This is not only a documented wolf attack on a human but a good piece re the decline of hunting and the effect it is making on the encounters of man and predators.
Posted on 11/30/2008 9:24:40 AM PST by jazusamo
How the decline of hunting is changing the natural order of predator and prey
THE TWO WOLVES emerged like specters from the tree line and crossed a field of snow. From that moment, and even after everything that followed, no one disputed their penetrating beauty. Silver on white.
Two men watched them approach. The men—a pilot named Todd Svarckopf and an aviation worker named Chris Van Galder—worked at Points North Landing, an outpost that serves local mining camps in Saskatchewan province, about 750 miles north of the U.S. border. On this particular day in November 2005 a low cloud ceiling prevented aerial surveys for signs of uranium, so the bored men had struck out, walking toward a nearby junkyard to kill a few hours looking at a collection of abandoned airplanes.
They had crossed the camp's snow-covered airstrip and started across the moss-sprung landscape when the wolves appeared. One darker, one lighter. The darker one approached Svarckopf. He yelled at it, and it retreated a few steps.
"Whatever we do," the pilot told Van Galder, standing nearby, "we don't turn and run."
~snip~
After about a quarter hour—an eternity, it seemed, with the wolves snarling and snapping their teeth—Svarckopf and Van Galder made it back to the camp's airstrip, where the animals broke off the hunt and returned to the woods. Moments later, in the safety of the dreary mess hall, the breathless men related their story to the miners. Van Galder had brought a camera for the walk to the airplane junkyard, and he had managed to snap a few pictures of the wolves at the camp's edge. He showed them to his colleagues.
~snip~
A few days later, after the excitement had subsided and as the snow continued to ground flights, Carnegie told his colleagues he felt stir-crazy...
(Excerpt) Read more at vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com ...
This is not only a documented wolf attack on a human but a good piece re the decline of hunting and the effect it is making on the encounters of man and predators.
Outdoor Ping!
Geist has thought about that subject a lot.
Until recently, he says, “I was very much of the opinion that wolves were a fairly harmless group of predators.” But then the wolf population exploded.
“When I walk my dog now [on Vancouver Island, B.C.], I carry a gun,” he says. “My wife has been threatened by wolves twice.”
I would NOT want to meet an angry Brian Urlacher on the golf course.
Thanks for your post, George.
That sounds to me like excellent advice. In our northern states where the Canadian wolf is increasing in numbers it would be foolhardy to venture out alone and not be armed.
Shotgun in golf bag. :)
Governor Palin took a lot of heat for the way she allowed culling in AK, but it’s necessary. She would make a great Secretary of the Interior.
Agreed...And she only allowed it to continue, it’s been going on for years.
Thanks for posting this jazusamo.
Something is amiss in this situation, for two reasons. First of all, the unusual wolf behavior in being aggressive to humans. Second, where there is a pair of wolves, not a pack.
I would suggest examining the DNA of these wolves carefully. My first suspicion is that they are not pure bred, but have some dog, or possibly coyote in them. This is because domestic dogs are both much more prone to aggressive behavior against humans, and tend to form breeding pairs as much as a pack. With a breeding pair, I would expect aggression if approaching their den with a litter in it.
As far as a wolf-coyote mix, it would be an animal so intelligent that it should be killed. It would be the canine equivalent of a leopard, and would quickly figure out that humans were generally easy prey.
Wolves and coyotes are not only intelligent, but have very different kinds of intelligence. A good way of describing it is that wolves have strategic intelligence, and coyotes have tactical intelligence. Combined, especially if there was more than one, a gun might not be enough to defend yourself.
No disrespect meant, but your premise is faulty.
Wolves were known to be kept in fear of their lives by armed Americans. The literature is clear on this point.
After enviro-socialism became the law of the land with the passage of the Endangered Species Act, bestly attacks on humans began as soon as the generation of predators which was shot at died.
Now, horrible maulings by wolves, coyotes, cougars and bear are a regularly recurring thing.
Your phrase “quickly figure out that humans were generally easy prey.” tells me that you are considering that Americans will continue to be disarmed by their servants in the agencies.
I doubt that.
If you are correct, then the Republic will be dead.
That situation was described by the noted historian, Paul Johnson. “If the American experiment in government fails, what will come after will be unspeakably worse.”
Between enviro-socialists in the agencies, and the crypto-communist administration we shall be under soon, consider emmigration - off planet.
[cue “I’m Alright” by Kenny Loggins]
I guess that’s one gopher that could considered a predator. :)
The problem is open-borders create population growth and sprawl. I am a conservative but I do not want our population to be 500 million or a billion like India or China. Our quality of life will decrease. I prefer wolves, bears and other animals to illegal welfare moochers and drug dealers.
Don't forget to mention kamikaze dear. In PA they are just committing suicide with malice. 10 years ago on jumped off an embankment beside the road and right into the front corner of my car.
It perished after a few minutes, and ruined the right front fender, grill and hood of my car. LAST night on a back road just outside of a subdivision a few more on an embankment cut across the road about 50 ft in front of me and just behind a car that had just passed and was headed in the opposite defection.
So I slowed up as I came upon the spot the others had crossed. As I got to the spot right off the road within 10 ft there was another very large deer behind a bush. I had been blowing my horn the whole way along this stretch of road. As I got to the spot where i now saw another one was, ao I continued to blow the horn.
That stupid deer just stood just above the level of the road and my car, (about 10 ft away as I said), and just looked in the window at me as I creeped past. The horn did not scare him, he just stood there looking in the car at me.
All I could think is he was another one like 10 years ago that jumped right in front/on my car. Deer are just big stupid varmints. Certainly more people die every year from deer than wolves. That they do not hunt people (so they say:-) to eat, the end result is still dead people.
That one last night I thought was going to jump at my car. But just stood there and looked in the window at me as I went by. Shoot them all. Malice or stupidity either way they are killers. Oh, and a 120lb running deer hitting your car causes some bad damage.
The estimate on mine 10 years ago was just under a $1000! The state Trooper I talked to that time said one had jumped into the side window of a car out there and although the driver got out the Trooper said another Trooper needed to shoot the deer that made it in to the car. It was kicking around and could not get out.
So who says it is not deliberate malice?
Maybe crocs in the border rivers and lions in the border scrub land are a partial solution to illegal immigration. Since it is “nature” it should be okay with the liberal left.
I used the phrase “quickly figure out that humans were generally easy prey”, to specifically refer to a wolf-coyote hybrid. That blend is particularly scary, because it could be so intelligent and dangerous that it would be a threat even if you were armed and prepared. This is why I say that if such a cross is identified, it should be killed without hesitation.
I have seen both a 96% wolf dog and coyotes in action, and have a healthy respect for the capabilities of both. The social complexities and coordination that wolves use in pack hunting is as good as that used by a practiced light infantry squad, and traditionally, American Indians actually learned innovative tactics from coyotes. They had both respect for the animal, and the firm conviction that coyotes cannot be “trusted”, because they are both scheming and sneaky.
In the field, a wolf-coyote hybrid pack would have any number of advantages over a hunter. They would smell and hear him, and note his direction of travel far beyond the range of his rifle scope. They would encircle him and close the gap to his rear to just a few seconds at full sprint.
All of this assumes a hunter who is hunting. What chance would a person have who was doing anything else?
As was pointed out, many of these wild animals are losing or have lost their fear of man. When this happens, the typical response is to track down and kill the murderous animal. But this only works if it is just one animal, not perhaps hundreds, unless you try and eradicate them all.
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