Five Alaska Wolf Pups Rescued by Firefighters

Funny River Fire wolf pup rescue — Kenai National Wildlife Refuge firefighter Brian Nichols holds a wolf pup rescued from an abandoned den near the Funny River Fire.

(Image credit: Kenai National Wildlife Refuge)

Firefighters rescued five wolf pups from an abandoned den Tuesday (March 27) as they battled the massive Funny Rive Fire in southern Alaska's Kenai Peninsula. The pups had not been hurt by the blaze, according to a Facebook post by firefighters with the Kenai Wildlife National Refuge, who discovered the den.

Medics with the fire crew fed the fuzzy brown puppies glucose (sugar water) and plucked porcupine quills from their skin. In reward, they got some excited licks from the tiny pups. With help from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the litter was taken to Anchorage, where they await a permanent home.

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Becky Oskin covers Earth science, climate change and space, as well as general science topics. Becky was a science reporter at Live Science and The Pasadena Star-News; she has freelanced for New Scientist and the American Institute of Physics. She earned a master's degree in geology from Caltech, a bachelor's degree from Washington State University, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz.