Grey wolves infected with this parasite are more likely to become pack leaders

This is really cool and echoes earlier human studies that found Toxoplasma infection "may make people look more attractive to the opposite sex": https://www.earth.com/news/parasite-makes-infected-people-lo...

Is this because it increases risk-taking behavior? Who knows, but it's interesting that something with potentially significant health drawbacks may have enough benefits that it's evolved to coexist with us (up to 50% of people carry it).

This particular parasite has the effect described in the article. But our gut is full of other species of so-called "parasites" who live in harmony with the host. Human body is a symbiotic organism. So, if this parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, is capable of altering or defining the behavior of the host, can we generalize this observation and say that human behavior is defined by parasites and symbiotic organisms living in the gut?

"More likely to become pack leaders" simply means "more likely to leave and start their own family", right?

Current understanding of wolf behavior is that the "packs" are actually the wolf's direct family, i.e. its breeding partner, their cubs, and their young adult offspring. So the "leader" is simply the father. So is this piece of news saying a (young) adult wolf in a family, if infected with the parasite, is more likely to leave his current family to start a new one?

Toxoplasma gondii : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii

Risk factors for human infection : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii#Immune_respo...