Wolf attacks on humans in North America

From the Tucson Citizen.com - by Jonathan DuHamel - I have often heard the claim by environmentalists that there has never been a documented attack on humans by wolves in North America. That claim is untrue as I will demonstrate. Wolf attacks on humans are rare as are attacks by mountain lions and bears, but they do occur. Somewhat more common are apparent “stalkings” by wolves, especially of children in rural areas (see here and theCatron County Wolf Hotline for incidents involving the Mexican Gray Wolf in New Mexico).

A sampling of documented wolf attacks on humans:

• I begin with Alaska Department of Fish & Game Technical Bulletin 13 (2002) entitled “A Case History of Wolf-Human Encounters in Alaska and Canada.” That study was precipitated by a wolf attack on a 6-year-old boy near Icy Bay, Alaska, in April, 2000.
• PIERCE, Idaho – A North Idaho grandmother considers herself lucky to be alive after she was able to shoot and kill a wolf as it tried to attack her on a recent hunting trip.
• Daily News-Miner, Fairbanks, Alaska Dec 17, 2012: A wolf attacked a Tok trapper on his snowmachine last week about 30 miles off the Taylor Highway, biting through the man’s parka and three layers of clothing to put a 3-inch gash on his arm. Lance Grangaard, 30, said he was “putting along” on his Ski-Doo Tundra on Thursday afternoon, coming down a frozen creek, when he saw the wolf out of the corner of his eye.
• Wolf Crossing, Chignik Lake, Alaska, December 7, 2011: At least two wolves chased down and killed a teacher who was jogging on a road last year outside a rural Alaska village, according to a report released Tuesday by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The body of Candice Berner, 32, a special education teacher originally from Slippery Rock, Pa., was found March 8, 2010, two miles outside Chignik Lake. The village is 474 miles southwest of Anchorage, on the Alaska Peninsula. Biologists ruled out reasons for the attack other than aggression. Investigators found no evidence that the wolves had acted defensively or that Berner was carrying food. They found no kill site that wolves may have been defending, no indication that the wolves had become habituated to people, and no evidence of rabies. Read more

Wolf attacks on humans in North America