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animal Behavior
Would a lone adult wolf be able
to take down an athletic adult
human?
Oliver Starr, Studied ethology at CU Boulder
Let me stress that the chances of a healthy, wild wolf attacking
a person are next to nil. This simply doesn't happen as
wolves are very timid and are extremely fearful of people.
That said . . .
Having survived a serious attack from a wolf that I cared
for, I can tell you from personal experience that at best survival
is probably a 75/25 proposition.
These animals are far stronger and far faster then you
can possibly imagine. even someone intimately familiar with
wolves is at risk. First consider this, then I'll relate my own
story for those that care to do the reading. There are plenty
of accounts of individual wolves pulling down full grown
elk. If you think a person could do that without some sort of
weapon, you haven't spent enough time in the woods. There
are even a few instances where individual wolves have taken a
moose. This is almost impossible to imagine. The average bull
elk weighs 550 pounds, a moose, up to 1400.
now for my own experience. Incidentally I weigh about
180 pounds and have had a long career as an athlete. At the
time of the attack, I was in excellent physical condition and
was definitely much stronger than an average person of similar
size since my job was to train. Please note this is pulled
straight from my notes/diary at the time of the incident. Apologies
that it reads a bit like a story — the facts and nature of
the injuries should be clear enough.
It was ten below zero the day of the attack, and I was
dressed for the weather. Good thing, too. Otherwise I might
have lost my arms — literally.
Wolves only mate once a year, and when they're in season,
they're uppity. I wouldn't make the same mistake today.
We'd been out in the forest shooting some pictures for a
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