Teacher Believed Killed by Wolf Attack While Jogging

CNN recently reported on the recent death (March 8, 2010) of 32 year old Candice Berner of Chignik Lake, Alaska. It is believed that she was attacked by wolves (Canis lupus) while jogging in the remote town. Authorities have ruled out foul play and have killed 2 wolves in the hopes that a necropsy would confirm them as the man-killers.

If wolves are shown to be the likely cause of her death, then officials will have to decide whether present wolf management practices are sufficient to protect human safety. While animal protectionists and wildlife officials will corretly state, wolf attacks are exceedingly rare (on the scale of 1 in the last century), one could also suggest that such statistics are relatively meaningless.

Let me explain. First, wolves were intensely hunted, trapped, and poisoned. In fact, human control efforts were so successful that the wolf almost became extinct in North America. Certainly, wolves were eradicated in the lower 48 states. So just from the notion of small numbers, it would be extremely unlikely for a human to suffer a wolf attack. There just weren't enough of them around.  Second, wolves who are aggressively hunted etc. learn that humans are a threat not a resource. So they will likely stay away.

Third, I would like to refer readers to an interesting webpage on wolf attacks.  The author is no wild-eyed wolf hater, but does note that wolves may not be human-friendly entity that some animal protectionists groups may want to suggest. A recent article  in the Wildlife Professional by Geist noted how wolf attacks in Europe were a significant problem. There was a reason why childrens fairy tales mention the big bad wolf so often.

We should remember that predators are predators. This fact is even more crucial when we consider that a Nova Scotia woman was killed by a coyote. If a smaller coyote could kill, then how much more can a wolf kill? The point here is not to demonize wolves and call for their eradication. That is the last thing I want to see. I would oppose eradication of wolves even if it is shown that they do hunt humans. But I would suggest that humans recognize that if we don't remind predators who is the real top predator, then we should expect more of these types of incidents. The key is balance, protection of wolves as a species and protection of humans as individuals.

For information on wolf damage management visit Wolf Damage Management

Stephen M. Vantassel, CWCP, ACP