I have often heard the claim by some 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 the Catron County Wolf Hotline for incidents involving the Mexican Gray Wolf in New Mexico).

 Quite common, however, are incidents of predation by wolves on sheep and cattle. For more information, see: Wolf Crossing, Life With Wolves, and Gray Wolf News.

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. The study documents 80 wolf-human “encounters.” “Thirty-nine cases contain elements of aggression among healthy wolves, 12 cases involve known or suspected rabid wolves, and 29 cases document fearless behavior among non-aggressive wolves. In 6 cases in which healthy wolves acted aggressively, the people were accompanied by dogs. Aggressive, non rabid wolves bit people in 16 cases; none of those bites was life-threatening, but in 6 cases the bites were severe.”

KXLY News, Billings, Montana, Oct 12, 2011:

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.

The wolf snuck up on Rene Anderson late last month near Headquarters, Idaho about 125 miles southeast of Spokane.

“It was coming down pretty fast towards me; it was kind of nerve racking. I laid my bow on the ground and I thought this thing seriously wants to eat me,” she said.

Anderson knew just how much danger she was in because just six days before, wolves had killed three of her best friend’s hunting dogs.

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.

“I turned in time to stick my arm up,” said Grangaard, who was trapping with his father, Danny, in a remote area off the Taylor Highway known as Ketchumstuk. “A single black wolf grabbed my arm and started jerking on me.”

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.

“This appears to have been an aggressive, predatory attack that was relatively short in duration,” the report concluded. DNA tests confirmed Berner was killed by wolves.

Daily Press, Escanaba, Michigan, November 8, 2010:

When Delta Conservation District Executive Director Rory Mattson headed out to begin a forestry project Oct. 8 along Trombley Road, he didn’t expect to find himself treed by a small pack of wolves.

Some historical reports of attacks by wolves on humans:

John James Audubon, of whom the Audubon society is named, reported an attack involving two men traveling through part of Kentucky near the Ohio border in the winter. The two men were carrying axes when they were viciously attacked by a pack of wolves, they managed to kill three wolves. One man was severely wounded and one man was killed, and devoured by the remainder of the wolves, only bones remained the next day. This occurred about 1830 ( Audubon,J.J.. and Bachman,J,: The Quadrupeds of North America.3 volumes. New York, 1851-1854)

In northwestern Colorado, an 18-year-old girl was viciously attacked while bringing in milk cows, she screamed and her brother, who was nearby armed with a gun responded to the scene and killed the Wolf. The wolf was a healthy young animal barely full-grown. This occurred in the summer about 1881 ( Grinnell,G.B; The Trail and Campfire- Wolves and Wolf Nature, New York, 1897).

In1942, Michael Dusiak, section foreman for the Canadian Pacific Railway, was attacked by a wolf, the wolf was killed by the train’s engineer, and a fireman with picks and other tools. It should be noted that this wolf was scanned and inspected by an Investigator Chrichton, a Conservation Officer. His assessment was the animal was young, healthy, and in good condition. (” A Record of Timber Wolf Attacking Man”Journal Of Mammalogy, Vol. 28, No. 3, August 1947).

Even environmentalists should know that wolves are predators and will attack anything given the right circumstances. The claim that there have been no wolf attacks on humans in North America is shown to be a myth.

If readers know of other wolf attacks on humans, especially in the “lower 48″ please add your story to the comments section and provide a link to the original story if you can.

Incidentally, coyotes sometimes attack humans also. A paper in Human Dimensions of Wildlife reports “We conducted an analysis of coyote attacks on humans in the United States and Canada, including 142 reported incidents of coyote attacks resulting in 159 victims. Most attacks were classified as predatory (37%) or investigative (22%) in nature. The number of reported attacks was nearly equal between adults and children, although child victims were more prevalent in predatory attacks.” A large majority of these attacks were in California with Arizona coming in a distant second.

The Cooper’s Hawk, classified as an accipiter, may be hard to identify with certainty because two other accipiters, the smaller Sharp-shinned Hawk, and the larger Northern Goshawk have almost identical plumage. The range of all three is similar: sub-arctic Canada and Alaska to northern Mexico. Cooper’s Hawks have relatively large heads; the other two hawks have relatively smaller heads compared to body size. Male and female plumage is similar for all three accipiters, but females are larger.

All three accipiters have long tails and relatively short wings. They are very fast, and the short wings allow them to maneuver through dense forest. Click on the highlighted names above to see photos of all three accipiters from the AvianWeb. I took the photo in this post of a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk  (I think) that was lunching on a dove in one of my mesquite trees. He/she will have a reddish breast upon reaching maturity.

Cooper’s Hawks have an average body length of 16.5 inches and a wind span of 31 inches. The Sharp-shinned Hawk has a body length of 13 inches and a wing span of 23 inches. The Northern Goshawk has a body length of 21 inches and a wing span of 43 inches.

The Sibley Guide to Birds notes some differences between the three accipiters:

Northern Goshawk is the largest and bulkiest accipiter. Adults appear whitish below with boldly patterned head. Juveniles are washed buffy overall with thick, spotty streaks below. There is an obvious pale bar on the forward upper part of the wings.

Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned Hawks are nearly identical in all plumages. Cooper’s is the lankiest accipiter, with large head, long neck and tail, and relatively narrow, straight-edged wings. Sharp-shinned is small-headed with relatively long, broad wings that are hunched, pushed forward and slightly more fingered at the tip. The Cooper’s tail tip is more rounded, while the Sharp-shinned is more square-tipped.

Accipiter habitat is desert, woodlands, deciduous forests, and riparian areas. They feed mostly on birds and some small mammals. They hunt from cover relying of speed and surprise.

Cooper’s Hawks nest in trees and produce three to five cobalt blue eggs. Chicks hatch after 30 to 36 days and fledge about 30 days later.

Cooper’s Hawks communicate using vocalizations and displays. Listen to some of the vocalizations recorded by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology here (Scroll down and click “sound” tab). Some of the calls sound very much like Cactus Wrens to me.

Cooper’s hawks like my yard because I put out quail blocks. I am feeding birds in two ways.

See also:

American Kestrel

Barn Owls

Cactus Wren

Gambels Quail

The greater roadrunner, a wily predator

Harris’ Hawks, Wolves of the Air

The Great Horned Owl

Way of the Hummingbird

Western Screech Owl

The Great Horned Owls are back in the neighborhood. I hear them, but can rarely see them because they are masters of camouflage (see photo at the end of this post). They have a distinctive sound – a loud ho-ho-hoo hoo hoo, similar to, but deeper than a Mourning Dove. They are the only owls that actual go hoo-hoo. Listen to their sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology here (Scroll down and click the “sound” tab). See 84 photos at the Arizona- Sonoran Desert Museum digital library here.

The Great Horned Owl ranges from the boreal forests of Canada and Alaska to the southern tip of South America. They seem to prefer open, second-growth forest, agricultural areas, and suburban areas. The Great Horned Owl is the third largest owl (the Snowy Owl and Great Grey Owl are bigger), with a length of 15- to 25 inches and a wingspan of up to 5 feet. These owls can weigh over 5 pounds. Females are bigger than males.

Males and females have similar plumage, but that varies regionally. According to The Sibley Guide to Birds, “females average browner and more heavily marked than males. Eastern birds are richly colored. Birds in the western interior region are generally pale and grayish in tone….” The facial disk (which helps focus sound) is orange to gray and sets off yellow eyes.

The “horns” are actually tufts of feathers which can be erect or flat to the head depending on the mood of the owl. From my experience with owls, these tufts are most often erect when the owl is on the alert.

The Great Horned Owl will prey upon anything is can catch and that includes mammals, other birds, reptiles, and amphibians. In the Southwest, cottontail rabbits and jackrabbits are favored. The Great Horned Owls are the only owls known to prey upon skunks, perhaps because they have a poor sense of smell.

Great Horned Owls do not build their own nest but instead seek out the nests of other birds such as hawk nests, squirrel nests, tree holes, rock crevices and nooks in buildings. They begin nesting in January or February and will have up to 5 eggs at a time.

Typical life span in the wild is 13 years, but they have lived as long as 38 years in captivity.

Find the Great Horned Owl in the photo below:

See also:
Barn Owls
Western Screech Owl
Harris’ Hawks, Wolves of the Air

 Observations on Mourning Doves