/div> <\/section>
It doesn\u2019t necessarily follow that the wolves are benefiting from infection. \u201cWhat we don\u2019t yet know is whether they are successful pack leaders,\u201d says Meyer.<\/p>\n
A gung-ho attitude is also likely to get infected animals into trouble in other ways. \u201cWe know that hyenas<\/a> infected with Toxoplasma<\/em> are more likely to be killed by lions<\/a>,\u201d says Meyer. Yellowstone doesn\u2019t have any cats big enough to take wolves. But that wasn\u2019t always the case. \u201cA few thousand years ago, we\u2019d have had the North American lion here, so the downsides might have been more obvious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Main image: Wolves running in Yellowstone National Park, USA \u00a9 Mark Miller Photos\/Getty <\/em><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n
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By Stuart Blackman Published: Tuesday, 17 January 2023 at 12:00 am Many parasites manipulate the behaviour of their hosts to their own advantage. Few, though, help their victims rise up through the social hierarchy. But that is exactly what happens when wolves become infected with a common parasite. Toxoplasma is a single-celled parasite that spreads […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":24182,"template":"","categories":[1,123],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/parasitised-wolves-are-more-likely-to-become-pack-leaders-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/parasitised-wolves-are-more-likely-to-become-pack-leaders-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/parasitised-wolves-are-more-likely-to-become-pack-leaders-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/parasitised-wolves-are-more-likely-to-become-pack-leaders-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/parasitised-wolves-are-more-likely-to-become-pack-leaders-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/parasitised-wolves-are-more-likely-to-become-pack-leaders-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/parasitised-wolves-are-more-likely-to-become-pack-leaders-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Stuart Blackman Published: Tuesday, 17 January 2023 at 12:00 am Many parasites manipulate the behaviour of their hosts to their own advantage. Few, though, help their victims rise up through the social hierarchy. But that is exactly what happens when wolves become infected with a common parasite. Toxoplasma is a single-celled parasite that spreads…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/24181"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}