This Is The Number Of People Killed By 'Fearsome' Wolves

[Elvis P]

So wolves have killed two people, one in Alaska, one in Canada. But what about in the lower 48 where that hunter feared for his safety? A 2002 report prepared for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game found no human deaths in North America attributed to wild, healthy wolves since at least 1900. In 2011, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said that no wolves have attacked humans in the Rocky Mountain states. The Oregonian newspaper investigated the claim. A reporter contacted the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minnesota, where a spokesperson stated that wolves have not attacked humans in the lower 48. I found no other reports since 2011 of fatal wolf attacks. But I did come across statistics that help place those two wolf-related fatalities in a different light.

https://www.thedodo.com/how-many-people-killed-by-wolves-1390480906.html

Click to read more...

 

[LT]

Its always interesting to see the statistics behind pretty common fears.

Lightning, hurricanes, tornados - all pretty feared meteorological events. But its old, boring flooding that kills the most people.

Same with animals. The big, uncommon animals that are unfamiliar to us strike the most fear. But its mosquitos, which can be found all over the planet in abundance, that kill more people than any other living creature.

Human nature is an odd thing to think about.

 

[Bluelines]

Wolves and Coyotes have a healthy fear of humans and in order for them to attack they are either sick or extremely desperate, they typically follow easy prey like deer and deer typically get spooked easily by humans so they tend to stay away from us, meaning wolves and coyotes tend to be away from us too.

I had one occasion a few years back where a pack of coyotes circled me an a buddy of mine, the scary thing was it was in the middle of the woods pitch black, we lit a bonfire and they always stayed just out of lights reach, we could hear them yipping and walking through the woods circling around us but we couldn't see them. So we did what any good Canadian would do, we broke out the beer and had a few by the bonfire ..

My guess is the ATV's got their attention and they were curious to see what these weird looking creatures on two legs were doing. the knew exactly where the lights edge was and would never cross over into the light, they are very smart and very efficient hunters, if they wanted to come after us they would have.

They are so good / smart at hunting they will befriend dogs to get them back to the pack just to kill them. I've actually seen a single coyote go up to a dog, play with it and try to lead it into the woods.

 

[TheTimTamSlammerMan]

Where I live upstate, the only attack from a coyote was when they killed a dog. I really got to watch my dogs up there. Really spooky at night.

 

[Kestrel]

I'm at work, so I don't have time to research and verify it - but I remember seeing a program that suggested that wolf attacks were on the rise in parts of Canada. They postulated that the attacks were actually by wolf-coyote hybrids - basically larger and stronger animals, without the natural shyness of humans that wolves have. If I remember correctly, I believe landfills and dumps actually were suggested as a reason behind increased attacks as well - sources of food with high human activity, desensitizing animals to human presence.

I don't know if there's any solid evidence of either of those ideas, but it was an interesting angle anyway.