Wolves and humans: What the experts say about safety

Published 11:06 pm Tuesday, July 29, 2008

TWISP — Everyone agrees, gray wolves are generally wary of humans.

But with the state’s first pair of breeding wolves and six of their pups roaming the foothills near Twisp, people are asking:

“Just how wary should we be of them?”

The answer is mixed, depending on whom you ask.

“You’re more likely to get attacked by someone’s dog while you’re hiking on a trail than you are to have a threatening contact with a wolf,” said Derrick Knowles, outreach coordinator for the environmental group Conservation Northwest. “When you look at the real threats that are out there, wolves are way, way down on the totem pole,” he said.

Jack Field doesn’t see it that way.

“There’s a reason wolves were extirpated in the ’30s,” said Field, executive vice president for the Washington State Cattlemen’s Association.

Both Field and Knowles sit on Washington’s Wolf Working Group, which has spent the last year and a half looking into the habits of wolves and coming up with a draft plan for how to manage and recover the endangered animal.

“That was something that was so frustrating in developing the draft plan,” Field said. “We kept hearing that wolves don’t attack people. But it sounds like there’s a confirmed (fatality attack) in Canada, and a number of quote, unquote, close calls in Alaska,” he said.

So, who’s right?

Both are, according to Howard Golden, a wildlife biologist with a specialty in research of fur-bearing animals who works for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Wolves were never hunted to the point of extinction in Alaska, and between 7,700 and 11,200 of the 100-pound canines thrive there today.

“Certainly, over the years, there have been interactions that weren’t positive for people,” Golden said. “That said, it’s pretty remarkable how few encounters there are, considering how abundant they are. We haven’t had many issues with them compared with bears.”

Golden said Mark McNay, a recently retired research biologist for his agency, studied the issue after a wolf attacked a 6-year-old boy near Icy Bay, Alaska, in 2000. Golden said McNay’s conclusions are accepted and well-respected by other biologists in Alaska.

McNay’s paper, “A Case History of Wolf-Human Encounters in Alaska and Canada,” challenges the assumption that healthy wolves in North America pose little threat to humans.

He compiled the cases of 80 wolf-human encounters in Alaska and Canada. The stories range from a wolf that bit a 12-year-old boy in the face to packs of wolves approaching campers in their tents and chewing on their belongings after the animals had been fed leftovers.

He also points out that there were no human deaths attributed to wild, healthy wolves since at least 1900.

The report was published in 2002.

Three years later, authorities say, Canada had its first documented death by wolf in more than a century.

Kenton Carnegie, a 22-year-old Ontario man who went for a walk in remote Saskatchewan in November 2005, was followed and killed by a pack of wolves, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported. Tracks in the snow provided evidence of a struggle and unsuccessful attempts by the man to flee, according to the news reports. A coroner’s jury decided that wolves killed the man after hearing witnesses and experts and reviewing evidence.

Dr. Valerius Geist, an emeritus professor at the University of Calgary in Alberta, helped investigate Carnegie’s death for his family.

He said it’s dangerous to believe that wolves are harmless, although they are quite shy in most cases.

Geist agreed that wolf attacks are rare and fatalities even rarer. But the scene quickly changes if wolves don’t have plentiful game or livestock to feed on, and if people don’t have firearms to protect themselves, he said.

But wildlife biologists in Alaska say wolves are much more likely to go after your dog than your child.

“It’s possible for wolves to take small kids, but I don’t think it’s ever happened in Alaska,” Golden said.

“Wolves can be a threat. They have sharp, pointy teeth and can be a potentially dangerous animal, just like a dog can,” said Jessy Coltrane, wildlife biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Anchorage.

But they’re much more likely to go after a pet dog or cat than they are to threaten a person — even a child, she said.

She advised anyone who fears coming across a wolf to carry pepper spray.

In Washington, where wolves are only beginning to repopulate after they were virtually hunted and trapped out, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife offers much information about the animals, including phone numbers to call with sightings, how ranchers should treat a scene if they suspect their livestock was killed by a wolf, and what people should do if they come across a dead or injured wolf.

There’s no mention of what to do if encountering an aggressive wolf.

“We don’t feel the need at this point to have an explanation on human safety,” said Rocky Beach, manager of wildlife diversity for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

He said as with encounters with all wildlife, people should use common sense and be cautious.

But in the overall scheme of wolf recovery, he said, “One of the more minor challenges is that in terms of human safety.”

On the Web

Mark McNay’s report on wolf encounters: www.wildlife.alaska.gov/pubs/techpubs/research_pdfs/techb13_full.pdf

By the numbers

59,000 to 70,000: Wolves in Alaska and Canada

1900-2000: Dates of case histories

80: Encounters examined

14: Aggressive encounters

29: Nonaggressive encounters

8: Testing for prey

10: Self-defense

4: Provoked aggression

12: Rabies

3: Hunting of humans

Source: Alaska Department of Fish and Wildlife, 2002 report by Mark McNay