'All it takes is a predator to learn that children are easier prey': Why India's 'wolf' attacks may not be what they seem

Indian authorities are trying to capture the last member of a wolf pack they believe is responsible for killing children in northern India. But there are still many unanswered questions surrounding the attacks — and some experts are waiting for definitive evidence that the wolves are to blame.

Nine children and one adult have reportedly been killed in suspected wolf attacks in the Bahraich area of Uttar Pradesh in recent months, with dozens more injured. News reports described Indian wolves (Canis lupus pallipes) taking children who were sleeping out in the open and entering homes to drag victims from their beds.

The Uttar Pradesh forest department deployed drones equipped with thermal imaging and traps to capture five of the six wolves living in the area, but one remains at large — and reports of attacks are continuing.

"The authorities are still searching for one wolf as of today," Akash Deep Badhawan, an officer in the Indian Forest Service who led the search operation for a week before becoming ill, told Live Science in an email on Wednesday (Sep. 18).

The authorities face many challenges in their pursuit of the final wolf. Badhawan said the landscape featured sugar cane farms, which provide cover for the wolf, while other Animals in the wolf, or dog, family (Canidae) also live there, making a single wolf very difficult to identify.

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News reports have presented a variety of potential motives for the attacks, including that the wolves are seeking "revenge" against humans for harming their pups. However, there's no evidence that wolves engage in such behavior.