This must have been in the same part of Minnesota that I posted about two days ago, where people have been regularly feeding wolves. Too bad, because people were starting to appreciate seeing wolves there. But wolves best be deathly afraid of humans at all times, if they know what’s good for them. The DNR doesn’t have to send in UN inspectors before going on the offensive against wolves.

There’s no mention in this article about why the wolf bit someone, but my guess is he was attracted by the smell of whatever food the humans had cooked that night or had in the tent with them. Who knows, maybe the kid had a peperoni stick by his head and the wolf was startled when he stirred his sleep. (People should know not to bring food in a tent with them.) I remember a camping trip where my brother in law had brought food in the tent and woke up to find that a mouse had chewed it, right by his head.

Anyway, the wolf (rest his soul) obviously wasn’t really trying to hurt or kill anyone, or he wouldn’t have been deterred when a 16 year old boy kicked at him.

http://www.startribune.com/local/221254011.html                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     JOSEPHINE MARCOTTY    Star Tribune August 26, 2013

A solitary wolf bit a 16-year-old-old boy sleeping outside his tent near Lake Winnibigoshish on Sunday, the first documented wolf attack in Minnesota history.

The unidentified boy, who is reportedly from Solway, Minn., stood up and kicked at the wolf, which then ran away, according to state wildlife officials.

The teenager, who was staying at a campground in the Chippewa National Forest, was driven to a hospital near Bemidji, where he was treated for a gash on the back of his head and canine punctures on either side of his face.

A 75-pound adult male wolf that matched the description provided by the boy and others at the campground was trapped and killed Monday morning by federal wildlife officials.

The wolf’s body was taken to the University of Minnesota veterinary school, where it is being tested for rabies and dissected. Investigators will collect DNA in an effort to match it to saliva samples on the victim.

“This is a rare occurrence,” said Tom Provost, enforcement manager for the Department of Natural Resources. He said there have been no other recorded cases in Minnesota of a wild wolf attacking a human, though it has occurred elsewhere in the United States and Canada, and more frequently in India.

The wolf that was killed Monday had a deformed jaw. The top and bottom were out of alignment, and it was missing a canine tooth, Provost said, meaning the animal likely had learned to survive by hanging around campgrounds.

In order to hunt successfully, wolves must be able to exert tremendous force on their prey, Provost said. An adult wolf is capable of biting with a force of 1,000 to 1,500 pounds of pressure per square inch, a strength that makes it possible to chomp through a moose femur in six to eight bites. A German shepherd has a biting pressure of 750 pounds per square inch.

“It was trapped in an area where it was likely habituated to humans and had the ability to grab easy food,” he said. “That’s not normal behavior.”

In fact, other campers reported that the wolf was behaving in an entirely unwolf-like way. Normally, wolves stay away from humans and are rarely alone. Pat Tetrault, 28, was one of several people who saw the wolf in the campground Friday and early Saturday. His wife saw it by their truck. In the early morning, while the family of four and their dog were fast asleep, it bit through the wall of their tent.

“It was by where my son was sleeping,” Tetrault said. “He said he felt it go under the tent, and then lift it up. He thought it was pretty cool. Took him awhile to go back to sleep.”

About ten minutes later Tetrault said he heard shouting from the direction of where the teenager was bitten.

Provost said that the teenager was lying outside his tent when “unbeknownst to him a large canine approached him from the rear.” He woke up when the wolf bit his head, and it was a “struggle to free himself from its jaws,” Provost said. The boy confronted the wolf, but it fled only when he launched a kick at it.

Friends and members of his family provided rudimentary first aid, and then drove him to the hospital.

Wildlife officials evacuated the campground and set up a perimeter. One officer saw it on the road and took a shot at it, but missed. On Monday morning federal wildlife officials found the wolf caught in a leg-hold trap that had been set around the campground over the weekend, and shot it.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/08/22/environment/campaign-against-feeding-wolves?

by Dan Kraker, Minnesota Public Radio

BRIMSON, Minn. — “Don’t feed the wildlife!” is a message frequently trumpeted at campgrounds around Minnesota. It’s usually meant to warn people not to feed deer or bears.

But this summer wildlife managers are expanding that message to wolves.

In at least two locations in northeast Minnesota, people are feeding wolf pups — easy meals that could have very negative consequences.

At Hugo’s, the bar and general store that Gary Hepola runs with his wife in the tiny town of Brimson, about 40 miles north of Duluth, it doesn’t take long to see a wolf pup.

“You’ll notice they have no fear here,” said Hepola as he pulled his pickup out of the parking lot. “They’ll come right up to that window.”

Gary Hepola

Sure enough, the young wolf, with pointy ears and splotches of gray, white and tan fur, ambles right up to Hepola’s open window. “What are you doing? Get off the road!”

Hepola said the wolves have grown steadily bolder over the past six weeks or so. He has seen people place piles of food on the side of the road to lure the wolves in close to snap pictures.

“I’ve chewed a few people out [and] said, ‘Don’t be feeding the wolves,'” he said. “People don’t realize they’re going to become adults. They’re cute now — not so cute when they’re big.”

Hepola fears that some of the pups might not even make it to adulthood. One of eight was killed by a car last week.

That number could grow, said Nancy Hansen, assistant area wildlife manager in Two Harbors for the Department of Natural Resources.

“They are at a very busy intersection,” Hansen said. “It’s going to get busier, with hunting season coming up, so I’m concerned.”

Hansen said the wolf pups are using a stretch of forest near the intersection of two county highways as a rendezvous site. The adults in the pack leave the pups to hunt and return with food.

‘Do not feed the wolves’

Wildlife experts say people sometimes see wolf pups alone, perhaps think they look thin, and assume they have been abandoned and need food. Hansen said the DNR is trying to educate the public otherwise.

“Basically, we really need people to police themselves,” she said. “As neat as it is to see these animals, this is not a normal situation, and anything they’re doing to get their picture taken with a wolf pup or feed a wolf pup, it’s not good for the pups.”

Hansen said officials cannot relocate the pups, because they would either die away from the pack or just return to the rendezvous point.

“If we can’t turn it around, we’ll probably have to capture the pups, they’ll either have to be moved to a facility, or destroyed,” she said.

Hansen said she has never seen a situation like the “Hugo’s wolves” as she refers to them. She said news of the wolves has spread like wildfire on Facebook, and more and more people are flocking to see them.

Jess Edberg, the information services director at the International Wolf Center in Ely, is dealing with a similar situation on the Echo Trail near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

Pup on the road

“The wolf pups were walking across the road, sitting on the road, watching vehicles go by, and somebody did see there was fresh food put out there the other day,” she said.

Edberg said every year or two she hears of emboldened wolves not fleeing from passing cars. In those situations, she said, it’s not enough to simply not feed them. She said even a passive observer can encourage wolves to frequent an area.

“We want to make sure that wildlife have a healthy fear avoidance of humans, so honking your horn or yelling, not encouraging the animal to be there is going to be helpful for the survival of that animal,” Edberg said.

At Hugo’s Bar in Brimson, owner Jody Hepola said the wolves have become something of a tourist attraction.

“The store’s been busy,” she said. “Lots of people come in to comment and get a snack while they’re out looking for the wolves, and lots of phone calls, asking, ‘Are they’re really wolves up there? What time of day, where can we see them?”

But Hepola said she would gladly give up the increased business. She wants the wolves to learn to fend for themselves.