wolves

From: Karin Goihl & Daniel Fahey <goihlk_at_zedat.fu-berlin.de>
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 23:14:40 +0100

Me:
>>Wolves tend to run from humans, not fight them. A child guarding sheep
does
>>much better to stay and drive off the wolves and is perfectly capable of
>>taking them on, unless the child is of such small size that no one would
put
>>them out to guard sheep in the first place. If one did run then the wolves
>>would kill some sheep well before any adults could get there.

Donald:
>A pack of wolves determined to attack a flock wouldn't be driven of
>by a single adult never mind a child - it's far too easy to keep the
>herder occupied while the rest of the pack makes kills. Some sheep
>are dead whatever happens but getting help means that the rest of the
>flock can be herded back to safety and the wolf pack possibly hunted
>down the same day - not several hours later in the dark.

Sorry Donald, but simply not true. It just doesn't work this way in reality. Wolves try to avoid being injured. An injured hunter can't hunt. One meal could cost it its life. Also, the time it would take to drive off the herder so that they could get at a kill to eat would be better spent looking for other possibilities. You can't very well eat while some human is throwing things at you or hitting you with sticks. Anyway, wolves don't just up and commit suicide like that. They are used to being hungry, and are used to repeated searching and repeated failure. See if you can find any factual accounts of wolves attacking herds guarded by humans. With so much bad press against wolves, one can believe that there have been cases occasionally. Daniel

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