The city's symbol is a she-wolf suckling the infant brothers Romulus and Remus, and now wolves have been spotted outside Rome for the first time in more than a century.

The predators were photographed by hidden cameras in startling proximity to the city – roaming a nature reserve just outside the busy three-lane ring road that encircles the Italian capital.

The reserve at Castel di Guido is not far from Leonardo da Vinci international airport – the city’s biggest – and is run by LIPU, the Italian League for the Protection of Birds.

Hidden cameras captured a pair of mature cubs drinking from a watering hole and loping through the undergrowth of the protected area.