When Man Becomes Prey

by Cat Urbigkit

  It is not definitive that aversive conditioning techniques change wolf behavior other than at a specific locality. For instance, if wolves approach a campground occupied by people and are met by rangers shooting rubber bullets at them, the wolves may leave, but the lesson may only apply to that locality. The wolves may approach people in other areas, but may avoid the specific location where the negative experience occurred.

  “Chasing [wolves] out of sheep does not make them not go after sheep,” Mike Jimenez of the US Fish and Wildlife Service notes. Instead, the wolves may seek out a sheep herd that is not as well protected, or where no negative consequence has been experienced.

  “It does change the behavior at the locality, but to say that wolves won’t approach people again because they got blasted at one place, I’d say that data is sketchy,” Jimenez says. “They are very smart, and they are very good at exploiting a situation to their advantage.”

  In Yellowstone National Park, where public hunting is not an option, federal officials have killed habituated wolves on several recent occasions. In May 2009, a yearling male wolf was frequently seen in close proximity to humans in developed areas of the park, including around Old Faithful. The wolf’s undesirable behavior escalated, as the animal repeatedly chased people on bicycles and motorcycles. The wolf began approaching people and vehicles and behaved as though it expected to receive food rewards from humans. When hazing failed to change the animal’s behavior, the wolf was determined to be a threat to human safety and was killed by federal wildlife officials.

  Federal officials also killed a habituated wolf in Yellowstone National Park in October 2011. Over several months, the 110-pound male wolf had approached park staff and visitors at close range at least seven times, according to a press release from the agency. Repeated attempts to haze the wolf away from developed areas of the park failed, and after ripping apart a ranger’s pack in search of food, the wolf was killed. The wolf’s history of fearless behavior in the presence of humans, and its obvious food-conditioned behavior, led to its eventual demise.

  Park service officials insist that sightings of wolves in close proximity to humans and developed areas indicate that a dangerous situation could be developing and should be immediately reported. Yellowstone park officials maintain strict sanitation policies within the park to prevent any of the park’s wild predators from becoming food conditioned, a situation that poses a clear danger to human visitors.

  More Northern Attacks

  In July 2012, parks officials in Canada shot and killed a wolf that had stalked a man walking with a small child and a puppy in a park. The family was walking through an established campground in Kananaskis Country (west of Calgary) when they noticed the wolf was following them. The family escaped into a nearby restroom, but the wolf waited outside for some time before eventually wandering away. Park officials had received numerous reports of this wolf in the week preceding this incident, as it approached vehicles, lunged at a passing motorcyclist, and chased bicyclists. The wolf was highly habituated to humans and had likely become food conditioned as well.

  In December 2012, a wolf attacked an Alaskan trapper on his snowmobile, biting the man. According to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, the thirty-year-old man was snowmobiling down a frozen creek with his father when the single black wolf attacked, grabbing the man’s arm. The trapper fought back, and man and wolf tumbled hard onto the ice, with the man on top. The wolf yelped and began to retreat. When it stopped to look back, the trapper yelled at the animal and it proceeded to leave. The man underwent a series of rabies vaccinations. Because the attack took place in a remote area, in extremely cold temperatures, state wildlife officials were unable to recover the animal for rabies testing.

  LEARNED BEHAVIOR

  Dick Thiel of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources makes a good case that the development and spread of human-habituated wolves can be traced to learned behavior passed from one wolf generation to the next. Thiel developed a list of behavioral indications associated with certain wolf packs in Wisconsin, including:

  wolves refusing to move out of the way of oncoming vehicles

  wolves laying in the open on roads and roadways

  wolves walking through or bedding down in residential areas

  wolves establishing rendezvous sites within regular visual range of humans

  wolves approaching occupied vehicles

  wolves approaching people on foot

  Thiel documented that the offspring of litters of wolf pups raised near humans transmit habituation behaviors to their offspring.

  In March 2013, it was reported that a Manitoba woman drove herself to the hospital after being attacked by a wolf near Grand Rapids (north of Winnepeg). The woman said she had stopped along the road to see if another motorist needed help, and the unprovoked attack occurred while she was outside her vehicle. The woman received injuries to her neck, and the wolf reportedly followed her back to her vehicle. She received treatment for her wounds and underwent rabies shots. A witness to the attack claims that he saw the woman offer the animal food before the attack, but whether this claim is true remains unknown.

  In August 2013, a sixteen-year-old boy was injured in a wolf attack while sleeping outside his tent in an established campground near the shore of Lake Winnibigoshish in north-central Minnesota. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reported the boy sustained multiple puncture wounds and a laceration about 11 centimeters long to his head. The wolf ran into the woods after the boy kicked it, and the boy was transported for medical treatment for his injuries, which were not life threatening. The US Forest Service campground was evacuated, and other campers interviewed by investigators reported numerous incidents involving the wolf biting through tents and otherwise failing to exhibit a fear of humans. Federal animal damage control officials trapped and killed the wolf a few days later. The adult male wolf weighed about 75 pounds and was found to have a deformed jaw and other abnormalities. State wildlife officials speculated that the animal’s deformities could account for its lingering in the campground, where it could search out easy food sources, and eventually became habituated to humans, with the resulting dangerous behavior.

  In October 2013, a forestry worker in British Columbia was confronted by a pack of wolves as she walked back to her truck with two dogs. The pack came within 10 feet of the woman, and as she reached for her bear spray, one of the dogs began fighting with the wolves. The woman was unharmed, escaping to safety in the truck with the other dog. The dog that battled the wolves was severely injured and had to be euthanized. The British Columbia Forest Safety Council issued a safety alert, advising forestry workers in the area about how to react in such situations, including taking defensive action.

  Bikes and Motorcycles Attract Attacks

  In June 2013, a motorcyclist testing a new bike in Kootenay National Park, Alberta, nearly hit a wolf in the roadway, but swerved to avoid the animal. The man turned around and approached that area of the highway with his camera in hand, only to have the wolf jump back onto the highway and begin chasing the bike. The wolf crossed a line of traffic to pursue the motorcycle, and the motorcyclist was able to snap pictures of the animal in hot pursuit, ears flattened against its head, running at full speed. The bike eventually outran the animal, and the motorcyclist appeared to have enjoyed the encounter, likening the wolf to his pet dog, which liked to chase bikes. Wildlife managers at Parks Canada took a different view, noting that the animal appeared to be habituated, causing concern for wildlife managers. In the coming days, the wolf was seen repeatedly along the same stretch of highway, and it appeared that the wolf had been receiving food rewards from passing motorists.

  In July 2013, a bicyclist had a harrowing encounter with a wolf while cycling on the Alaska Highway. Mac Hollan, thirty-five, of Idaho, was on a long-distance ride to raise money for a school lunch program when he found himself far ahead of his partners and suddenly being chased by a wolf, with the animal lunging at his foot. Hollan pedale
d for his life, repeatedly squirting the wolf with blasts from the can of pepper spray he’d stashed in his handlebar bag. But the wolf kept returning to chase and attack, ripping the bike’s panniers, spilling tent poles onto the highway, and ripping the tent.

  In his first-person account posted on Facebook, Hollan expressed his fears of what would happen next as he approached an incline on his bike.

  “I just kept thinking about all the shows I have seen where wolves simply run their prey until they tire and just finish them,” Hollan wrote. “It was a surreal moment to realize that I was that prey, and this hill was that moment.”

  Fortunately an RV came around the corner, and its driver quickly assessed the scene and stopped to help save Hollan from the wolf. Hollan was able to get inside the vehicle while the wolf attacked the bike he’d jumped off. The wolf continued its attack on the bike while numerous cars arrived on the scene, with people yelling and throwing rocks and vehicle horns honking. Eventually someone hit the wolf in the head with a metal water bottle, and the wolf retreated to the side of the road. The bike team was able to recover the bike and proceed on their trip thanks to the help of fellow travelers, who didn’t leave until the men had safely pedaled away.

  Wolves typically test things to see if it’s potential prey. So when something runs away, there’s an instinctual response in the wolf to go after it. “With something like bikes and cars, it’s a mixed signal inside,” the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Jimenez said. “Something tells [the wolf] to chase it, get it, but what are you going to do with a 5,000-pound truck when you catch it? But that doesn’t click.”

  Because it’s so instinctual for the wolf to chase, most scientists recommend that if you have an encounter with one (or any big predator), do not run.

  “You are trying not to trigger that response, where the animal gets hyped up and triggers the chase,” Jimenez said. “That’s upped that behavior to the next step. It’s not just inquisitive, now you’ve got the animal in full-bore chase [mode]. It’s a little harder for a wolf to turn the whole sequence of events off.”

  Protection and Habituation

  Residents of areas occupied by expanding wolf populations in the United States have reported bold behavior from wolves, which were granted protection from persecution in the early 1970s with their listing under the Endangered Species Act. Wolf biologist Steve Fritts and his coauthors wrote, “The apparent increase in aggressive encounters after 1970 was thought to be the result of greater protection for wolves and increased wolf numbers, combined with increased visitor use of parks and other remote areas.”

  Jimenez agrees, and views habituation due to protection as a problem: “If you look at what kind of thing leads to problems with predators—and wolves are no exception—habituation is a big one. When animals start getting used to being around people, then you start seeing a pretty predictable pattern.”

  That pattern involves wolves coming closer and closer as they encounter people but don’t experience negative consequences. They become bolder in their actions, which includes being seen in human-occupied areas in broad daylight. Wolves are top-of-the-food-chain predators, and they tend to assert their presence. When they approach human-occupied areas, the wolves enter cautiously, but when not met with a negative consequence, they come closer. When faced with something big, like a human, the wolves either view the presence as a threat and retreat in response, or they exert dominance.

  Providing food rewards when wolves go near human-occupied areas not only diminishes any negative consequence, but actually provides the wolf with a positive reward for its efforts.

  “Protected areas are a real breeding ground for habituation,” Jimenez said. “Protected status—having wolves listed as endangered—definitely contributes to habituation. The way you manage them, even the way you list them if it equates to protection, changes the way the wolves respond to people. There is no negative reinforcement [that] says that people are bad news—that heads [wolves] down that habituation path.”

  Habituated wolves are often destroyed by wildlife managers because of the threat the animals pose to human safety.

  “It’s a predictable and sad ending, but when wolves lose their wildness, [that’s] what happens,” Jimenez said.

  The Impact of Hunting Wolves

  The recent delisting of wolves in some areas of the Northern Rockies and in the Great Lakes area, and the initiation of hunting seasons in those areas, may prove to be important for management by reinforcing fear behavior in the wolf population and eliminating those animals that appear to have lost fear and thus may pose a threat to human safety.

  John Linnell and the group of Norwegian scientists who reviewed wolf attacks on humans recommend that wildlife managers do what they can to keep wolves wild and out of trouble with humans. They also recommend that any wolves that appear to have lost their fear of humans or act in an aggressive manner be removed from the population. These researchers note, “Carefully regulated hunting may be useful in maintaining shyness in some situations, and will, in addition, provide a feeling of local empowerment and control over the wolf situation.”

  Jimenez said his view is that hunting is a positive thing for wolves because it can influence behavior. He said: “If you have wolves that become easy around people, easy around houses, easy around ranches, those are probably not real suitable habitat for wolves. Having people have the legal ability to hunt them, to harvest them, is a selection process that says the ones that are smart stay in more remote areas, where we’d like to see predators hang out. Those are the ones that survive and pass on their traits to their offspring.

  “Animals definitely learn,” Jimenez said. “So hunting, on a behavioral level, will definitely change wolf behavior.”

  Jimenez predicted that after a few years of state-managed hunting seasons, people wouldn’t see wolves in hunted areas, walking along the roads, or approaching people. “Wolves, in areas where they are exploited for hunting or for livestock control, are much more leery of people than wolves that are protected,” he said.

  Habituation Harms Wolves

  Yellowstone National Park officials know that wolves within the park are habituated to humans, and when they wander out of the park during hunting season, the wolves are vulnerable. Numerous wolves that inhabit the park during a portion of the year have been killed in legal harvest in adjacent states.

  “Wolves that are comfortable around people don’t last long during hunting seasons,” Jimenez pointed out. “It’s the consequence of having wolves be used to people.”

  But the reality is that the regulated hunting of wolves does not hurt stable wolf populations.

  And predators that have lost their fear of humans pose a special danger. Predatory attacks by wolves on humans may be rare events, but that is no reason to discount the risk of such an attack. People don’t need to fear wolves, but they do need to be cautious, and to realize that if a wolf appears to be at ease around people, it may pose a risk to human safety. The wolf itself may be in jeopardy because of this behavior.

  Jimenez urges, “Don’t habituate wolves, because somebody else is going to have to deal with them.”

  Most of the recent cases of wolf aggression occurred where wolves were protected, such as national, state, or provincial parks, or near large industrial sites located in remote wilderness areas (mines, oilfields, logging camps).

  —Alaska Department of Fish and Game: (2008) Wolf Safety in Alaska

  Avoiding

  Wolf Conflicts

  People who live and recreate in areas that are inhabited by wolves need to consider safety. Try to avoid behaviors that would encourage wolves to spend time near people and near areas of human development.

  Keep children and pets close and under supervision, especially if there are daytime sightings of wolves in your area. While hiking, do so in groups, with children in the middle. Children should never be left unattended in an area known to be occupied by wolves.

  Keep a clean camp, with garb
age secured and food stored in animal-proof containers. Don’t cook food or wash dishes near your sleeping area. Do not leave pet food outdoors, and keep dogs on a leash and at your side. Never leave a dog unsupervised and tethered at a campsite or cabin. And, as hard as it may be, do not try to save a dog from a fight with a wolf.

  The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources cautions that hunters using camouflage, special scents, and calls may find themselves in an encounter with a wolf that has failed to recognize that the hunter is a human. If approached by a wolf under such circumstances, make your presence known by standing, shouting, or throwing objects at the animal.

  Use motion-detection outside lights to deter wild predators from using areas around your home. Eliminate habitat for wolf prey species from your residential yard, and discourage the feeding of wild animals, such as deer, which can attract wolves and other large predators.

  Carry bear pepper spray, and have it accessible, while recreating in wolf country, and know how to use it (see page 31 in the “Black Bears” chapter for a refresher on how to use spray).

  If you see a wolf, there’s a fairly good chance that it’s habituated, meaning that the wolf is used to being around people (or else you wouldn’t be seeing it). Habituated wolves can associate humans with food, which means the wolf poses a risk to human safety. When you see a wolf, realize that you are viewing an animal that can kill animals more than ten times its size—this is a formidable predator.