While a district in northern India is still reeling from wolf attacks that have killed at least 10 people, many of them children, wildlife biologists say the chances of humans being attacked by wolves in Wyoming remain virtually zero.
The same holds true for North America in general, Wyoming wildlife researcher Kristin Barker told Cowboy State Daily.
“Wolves and humans just don’t interact (in North America) as they do in other places,” she said.
Wolves in Wyoming and the rest of North America have plenty of room to avoid close contact with people, and plentiful prey to eat, she said.
So the odds of them starting to see people as food are slim to none, said Barker, along with retired federal ecologist Chuck Neal of Cody and Robert Crabtree, who is the founder, chief scientist and president of the Yellowstone Ecological Research Center.
Wolf Attacks In India
Between March and September of 2024, wolves killed 10 people and maimed another 30 in the Bahraich district in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, with a population of over 242 million people, according to reports.
Several people reported their children being attacked and dragged off by wolves.
Indian authorities captured five of the wolves suspected to be behind the attacks.
By contrast, the last recorded fatal wolf attack in North America was the 2010 death of Candice Berner, 32, near Chignik, Alaska.
Prior to that, Kenton Carnegie, 22, was reported killed by wolves in 2005 near Points North Landing in Saskatchewan, Canada.
Why Did The Wolves Attack In India?
Relative to Wyoming and North America, animal attacks are more frequent in India, Neal and Crabtree said.
That could be because of the density of the population, encroachment on wildlife habitat and the higher level of poverty.
For example, children in India might frequently sleep outside, because of the heat, Neal said.
“Here, we don’t typically see people laying outside at night, as if to say, ‘here, take me,’” he said.
Both he and Crabtree noted that wolves and their prey base have lost much of their habitat in parts of India, which might aggravate the situation.
The wolves might also start to see humans as competitors for a shrinking prey base, Crabtree said.
He added that it probably took many years of wolves and people living in almost direct proximity for the wolves to become so habituated to people’s presence as to lose fear of them.
“It takes decades for wolves to learn to become habituated. And they have to eat to survive,” he said.
Neal said that living in a place like Wyoming, it’s easy to take for granted the sheer amount of space and resources there are available for wild carnivores here.
“It comes down to a healthy habitat and a healthy prey base,” he said.
Fear Of Humans
Barker agreed that abundant natural food sources have largely kept the peace between humans and wolves in North America.
And even in some places where natural prey runs out or proves difficult to catch, wolves are more likely to turn to domestic livestock rather than attacking people.
Barker noted that could be the case in California, where wolves began moving back into the northern part of the state.
Ranchers there have reported numerous attacks on cattle. Researchers are trying to determine whether the California wolves are more likely to attack cattle because of a relative lack of natural prey animals there, Barker said.
And unlike in California, or India, the public is allowed to trap and hunt wolves in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.
Whether that makes wolves more fearful of humans is also something researchers are trying to determine for certain, Barker said.
She added that acclimation to human food sources, such as dumpsters, might make wolves more dangerous to people.
“When I do hear of wolves being a danger, it’s when they are habituated to humans and human-provided food sources,” she said.
That might have contributed to Carnegie’s death in Saskatchewan. There were reports that carelessly-dumped garbage was pulling wolves and bears in close to humans at that time.
Trouble In Wisconsin
While there haven’t been any wolf attacks documented in Wisconsin, one man there said he and his friends came close to experiencing one.
Northern Wisconsin resident Chase Melton last year told Cowboy State Daily that he had to shoot and kill a wolf in self-defense when it came at him and some friends while they were duck hunting.
He and other area residents said there have also been reports of wolves coming into towns and snatching pets.
Smaller Wolves
As deadly as they’ve been, India’s wolves are much smaller than their cousins in the northern Rockies.
Male Indian wolves range in size between 42-55 pounds, and females are typically 37-49 pounds.
Wolves in the northern Rockies can range anywhere from 70-150 pounds.
The Indian wolf is a subspecies of grey wolf but adapted to a much different environment, Neal said.
The closest comparison on this side of the globe is probably Mexican gray wolves, which are about the same size as wolves in India, he said.
In both instances, wolves are trying to survive in a region with sparser resources and typically smaller prey.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
