An overseas biologist managed to discover a lot of features from the life of these amazing animals
Wolves are the most amazing animals in the world, says US zoologist David Mach. Canis Lupus - wolves are known by this name scientific world. Wolves did not leave their owner even during the owner’s stay in people’s homes, therefore wolves in the Scandinavian countries are revered as “God’s wanderers.”
The idea that wolves constantly attack people is erroneous. In fact, these animals pose a danger to humans only in exceptional cases. Nowadays, cases of wolf attacks on people are extremely rare.
Over the years of study, wolves surprised the Sword more than once. He was most amazed when a pack he knew attacked a seriously wounded wolf. This wolf later died. "It was amazing to see up close the effects of an attack by wolves that had previously been so friendly to their comrade - although I had previously seen similar scenes from the air," the scientist told BBC Earth.
He was also seriously surprised when the one-year-old wolf deliberately did not kill the caught hare, but took it to the wolf cub.
Nowadays, control over rabid animals by special groups of zoologists is carried out much more effectively than it was done 30 years ago, the expert explains. Therefore, cases of wolf attacks on people are now extremely rare. They more often attack artiodactyls. And mostly the potential victims of these graceful and bloodthirsty animals are animals weakened due to illness or injury.
In most cases, even a large flock of 6-7 animals choose a weakened or sick victim for hunting. Based on this, a person is too strong a hunting object for them. Evidence of this trend is the fact that the number of wolves is greatly reduced in Lately.
Most often, harm to human activity is caused by a wandering lone wolf, who was kicked out of the pack - the alpha male. Such lone wolves from hunger are quite capable of attacking a person.
In cultures different nations these predators appear in different guises. For example, in the mythology of the Scandinavian peoples, its main deity - Odin, is always accompanied by a pair of wolves - Freki and Geri.
The wolf is one of the largest modern animals in its family: its body length (excluding tail) can reach 160 cm, tail length - up to 52 cm, height at the withers - up to 90 cm; body weight can reach up to 80 kg.
Based on his 50 years of experience, Dr. Sword identifies five little-known facts about these predators:
1. The size of the territory controlled by wolves depends on the amount of prey on it. The habitat of a wolf pack can vary from fifty square kilometers to several hundred, if there is little prey on it. The choral howl of a pack is one of the ways to warn other wolves that it is better not to meddle in this territory.
2. These animals pose a danger to humans only in exceptional cases. In most places where wolves live, people, on the contrary, hunt them themselves and set traps for them.
3. Wolves prefer to hunt weak animals - old, very young, hungry, injured or sick.
4. These predators do not particularly reduce the number of prey in their territory. However, under unusual circumstances (several cold winters in a row, prolonged drought or shrinking range) they can reduce the number of local wildlife or even completely destroy them.
5. The more prey, the more numerous the wolf population can be.
Additional sources: gpclub.ru, piterburger.ru.
In this article, originally published in the spring issue of the magazine "International Wolf" In 1998, wolf expert David Sword decided to study the problem and find out how capable wolves are of creating physical danger to people. Reports of wolves killing children in India and a wolf attack on a sleeping 11-year-old tourist in Canada raised questions among the general public about the dangers of wolves and David, who wrote an article on the topic in 1992, "International Wolf", felt it was time to reconsider the problem.
Since the information below (article by David Sword) is more related to North America, then it is also worth interpreting it for the northern regions of Europe and Asia, since the habits of wolves and their sizes are almost comparable to wolves living in North America.
Should you be afraid of the big gray wolf?
“There has never been a documented case of a healthy wolf killing or seriously injuring a human in North America.”
Not many of us are familiar with this statement, but maybe some of us have known about it, especially those of us who study wolves or try to present this information to the public. But how true is this statement and how did you come to it? The statement has been made for many years. Have there ever been any exceptions? Besides, if wolves don't attack people, why not leave them alone?
Since my job required me to regularly deal with wolves, I tried to keep track of this problem. In fact, I have spent the last 12 years living with a pack of wild wolves in the remote Arctic, just 600 miles from the North Pole. Every night for those years, while I slept, only the thin nylon of my tent separated me from the wolves. Often the adult wolves howled or barked, and their pups whined a few steps from my head, interrupting my sleep. Even when I was outside my tent, or sometimes when the otherwise morbid interest of my companions forced them to approach me, I beat them with my cane, forcing them to move away. That's not counting the times I've spotted them running around my newly hung undies, which I hung out in the tundra to dry.
Overall, I have worked and lived with approximately 16 Arctic wolves, and none of them have ever made me feel afraid of them. One of them, while I was sleeping, developed the habit of positioning himself outside my tent like a dog. One wolf allowed me to sit among her pups and take notes while she howled nonchalantly just a few feet away. Others once stuck their heads into my tent and pulled out my sleeping bag, luckily I saw this from a distance and was able to make them throw the bag away with a loud scream.
Photo. Work by Gustave Doré, Little Red Riding Hood
However, these are the same wolves that I observed that are capable of hunting an adult musk ox and tearing it apart. Their jaws are strong enough to crack a musk ox leg bone three inches wide. In the south, relatives of these wolves are capable of cracking the skull of an adult moose. It is clear that wolves could easily kill a person if they wished. Still, according to at least, until recently, no one had ever found a dead missing person who had been eaten or even seriously injured by non-rabid wolves during the many millions of days visiting our national parks, forests and other remote areas where wolves live.
In fact, even "dangerous situations" between wolves and humans in North America were rare enough to be documented in scientific journals. In such reports you can find information: about the bites of several botanists, which, as it turned out, were quite close to a wolf den in the Northwest Territories of Canada; about a wolf that bit a man in the Arctic, who tried to tear the animal away from his sled dogs, with whom the wolf was fighting; and a wolf, who grazed the paleobotanist’s cheek with his tooth; as it turned out, he was just curious and grabbed a woman on Ellesmere Island near the North Pole.
Two interesting human-wolf encounters in northeastern Minnesota show the ways in which wolves interact with people who are seriously injured. The first incident involved a logger who noticed two wolves attacking a deer nearby. The lumberjack picked up his dog, which was extremely frightened by the attack on the deer. One of the wolves advanced towards the man and the dog and, with his lower jaw tooth, made a six-inch gash in the lumberjack's mottled black and red wool shirt. As the wolf tried to tear the lumberjack's clothes off with its wide-open jaws, the lumberjack did everything right - he pinned him down with his throat.
“It’s not me, the wolf attacked,” the lumberjack told me. “He tried to grab the dog, which just happened to be in my hands.”
Video. Why you should respect wolves
The second Minnesota incident involved a 19-year-old hunter who was left with a long scratch on his body by a wolf's claws. A guy was hunting hares during a blizzard, wearing snowshoes in a wide swamp north of Duluth. He was wearing his favorite deer jacket, which apparently still carried the animal's scent. Suddenly the wolf attacked him from behind and knocked him onto his back. Once the wolf pinned him to the ground, the surprised hunter managed to fire his .22 caliber rifle. I think the wolf came to his senses and ran away, leaving the hunter with a long scratch.
Mistaken identity? Perhaps, but if the wolf had intended to kill the hunter, he might have done it easily.
Why do wolves injure rather than kill people in North American forests, parks and wilderness areas? This difficult question is difficult to answer. It is true that wolves are usually very afraid of people. This fear probably comes from the fact that wolves have been persecuted by humans for so long. Thus, the rare and famous event of someone searching for a wolf in the wild suggests only one thing - the person is doing it deliberately.
It is because of the elusiveness of wolves that I had to travel every summer to the deep Arctic, to an area about 200 miles north of the nearest Inuit village, to observe wolves up close. Even the wolves in Isle Royale National Park have not harassed humans since their arrival on the island in 1949, maintaining their extreme shyness towards humans.
However, there are a few places where wolves have either lost their shyness towards people, or may have never developed it. An example of this is the distant Arctic, where I live with “my bag” every summer. An example of this would be cases in several national parks, where some wolves, like coyotes and bears, are accustomed to people.
What makes these wolves, who have lost their fear of people, attack people? The answer may lie in the fact that humans stand upright on two legs. No wolf prey does this. In addition, bears sometimes stand upright on their hind legs and usually the wolves try to avoid the bears. Another explanation is that wolves have long learned to avoid people. Those wolves who did not learn this lesson were destroyed.
The final part of the answer, however, is rather awkward. I referred to incidents, mainly in Asia and Europe, in which wolves had apparently killed or seriously injured people. For centuries, such cases have occurred in areas such as Russia, China, the Middle East, and even Spain and others. European countries. Many such cases undoubtedly relate to rabid wolves, which, like rabid dogs, squirrels and skunks, attack people. A large number of cases are obvious falsifications or extreme exaggerations, such as a published article in a 1911 newspaper about an event in Tashkent, the former Soviet republic Uzbekistan, which claimed that wolves killed the entire wedding party of 130 people.
Such obvious fiction tends to overshadow any serious cases that might actually exist. However, recent incidents of wolves killing people in India have been verified by the competent authorities and appear to have actually happened. From March to October 1996, a wolf or wolves allegedly killed or seriously injured 64 children in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Dr. Yadvendradev Jhala, a US-trained wolf biologist who studies wolves in his native India, verified these reports and tried to determine the likelihood of an animal other than wolves being involved in these events. By examining the victims, interviewing survivors and witnesses, checking tracks and hair, Yhala came to the conclusion that a wolf or wolves took part in these murders.
Photo. Fragment from the film Little Red Riding Hood and the Gray Wolf
In March and April 1997, nine or 10 more people apparently fell prey to wolves in the same area. Almost all of the victims were children under the age of 10 who were playing and running around the outskirts of small villages surrounded by dense vegetation. Very little wild life lives in this area and most livestock are well kept.
Young children were left unattended, perhaps even neglected by their parents, during the deaths. Because the Indian government compensated parents of children killed by wild animals much more than average annual salaries, Indian biologists believe that this may have actually been an incentive for parents not to look after their children as well as they usually do. In regions where killings have occurred, wolves are usually frequent visitors to villages and sometimes even enter huts. It is obvious that they lost their fear of humans, or perhaps they became so desperate due to lack of prey that they were forced to approach human sites. This combination of lack of fear, closeness to people and presence large quantity unsupervised young children may have contributed to some bolder wolves' tendency to experiment with this new type of prey. It may have taken the wolves many attempts before they actually succeeded in snatching a small child undetected, but once one or two pursuits were rewarded, they began to control the local wolf population.
A similar combination of circumstances could explain the case of the wolf that grabbed 11-year-old Zachary Delventhal in his sleeping bag in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, an incident that occurred in August 1996.
On August 17, 1996, a wolf grabbed Zachary's face and tried to pull him away, causing a wound that required 80 stitches. Perhaps the wolf was trying to grab not the boy, but his sleeping bag. As noted earlier, the wolves I live with in the deep Arctic once tried to steal my empty sleeping bag from my tent. On another occasion, they tried to escape with the sleeping bag I was traveling with on the tundra. Wolves, like dogs, may be attracted to soft, fluffy or fur-like things that they enjoy playing with or tearing apart. Regardless of the wolf's intentions in the Algonquin Provincial Park incident, the important factor was that the animal was habituated to humans. This wolf had already been running away with backpacks, tennis shoes and other human items in the area for several days before the attack on Zachary. He even ate human food.
In other words, like bears that feed in landfills, garbage cans or human campsites, this wolf not only lost his fear of people, but was rewarded for what he did. While this combination of circumstances does not always result in incidents where people are injured, there is another condition. This is an unsubstantiated reason for wolves to injure people, but it does seem a necessary condition wolf attacks.
As the wolf population begins to bounce back in both Lake Superior and the western United States, it is important that people understand this situation. Wolves are large carnivores. Like bears, cougars and domestic dogs, they should be regarded as potentially dangerous animals. This does not mean that wolves should be viewed with an unhealthy fear or that we should return to the days when wolves were viewed as demons. It just means that we should view wolves with the same healthy respect as any potentially dangerous animal.
David Mech, world renowned research biologist wildlife, who has studied wolves for almost 40 years. He is the founder of the International Wolf Center and the current vice chairman of the center's board of directors. He is widely published in academic and popular journals. His books, including The Wolf, The Way of the Wolf and The Arctic Wolf, were recently reissued in expanded editions.
Humans can become victims of both predators and herbivores. We are more afraid of some animals than others. But in most cases, the person himself is the culprit of their aggressive behavior.
Wolf
The wolf is traditionally considered a ferocious and dangerous predator, and popular rumor often attributes to it aggression towards humans. There is some truth in this, since cases of wolf attacks on people have been recorded more than once.
But still, the danger of the wolf to humans, according to US zoologist David Mach, is greatly exaggerated. The scientist believes that a wolf attack on a person can only take place in exceptional cases.
A threat to people is either a hungry alpha male kicked out of the pack, or an animal with rabies.
However, control over rabid wolves in last years has become more effective than 30 years ago.
If we are talking about a prey larger than a wolf, then even a pack of predators prefers to attack not a healthy animal, but a sick, weakened or old individual. A person most often turns out to be too strong an opponent for a wolf. According to Mach, “in most wolf habitats, people hunt them and set traps for them.”
Shark
Despite the many dangers that await humans in the depths of the ocean, there is no animal that inspires us with greater fear than the shark. Hostility towards this marine predator has a long history. Even in the works of Pliny the Elder, dramatic fights between sharks and sponge catchers are told.
But are sharks really that dangerous?
According to statistics, over the past few decades, just over a thousand people have become victims of shark attacks.
This figure is negligible compared to, say, the number of people injured in dog attacks or collisions with hippopotamuses.
Moreover, not all sharks pose a danger to humans: out of 460 species of sharks, a little more than 50 are potentially dangerous, and only 20 species, including the great white and tiger shark, pose an undoubted threat to human health and life. However, in a state of stress, it is hardly possible to distinguish a dangerous shark from a non-dangerous one. Therefore, biologists advise avoiding contact with any shark whose length exceeds 1 meter.
Snake
Just the mention of a snake can cause in a person, if not panic, then at least a negative reaction. Close encounters with this reptile are not uncommon, since its distribution area directly borders the human environment. How serious is the danger of accidental human contact with a snake?
In the territory former USSR There are about 55 species of snakes, 5 of them are poisonous - viper, epha, copperhead, viper and cobra.
However, among the potentially dangerous species It is most likely that a person will encounter only a viper. Suppose a viper does bite you, a fatal outcome, even in the absence of timely medical care, is unlikely: the most unfavorable result of a viper attack may be necrosis of the tissue around the bitten area.
Sometimes, through carelessness, a person can be attacked by a yellow-bellied snake, which can cover a distance of up to 2 meters in one jump. "It's quite aggressive, but not poisonous snake“- reassures Mariupol serpentologist Sahak Kubelyan.
However, a snake never attacks until it feels threatened by a person. If you stick to simple rules safety in places where snakes are supposed to live, then the risk of a bite from a poisonous reptile will be reduced to zero.
Elephant
Despite the fact that the elephant seems to be a peaceful herbivore, due to its size and running speed (up to 40 km/h), it poses a serious threat to human life, even in vehicles.
Large game hunters frighten listeners with stories of the danger they were exposed to when meeting elephants. However, in their stories they omit the main thing: they are usually talking about the animals that they injured.
Elephants very sensitively grasp the connection between pain and the person who at that moment came into their field of vision.
As national park staff note, elephants, even if it is a large herd, prefer to give way to humans. In nature reserves, animals are accustomed to seeing people, and therefore can let them get close. Dangerous can be a single male expelled from the herd or an animal in a state of “must” (sexual overexcitation), which for no apparent reason is capable of attacking a person.
In the overwhelming majority of cases, the culprit of conflicts between humans and elephants (in particular, the destruction of plantations by elephants) is the person himself, since his field of life is getting closer and closer to the permanent habitats of herbivorous giants.
Polar bear
The polar bear is a formidable predator with well-developed hearing, vision and sense of smell. It is able to smell prey even at a distance of several kilometers. Almost all inhabitants of the Arctic zone become its victims: from birds and small fish to seals and beluga whales.
Distinctive feature polar bear it is his curiosity: it is this, and not predatory interest, that drives the beast when it approaches a human dwelling. Meeting a polar bear, of course, is not safe - every year about 15 people fall victim to its sharp teeth and powerful paws. However, a predator can attack only if a person behaves inappropriately or is threatened by him.
The person himself becomes the culprit of frequent visits from polar bears, feeding them with all sorts of delicacies for fun. A bear accustomed to human food may no longer leave the feeding area.
It should be noted that many more polar bears die at the hands of poachers every year than people die from attacks by these predators. Moreover, polar bears are very sensitive to changes in the environmental situation. Pollution environment each year leads to the death of several hundred animals. In some countries, including Russia, hunting polar bears is prohibited by law.
Wolves are pack animals and attack in a pack, this is their main strength and danger.
The main reason for wolf attacks on people is hunger. Most often, wolves attack people in autumn and winter, when they are hungry and cold. The fact is that wolves understand that a person (and armed, at least with a club) is obviously a stronger opponent for them, and only a pack of wolves maddened by hunger will contact an adult person. A lone wolf, as a rule, does not attack an adult, unless this wolf is rabid or a she-wolf is protecting her cubs.
IF YOU MET A WOLF
You can't run away. Wolves have very high endurance and run quite fast; when you try to escape, they will catch up with you, rush on your back and bite you to death. So running away is a bad idea. You also shouldn’t rush at wolves, in the thick of the pack. In this case, it is almost certain that some will sneak up from behind and attack from behind.
The recommended tactic is retreat. We must try to avoid the fight. If the wolves do not show obvious aggression and interest in you, or doubt the attack, you can retreat, but only without turning your back to them. You can climb a tree - this is a win-win tactic, because wolves do not climb trees, and they will not wait for you under a tree for a long time. Therefore, if you can quickly climb a tree, do so. Try to make sure that you cannot be attacked from behind, for example, lean your back against a tree. With a weapon in your hands, you can hold out for quite a long time, and the wolves can retreat.
Wolves, like any other animals, are afraid of creatures larger than themselves. Therefore, you need to make yourself big in their eyes. To do this, you can take a large log and start swinging it quickly, spinning with it and shouting. If the flock is not too large, it may take flight.
WEAPONS AGAINST THE WOLF
The most effective, of course, is firearms, but since we are talking about forest and a minimum of equipment, let’s consider the available options:
* Club. But here it is important to remember that the wolf can grab your club with its teeth and tear it out of your hands.
* Fire. All wolves are usually afraid of fire, and a bright flame, a burning stick, etc. - a sure way to scare off a flock. Another thing is that fire is not always at hand. Fire mainly finds use only if wolves wander into your place of overnight stay, where the fire is burning.
As soon as you attack one of the wolves, all the wolves will most likely rush at you, so the best tactic against wolves is retreat, use the rest only as a last resort.
Since ancient times people have revered and feared Wolf, they called him the elder brother, they scared children with him, they made up legends and retellings about him. The genus of wolves itself is quite extensive, including coyotes and jackals, but it is wolves became the direct and closest ancestors of the domestic dog.
Wolf is a fairly large predator from the mammal family, which used to be found almost everywhere in Russia and the CIS. But due to a number of problems caused by gait technical progress, the habitat of these animals has narrowed significantly in recent decades.
The name itself " wolf"comes from the ancient Slavic language, has ancient Indo-European roots and literally means " drag" or "drag".
It turns out that the Wolf family is quite extensive - there are about 32 different subspecies of wolves, but only six main ones are found on the territory of Russia - tundra, Central Russian forest, Mongolian, Caucasian, Siberian and steppe.
What do wolves eat
Basic Wolf's diet are ungulates depending on their habitat. It can be reindeer, horses, roe deer, pigs, moose, goats, both wild and domesticated.
In desert regions, Wolves hunt antelope and sheep. Due to the expansion human activity and the introduction of man into natural environment In the habitat of wolves, predator attacks on livestock farms occur.
But wolf population constantly decreasing due to lack of food and constant hunting for them. During difficult periods, Wolves can feed on frogs, lizards and even large insects. They sometimes eat berries, mushrooms and fruits, and to quench their thirst they can plunder a watermelon or melon planting.
Where does the Wolf live?
Wolves prefer wooded areas and choose flat or mountainous areas with sparse vegetation and a temperate climate for housing.
Pack of Wolves usually occupies an area of 30 to 60 km and prefers a sedentary way of existence. But in the spring-summer period, this area is divided into fragments in accordance with the hierarchy of the pack: the best goes to the strongest Wolves.
Wolves can also be found in the north in the taiga and tundra near human settlements.
Wolves are smart and they understand that where there is a person, you can always profit from something. And although they harm agriculture, on the other hand, they also regulate the balance of the ecosystem, controlling the number of animals and acting as forest orderlies.
Are Wolves Dangerous to Humans?
Scientists have come to the conclusion that the Wolf will not attack a person just like that, since he has an instinct of self-preservation. But sometimes there are sad cases of attacks by animals suffering from rabies. Or if there is a severe shortage of food.
Wolves breeding
Mating season for wolves lasts from January to April. Wolves are monogamous and lead a family lifestyle; a couple stays together until one of the partners dies.
Before the onset of estrus, the she-wolf does not accept the sexual advances of the male. Brutal fights for the attention of females, often with fatal consequences, are absolutely normal among Wolves.
She-wolves reach sexual maturity in the second year of life, and Wolves - at 3 years.
Wolves have only 1 estrus per year, so that the cubs are born in the warm spring, when there is enough food around.
Wolf couple First, he takes care of a safe shelter for future offspring. These can be either various secluded places, or other people's burrows of badgers or arctic foxes; they rarely dig their own burrows.
Only the She-Wolf uses the lair; she is also involved in raising small wolf cubs, which at first resemble the puppies of an ordinary dog. Usually, the She-Wolf gives birth to from 3 to 13 wolf cubs, and the whole pack helps to feed them.
But despite close care from parents and other Wolves, in the first year of life only 20-40% of wolf cubs survive. This is due to disease, lack of food and competition within the family, when stronger puppies receive more food, and weaker ones gradually die.
Wolves have a rather interesting voice, which has much greater capabilities than other animals. Wolves don't just howl They are also believed to be able to grumble, whine, squeal, yelp, bark and growl. Moreover, they are fully aware of these sounds and understand the information voiced by their fellow tribesmen. This helps to find out where prey is hiding, where to go hunting, and even report the appearance of people. And the collective wolf howl is distinctive feature active social life.
By the way, The wolves can hear fellow tribesman and transmit messages from a distance of about 8 kilometers.
The Wolf has a very highly developed sense of smell, he distinguishes odors 100 times better than a person, so scent plays one of the main roles in the wolf family.
Wolves are strong and hardy animals that can cover a distance of up to 80 km, and if necessary develop speed 60 km/h, which is one of the important conditions for survival.
In nature Wolves survive up to 15 years, but already at 10-12 years old they show signs of old age.
The wolf also symbolizes devotion and loyalty in the family; it is associated with many heroes folk tales and epics of the ancient cultures of the peoples of the North, where he personifies strength and courage. But sometimes he is perceived as an evil and negative character who is greedy and greedy, and sometimes serves dark forces.