European vs. North American wolves?

[TCPeppyTc]

HI all. Since I suspect there are many "furries" on this site, and those interested in foxes, wolves, and other furry creatures, I thought I would ask this.....

 

is it true that European wolves attack humans more than their North American counterparts? I ask only because I know the large difference in the way wolves are portrayed in North American vs. European folklore..  could it be perhaps that wolves in Europe have lived along large settlements of people for longer than the North American ones?

 

Also, they probably attacked livestock more in Europe than North America. As far as I know, the native americans did not have livestock animals, except perhaps in the American southwest.....

 

Can anyone shed light on this?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Drasiana]

Historically European wolves were more aggressive. I don't think anyone quite knows for sure, but hypothetically North American wolves are less so because by the time the bulk of the continent was settled, firearms were readily available to everyone (unlike the period of time in Europe when most wolf attacks were reported, which was generally speaking a couple hundred years ago), so they learned that humans were a huge honking threat. It might also be related to landmass, as you'll note that North America is a hell of a lot bigger than Europe, and especially in the case of the sparsely-populated Canada, the animals just generally have more space and easier prey all to themselves.

 

There are occasional reports of wolf attacks in North America, but they're still pretty rare and mostly the incidents involve conflict with someone's dog rather than an actual attack on the human themselves.

 

I live right in the middle of Skyrim, basically, in a neighborhood that is legally not allowed to have more than a couple streetlights because it will disturb the massive numbers of animals that live here. There are plenty of wolves around here, but after about a decade and a half I have yet to once see or hear a wild wolf, let alone hear of them acting aggressively towards anyone. The rangers here will laugh at you if you ask them how to protect yourself from wolves. The local wolves are incredibly shy animals, much unlike the coyotes, which have been responsible for two local attacks in recent memories, though in the coyote's defense the first attack was a coyote getting pissed at some idiot acquaintance of mine throwing rocky snowballs at it and the second one was trying to steal some poor kid's hot dog.

 

It's also worth noting that there are significantly fewer wolves in Europe nowadays with almost no reported attacks. They've been extirpated in many areas, if I remember properly.

 

Bonus Wolf Fact: REAL PACKS DO NOT ABIDE BY THE ALPHA/BETA/OMEGA SOCIAL STRUCTURE THAT IS A HABIT FORCED BY FORCING AN UNUSUAL NUMBER OF WOLVES TO SHARE SPACE WITH ONE ANOTHER IN CAPTIVITY REAL WOLF PACKS ARE FAMILY UNITS THE HIERARCHY IS LITERALLY JUST "PARENTS AND KIDS" STOP SPREADING SHITTY MISINFORMATION I'M LOOKING AT YOU FURRIES

[TCPeppyTc]

Coyotes are kind of a threat where I live, in the suburbs of Minneapolis, Minnesota. They seem to be living in more and more American suburbs now. I don't think they ever would attack or eat me but I can never let my golden retriever out at night anymore because of what might happen to her!

 

I have heard in the middle ages European wolves kind of developed a taste for human flesh. There would be huge battles between different kingdoms and they would just leave the soldiers dead bodies lying around... then the wolves would eat it... also the humans livestock must have been plenty tempting to them as well!

 

It is sort of funny that in almost all european folklore wolves are despised and portrayed as borderline satanic..

 

They are making a rebound in Europe though.... settling in Germany and France from the eastern european countries...

 

There is even talk of reintroducing them to Scotland... I wouldnt mind that....

 

There are so many wolves in Northern Minnesota, but whenever I have camped or canoed there, Ive never seen or even heard one ever....

[Drasiana]

I wouldn't say they "developed a taste for human flesh" so much as they just considered humans prey like anything else, because without firearms humans were pretty easy prey. As far as eating dead soldiers go, housepets will have no problem chowing down on you after you've kicked the bucket, it's just a matter of easy access.

[TCPeppyTc]

Funny enough, wolves today are fairly plentiful in Italy.... Italy of all places...

 

Perhaps they are enjoying pasta and lasgna too much to eat up all those Italians!