History of the WSC

How it all began

The Wolf Science Center was founded in 2008 by three ambitious Scientists, Prof. Dr. Friederike Range, Dr. Zsofia Viranyi, and Prof. Dr. Kurt Kotrschal. They wanted to understand what happened during the process of domestication, what changed on the way from wild wolves to pet dogs, and what role humans played in this process. We are in fact still far from knowing everything about the cognitive and social abilities of dogs and wolves, even though humans and wolves (later dogs) formed an alliance many thousands of years ago which lasts until today.

The birth of the Wolf Science Center was the raising of the first wolf generation in the Cumberland Game Park in Grünau. With Kaspar, Aragorn, Shima, and Tayanita, the era of the Wolfs Science Center eventually began. One year later, humans and wolves moved to the Game Park Ernstbrunn in Lower Austria. More wolf puppies and the first dog puppies were raised, the Wolf Science Center continued to grow and developed to the internationally renowned institution which it is today.

Since 2017, the Wolf Science Center belongs to the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna. Today, it forms an independent unit (Core Facility Wolf Science Center).