So why don't wolves attack humans?

[The Long Bark]

We've all seen the boilerplate disclaimer on booting up the game.

We are not attempting to create "realistic" wildlife behaviour in the game. We know that Wolves do not typically attack people.

Then I started thinking about it, working it over my head out of curiosity. Why wouldn't wolves attack humans? And I came to no satisfactory answer as to why they wouldn't, at least not in the sort survival scenario presented in sandbox.

Is it becomes humans are communal and intelligent? Well so are elephants. That doesn't stop them from having to fend off predators by circling up with their young in the middle.

Is it because humans are isolated from the ecology for such a long time that wolves are unfamiliar with humans? Well that can't have always been the case.

So you're a pack and this strange two-legged mammal is slugging it through your territory. There's no herd around it. No stinky fires. It has no gun that makes a loud and frightening noise. Given the right incentive and inclination, why wouldn't you nom on that? (Of course, elsewise, if you play like I do, you're indoors for greater than 9 hours a day -- mostly for sleeping, cooking and sterilizing water.)

And actually some Googling seems to indicate that yes, wolves have attacked humans. More usually if they're rabid, but there are attacks on record if you go far back enough. Also keeping in mind that wolf populations have been going down and that I wouldn't expect all reports to have made it to record in more primitive eras.

Why don't wolves attack humans?

Presented with the scenario in sandbox, I think wolves could very well be inclined to attack you in a hard winter. In Mystery Lake, all the staff that apparently would've maintained the damns, logged and ran the various trains would have made quite the ruckus. The same rail would've run to Coastal Highway, where there would've been wood fires from chimneys and automobiles besides. But no, instead you're in a ghost town and none of those things are operational anymore.

Anybody care to weigh in on this?

[octavian]

A healthy wolf that has never seen a human might get the idea it could be food. If you have a weapon, or you're a big guy with enough resolve, if it attacks you it will have a very bad day. It will be extremely unlikely it would be a fight to the death. You would have a very bad day too in hand to paw combat but it would be extremely unlikely the wolf will still think you as something to be eaten.

If you're a child or a woman and have no weapons, or a guy even but small, if you're elderly or have one or both of your hands or legs broken, or bleeding seriously, in short, if it can tell, or assume, that you can't put up a fight, and indeed your efforts don't provide enough deterrence it could very well try to fight to the death and eat you. The wolf is smart enough to always choose a child or a skinny 1.5m girl that panicks and runs away over a 1.8m man-bear kayaker with resolve.

This is commonly seen in the news in my country, or was, hopefuly. The targets of stray dog attacks were almost always women and children. A couple of children and an elderly lady have been more or less... eaten in the past.

I have also been the victim of unprovoked stray dog attacks, twice. The first time it sneaked from behind, no bark no growl no nothing, bit my leg and ran away before I could do anything. A couple of years later, one came from the side and bit my leg. That one didn't run away and continued biting repeatedly. I was carrying a carbon fiber tripod. I'm no man-bear kayaker but the dog had a very, very bad day. If it was a wolf, it may have needed more... effort, but I highly doubt I would have been eaten. Even the wolf would have understood that getting carbon fiber tubing to the face is just not worth it.

Almost always if wolves have past experience with humans it's a negative one. Park rangers, farmers, groups of tourists and man-bear kayakers will scare them away.

So wolves don't usually attack humans because either a) have seen humans and had negative experiences with us, scared away, injured and/or some of them killed or b) have never seen a human and unless you're a child, pretty skinny small woman, small guy, elderly or injured, it's very unlikley they would think you're worth the effort to even find out if you're edible. Also, we're not their natural prey. It's not like the wolf would say, look, lunch. It would say, what's that?

[The Long Bark]

So pike wolf heads around your cabin and mark the place.

Got it.

[Incariuz]

I've had run ins with wolves on multiple occasions in my years, and never once been attacked. Not going to go and say I'm an expert on wolves, or that certain instances didn't scare the living hell out of me but in my opinion, they seem more defensive where people are concerned. They will stand their ground basically implying "cross this line and we'll rip you apart", but so long as you maintain vision of them and back away in a non threatening manner, nothing bad happens. Like I said though, this is just my experience, and I'll say I've been lucky. There are many possible reasons they may attack, such as being rabid, starving, the person is in bad shape, and so on.

[coryduran]

Yeah a large male wolf is 110 pounds, as said above realistically most adult men outweigh any wolf significantly, and with enough resolve won't get killed by a single wolf in a fight. Know what you're doing or have a weapon and the wolf can have a rough time ahead of it.

[Cicerho]

Its an opportunity-cost assessment imbedded in their DNA. Predators don't typically take chances on prey that poses a risk of causing injury unless the predator is pushed to its limits (e.g., starving). Injuries like an infected bite or a broken bone is almost certain death in the wilderness, so a wolf is generally going to stay away from humans unless it has learned over time that they are harmless. Humans don't typically tolerate that learning period and wolves don't typically survive it.

Even in the situation like sandbox, wolves would probably avoid the survivor. Why take a chance with a strange new animal that outweighs you when there's plenty of helpless dear out there?

Remember that the important outcome isn't whether or not one animal would win in a fight, the important outcome is whether one animal can win the fight without getting injured.

[Scyzara]

Its an opportunity-cost assessment imbedded in their DNA. Predators don't typically take chances on prey that poses a risk of causing injury unless the predator is pushed to its limits (e.g., starving). Injuries like an infected bite or a broken bone is almost certain death in the wilderness, so a wolf is generally going to stay away from humans unless it has learned over time that they are harmless. Humans don't typically tolerate that learning period and wolves don't typically survive it.

Very much this. Plus, during the past centuries wolves became almost extinct because of us. Humans hunted them excessively and presumably all packs that didn't run away at the slightest hint of human presence in a region were killed. Only the most wary and fearful packs survived (and could thus raise offspring.)

Aggressive packs were almost certainly killed, even if they only attacked a single lone child or woman. In other words, for a few centuries wolves had an immense evolutionary pressure to avoid attacks on humans at any cost. I don't know whether this really influenced their DNA or only its imprinting or if it's a mostly learned behavior (probably a bit of all three). But no matter the exact mechanism, modern wolves developed an instinctive distrust and fear of humans.

They're thus different than the ancient wolf populations (that were once tamed and became dogs). Modern wolves learn from their parents to run away as soon as they smell or see a human being. Unless they're starving or rabid, they won't even attack a lone child any more because they distrust and fear the human smell so much.

That's also the reason why you should NEVER compare stray dogs and wolves regarding their dangerousness for humans. Stray dogs are usually not afraid of humans at all (people feed them, etc.), that's exactly what makes them dangerous.

Don't get me wrong, wolves that aren't afraid of humans are very dangerous as well. They exist, but they're very rare and usually some overly confident youngsters. As far as I know, there is for example one young male wolf in northern Germany atm who doesn't stay away from villages and isn't particularly afraid of humans. A biologist is thus "teaching" him now that humans are dangerous (with loud noises and some kind of air gun). True to the motto: The only good wolf is a fearful wolf. ^^

[Cicerho]

The only thing I would add to this is that the conservative lean that wolves display in their opportunity-cost assessments is observed in most hunting predators. You see the same skiddishness in predators with very little exposure to humans as well, suggesting that DNA is playing a major role. It seems like DNA is responsible for the overall tendency to be cautious and that predators learn to override caution as they observe that some animals are totally harmless (e.g., grazing animals).

I had never thought about feral dogs being more dangerous than wolves, but it is exactly the prediction you'd make if we split the wolf population the way we did. I've always owned dogs, but I never forget that they are wolves and that they will act like it if we push the right buttons. For some reason it never really occurred to me that the lack of fear of humans makes them the most dangerous type of wolf.

[danicusrex]

Aggressive packs were almost certainly killed, even if they only attacked a single lone child or woman. In other words, for a few centuries wolves had an immense evolutionary pressure to avoid attacks on humans at any cost. I don't know whether this really influenced their DNA or only its imprinting or if it's a mostly learned behavior (probably a bit of all three). But no matter the exact mechanism, modern wolves developed an instinctive distrust and fear of humans.

They're thus different than the ancient wolf populations (that were once tamed and became dogs). Modern wolves learn from their parents to run away as soon as they smell or see a human being. Unless they're starving or rabid, they won't even attack a lone child any more because they distrust and fear the human smell so much.

^^

Said it better than I could. I've spent a lot of time in the eastern Canadian woods, and I've never encountered a wolf with any kind of aggression toward me. Wariness, certainly. A quiet kind of respect, sure. But I never felt threatened by wolves.

[elloco999]

Said it better than I could. I've spent a lot of time in the eastern Canadian woods, and I've never encountered a wolf with any kind of aggression toward me. Wariness, certainly. A quiet kind of respect, sure. But I never felt threatened by wolves.

On the Alone show on the history channel, the second contestant to tap out did so because of the wolves fighting near his camp in the middle of the night. He sure felt frightened by the wolves.

In episode 7/8 or so, Mitch talks about a wolf coming into his camp in the middle of the night and him lying there in his sleeping bag, knife in hand ready to blind it with his headlamp and stab it multiple times if it would have come too close. Guess he felt threatened.

But yeah, wolves don't attack humans unless they are protecting their territory (and even then only if you don't leave after several warnings) or when they are very hungry and there is no other 'food' to be found. I would (probably) not be all that scared from a random wolf encounter in the woods. I believe that in most cases if you stay calm and give the wolf it's space it will leave you alone. Although wolves are naturally curious so they may follow you out of curiosity. Cougars do that to by the way.

[danicusrex]

That's always been my experience. They've kept their distance, and I didn't make any sudden moves (and I always unsnap my knife sheath, because you never know). But "being prepared in case things go south" is not quite the same as feeling threatened, which I'd call "knowing things are very likely to go south". We've always gotten along just fine.

Though honestly, the wolf in camp story would have made me nervous, too. I'd be real wary, and VERY focused on the body language that wolf was using.