Wolf Killed After Attack on Alaska Boy
By Yereth Rosen
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - An Alaskan child was bitten by a wolf at a
remote southeast Alaska logging camp, the first incident of its kind in
recent
Alaska history, officials reported Thursday.
The child was treated and released at a clinic at Yakutat. The animal,
an
adult male, was shot and killed, according to Alaska State Troopers.
In the attack, a six-year-old boy was bitten three times on the back.
The
Wednesday morning attack occurred when the boy was playing in a group of
trees
at a camp in Icy Bay, the troopers said.
Witnesses reported that the wolf tried to carry the boy off into the
woods.
Tests Thursday revealed that the wolf was not rabid, said Michelle
Sydeman, a
spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
The animal, which had been radio-collared in 1996 by the U.S. Forest
Service,
first appeared in the Icy Bay camp in 1998, Sydeman said. ``So he's been
around.''
Fish and Game officials knew of no other attack by a wolf on a human in
recent
Alaska history.
Since 1940, 38 people in Alaska have died from dog attacks and 32 from
bear
attacks, according to reports.
Some politicians cited the Icy Bay wolf attack as evidence that the
state
should do more to thin out wolf packs.
``This is the result of irresponsible management,'' state Sen. Pete
Kelly, a
Fairbanks Republican, said in a speech Thursday in the state capitol in
Juneau.
He also blamed out-of-state environmentalists, ``incredibly well-funded
outside influences that have made wolves sacred in this state, wolves
that are
coming in dragging our children off into the woods to eat them alive.''
Kelly and other state lawmakers, along with rural residents and hunters
are
advocating a state-authorized wolf kill to boost populations of moose
and
caribou.
The Republican-controlled legislature last week overrode a veto by
Democratic
Gov. Tony Knowles of a bill expanding wolf hunting. Under the bill,
anyone
with a hunting or trapping license will be allowed to track wolves by
airplane
and kill the animals on the same day.
The bill overturned most of the provisions of a 1996 ballot initiative
banning
same-day airborne wolf hunting that was approved by nearly 60 percent of
the
voters.
The legislature also passed a constitutional amendment that would forbid
Alaska voters from passing initiatives on wildlife issues. That
amendment will
be on the general election ballot in November
<http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000428/ts/wolf_attack_1.html>
=====================================
No rabies in wolf, test finds
Results puzzle experts hunting cause of attack
By ELIZABETH MANNING and CRAIG MEDRED
Anchorage Daily News reporters
The wolf that chased and attacked a child in a logging camp near Yakutat
did
not have rabies, according to tests completed Thursday.
That was good news for 6-year-old John Stenglein, who was back home at
the
camp Thursday on the west side of Icy Bay after suffering 15 puncture
wounds
to his back, legs and behind the day before, according to his father,
John
Stenglein Sr.
But the test results puzzled biologists, who say wolf attacks in North
America
by nonrabid wolves are extremely rare. They're not sure why the attack
occurred.
The 77-pound male wolf, with a radio collar fastened to its neck, had
been
seen hanging around the edges of the logging camp recently and off and
on
since 1998. But it wasn't so tame that it ate garbage or went close to
humans,
said Fish and Wildlife protection troopers, who interviewed people at
the camp
Thursday.
The boys didn't provoke the animal, troopers said.
"It makes it very interesting and puzzling as to why this wolf
attacked," said
Matt Robus, deputy director of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's
Division of Wildlife Conservation. "And it seems the wolf really
persisted in
the attack."
Stenglein said his son John and his 9-year-old friend Keith Gamble were
playing Wednesday morning at being loggers, cutting down small trees at
the
edge of the woods, when they first saw the wolf about 10 feet away. The
animal
seemed to be stalking the boys, he said.
"It just popped its head out from the woods and looked at them,"
Stenglein
said.
The boys ran and the wolf attacked, Stenglein said. A neighbor's dog
rushed in
and tried to bite the wolf, but the wolf fought off the dog and then
went
after the boy a second time, according to Stenglein.
The dog tried to bite the wolf again, he said, but by then the boys were
screaming, which sent the camp carpenter running over. The carpenter and
Keith's mother, Teresa Thompson, threw rocks at the wolf until Keith's
dad,
Mike Thompson, came with a gun, walked into the woods and shot it,
according
to Stenglein.
The entire incident happened about 150 feet from the family's trailer,
Stenglein said.
After the shooting, the boy and the wolf's body were flown to the
nearest
town, Yakutat, where the boy was treated. Because he thought the wolf
was
rabid, the trooper began burning the wolf carcass after severing the
head for
shipment to the state virology lab in Fairbanks, where it was tested
Thursday.
The boy received seven stitches and five surgical staples, troopers
said.
With the wolf remains still smoldering, a fisheries biologist in Yakutat
heard
from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Juneau that the
department
wanted to perform a necropsy on the wolf. The remains of the carcass
were
shipped to Juneau on Thursday, Robus said.
Biologists hope the wolf's stomach contents and the amount of fat on its
body
could provide some clues about why it attacked.
"This was a terrifying but extremely unusual incident," Robus said.
"It's not
pleasant, but you do have times when predators are really stressed for
food
and they're going to reach out and get whatever they can. Wolves don't
have a
rulebook that prevents them from preying."
Dave Crowley, the Fish and Game area biologist, said mountain goats are
plentiful in the region so it's unlikely the wolf lacked prey. People
who saw
the wolf said it appeared healthy.
The wolf wore a tight radio collar, which led some biologists to wonder
whether it had trouble running and hunting normal prey. Troopers said no
evidence exists yet to say that the radio collar had any bearing on the
wolf's
behavior.
The U.S. Forest Service collared the wolf in March 1996 in the eastern
Copper
River Delta, when it was a 10-month-old pup. They tracked it until
September
1997, when it left the area, Crowley said. He thinks it split from the
pack
and first showed up around the logging camp in 1998. He didn't know
whether
the wolf had joined another pack.
Wolf attacks in North America are rare, biologists said Thursday. Often
the
attacking wolves are found to be rabid.
Only two wolf attacks in Alaska history have been fatal, Alaska State
Troopers
said. Both attacks were by wolves believed to be rabid and occurred in
the
early 1940s, according to information provided to troopers by Fish and
Game.
Bears attack people an average of twice a year in Alaska and dogs have
killed
at least 38 people here through the years, troopers said.
One account of a wolf attack, reported in the Daily News on Jan. 27,
1950,
told of wolves stalking a pastor and his dog team as he traveled from
the
Wasilla Children's Home to Chitina. The wolves tracked the Rev. Everett
Bachelder for five days and then attacked, tearing one of his dogs to
shreds.
The encounter led to a headline proclaiming "Ravenous Wolves Attack
Missionary," though Bachelder himself was never actually attacked.
Five people have been attacked by wolves in Ontario's Algonquin
Provincial
Park since 1987. The last of those attacks came in fall 1998. Algonquin
rangers later wrote about their growing concerns with "friendly wolves."
In Canada, at least one person has been killed by wolves in the past 50
years.
A 24-year-old woman was attacked by a pack of five at the Haliburton
Forest
and Wildlife Reserve in Ontario in 1996.
<http://www.adn.com/stories/T00042886.html>
========================================
Wolves losing fear
Growing populations of humans, wolves may hasten conflicts
By CRAIG MEDRED and ELIZABETH MANNING
Anchorage Daily News reporters
When an international wolf magazine early this year asked Ludwig Carbyn,
one
of Canada's top authorities on wolves, for a prediction on the biggest
wolf
story of this millennium, he made what seemed at the time a startling
prediction:
"I think, in the new century, you will find a situation where a wolf or
a pack
of wolves is going to kill someone."
Carbyn recalled the conversation Friday from his office in Alberta. The
editors of the magazine, he added, were taken aback.
But what Carbyn said publicly is something many biologists were saying
privately long before this week's wolf attack on a 6-year-old boy
playing by a
remote logging camp northwest of Yakutat. As they have monitored the
rebuilding of the continent's once decimated wolf populations and
tracked
public attitudes toward wolves, they've seen big changes in how the
animals
are perceived and treated.
Once widely hated, feared and persecuted, wolves are now more often
embraced
as vital components of wild ecosystems, as symbols of wilderness,
sometimes
even as models of family order.
Much of that may be true, biologists said, but these ideas play down the
inherent danger of an animal that evolved over thousands of years as a
killing
machine. The rising concern is how people's new attitudes and behaviors
will
interact with the wolves' ancient instincts.
This subject is rarely broached because of the political debate over
wolves.
Biologists are reluctant to raise the issue for fear of giving
ammunition to
people who oppose efforts to re-establish wolves on parts of their
original
Western range.
Alaska, with stable and healthy wolf populations, is outside that fight.
But
it has seen its own political turmoil over how to manage the animals.
The
argument has been mostly about killing wolves to increase numbers of
moose,
caribou and Dall sheep. But the arguing recently in the Legislature and
before
the state Board of Game has gone a step further, with wolf-control
advocates
warning that wolves present a real danger to people.
Then, on Wednesday near Icy Bay, the wolf attacked John Stenglein.
The boy and a friend were near the edge of the forest about 150 feet
from the
family's logging camp trailer when a male wolf popped its head out of
the
woods. The boys ran. The wolf caught Stenglein and bit him on the back
and
legs before a camp worker and the friend's mother drove it away. The
friend's
father later shot the wolf.
The wolf quickly became a hot political issue.
Some state biologists this week said they were told to refer all
questions
about wolves to Department of Fish and Game headquarters in Juneau,
where
officials have focused all remarks on the extreme rarity of wolf
attacks.
Wolf-kill advocates, meanwhile, are claiming vindication.
On the Senate floor Thursday, Sen. Pete Kelly, R-Fairbanks, said no one
should
be surprised at the Icy Bay attack.
"This confirms what the people of McGrath have said all along," Kelly
said
Friday. "Their fears are justified."
Kelly said the attack bolsters arguments for predator control.
Gov. Tony Knowles' spokesman, Bob King, condemned Kelly's statements as
"predictable political posturing."
Alaska Board of Game member Mike Fleagle, the chief of the McGrath
Native
Village Council, said his community feels bad for the boy. But he said
the
attack is certain to become part of the wolf-control debate.
"We're not trying to exploit this," Fleagle said. "But there has to be a
certain amount of vindication. And it comes at an unfortunate time for
Knowles
and the wolf protectionists."
Fleagle said he doesn't think the attack means predator control is
needed in
Yakutat but rather illustrates that wolves can be dangerous.
"The people of old Alaska were always taught to be careful of wolves
when we
were growing up," he said. "It's a rarity that they attack, but they do,
regardless of the prey situation. Wolves will kill for the sake of
killing.
They're not these super-duper fluffy little house pets."
In McGrath, wolves killed three dogs this winter, Fleagle said. Parents,
saying they feared for their children's safety, have called on the state
to
kill wolves in that area.
Donna Erick, the tribal administrator in Venetie, said a wolf went into
the
village earlier this month and ate a musher's lead dog. "We had to warn
the
children because it was spring carnival time," she said.
Nearly all the wolf attacks on record from the past 20 years have
involved
what rangers at Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada, have taken
to
calling "fearless wolves" - those habituated to people. Since 1987,
Algonquin
has been the site of five wolf attacks by four wolves. All were healthy
adult
animals that hung around park campgrounds for weeks or months before
attacking, said Dan Strickland, chief park naturalist.
Strickland said Algonquin's rangers and visitors at first thought it was
great
to have wolves that regularly made themselves visible. They even
dismissed the
first wolf attacks as oddities.
That changed two years ago when a wolf grabbed a 19-month-old child
playing
with toys in a campground.
"The kid was sitting on his behind playing with his favorite yellow
truck,"
Strickland said. "The father saw the wolf come into the campsite, but he
thought it was a dog. ... He took his eyes off it, and the next thing,
he
looked up and there was the wolf throwing his son to one side."
The father saved the child. The wolf was shot, and park policy now is to
kill
any wolves that show signs of fearlessness. There hasn't been another
instance
like it since.
There are similarities between that Algonquin attack and the one at Icy
Bay.
Both wolves hung around people, but neither appeared to have eaten
garbage.
Both were males. Both attacked unexpectedly, though in the Icy Bay case
biologists believe the wolf might have pursued because the children
fled.
The Algonquin wolf had never shown any obvious aggression toward humans
before
the attack. Strickland fears that is characteristic, and it makes the
situation particularly difficult for wildlife managers. There is no way
to
tell when a habituated wolf loses its fear of humans.
Fortunately, state wildlife biologists said, that isn't much of a threat
in
most of Alaska. In the Bush, they noted, a "fearless wolf" almost always
becomes a wolf hide.
That could explain, they add, why attacks like that on John Stenglein
have
been virtually unheard of in Alaska in the past 50 years.
<http://www.adn.com/stories/T00043082.html>
Wolf facts set straight
by John Carnes in Anchorage Daily News
I am the biologist who put the radio-collar on the wolf that bit John
Stenglein on April 26. The Daily News article "No rabies in wolf, test
finds"
on April 28 states that the wolf wore a tight radio-collar "which led
some
biologists to wonder whether it had trouble running and hunting normal
prey."
The suggestion that the radio-collar may have been a factor in the
attack is
ridiculous. All three people that examined the wolf (a state trooper and
two
state biologists) stated that the wolf was in "average" condition, well
muscled with a nice pelt. If the wolf had "trouble hunting normal prey"
how
could it have maintained itself in good condition? A collar has to be
tight
enough that it will not slip off over the animal's head and this can
appear
tight to people unfamiliar with radio-collars. The three people who
examined
the wolf agree that although the collar was snug there were no sores or
lesions on the neck, so I conclude that the collar was not tight enough
to
affect the animals behavior in any way.
As to why the wolf attacked the boy, I think there are four critical
facts: 1)
this wolf had been hanging around camps in the Icy Bay area for up to
two
years, had likely obtained food from people and was clearly habituated
to
people, 2) this wolf had shown fearless behavior toward people before,
3)
there was a large dog present, which can be viewed by wolves as a
competitor
or enemy, and 4) the wolf bared its teeth and growled at the boys before
attacking. This last fact is more important than people realize. Wolves
typically do not show aggressive behavior toward prey, usually only
toward
other wolves or dogs. I do not question the facts as reported by the
trooper
that investigated the incident, but I disagree with the implication in
the
Daily News articles of April 27, 28 and 30 that the wolf intended to
predate
(i.e., kill and eat) the boy. The father's statement that the wolf
stalked the
boys has no basis in fact since he did not observe the initial attack.
Based
on the facts available, my conclusion is that this was a habituated wolf
that
was showing dominance/territorial behavior. Whether the wolf was showing
predatory or dominance behavior, the key factor is that the wolf was
habituated to people.
I do not want to downplay the seriousness of this incident, but the take
home
message is not that wolves attack people, rather that wolves are wild
animals
and should be treated as such. The same common sense rules applied to
bears
(keep a clean camp, do not feed or approach wildlife closely) should be
applied to wolves.
John C. Carnes
University of Idaho
Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources
Moscow, ID 83844-1136
208-885-4343
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<http://www.adn.com/letters/letters.html#L13>
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Photographer
University of Iowa
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