I never would have thought it possible! 400 hungry wolves banding together in order to form what can only be described as a superpack? Is it time to set the criteria for when a pack of wolves becomes a superpack?
According to a report, these 400 wolves have formed an alliance of sorts and are killing deer and horses, having killed 30 horses in only a few days. Patrols have been set up and residents are doing what they can in mostly darkness to protect themselves and their property.
What has driven these wolves in Siberia to do this? Perhaps part of that answer can be found in this statement:
It is unusual for wolves to gather in such numbers or hunt large animal like horses. However the population of their usual prey, rabbits, has decreased this year due to lack of food, so wolves have changed their habits.
Dr. Valerius Geist, a well recognized authority on wildlife behavior, best describes wolf behavior this way.
I subsequently discovered that the wolves were much the same in their behavior, whatever their origins, but that circumstances lead to vastly different outcomes. In general, the evidence indicates that wolves are very careful to choose the most nutritious food source easiest obtained without danger.
The key in this statement as it might pertain to the Siberian superpack wolf attacks is that wolves choose the “easiest obtained” food that is available to them. Geist further explains:
They tackle dangerous prey only when they run out of non dangerous prey, and they shift to new prey only very gradually, following a long period of gradual exploration. Wolves are very sensitive to strangeness, including a potential prey species strange to them.
It is always seemingly easy to draw conclusions as to what wolves do and how they act and react under mostly ideal conditions but when things get out of whack, that’s when we can toss the book on standard wolf behavior out the window.
Scientists should be rushing to Siberia in order to learn what circumstances presented themselves that would force the unusual banding together of 400 wolves. The animals are obviously hungry enough that horses have become the main entree. Assuming that Dr. Geist’s claim that when wolves transition to new prey it is very gradual, one has to wonder if the answer is simply that rabbits didn’t have much food this year.
And for those who espouse to “natural regulation”, where is it? Or maybe I should ask if this is part of the modus operandi of “natural regulation”? If Americans are intending to implement the natural regulation into our wildlife management plans, is this what people who live in wolf country can plan on becoming a part of someday?
Believers of the natural regulation will tell us that species will have fluctuations up and down, always “self adjusting” to influences. Perhaps we are being witness to one of those self-adjustments by influences in Siberia.
Regardless of the extent to which wolves will go to kill and feed themselves, the wolf lovers will continue to beat the same drum and say most anything to protect the object of their worship. From the same news account:
Vladimir Bologov, zoologist and wolf preservation enthusiast, believes the problem may be exaggerated to look more urgent than it actually is.
“Such position is normal for hunters who want to get extra financing on the pretext of fighting against wolves. Helicopters are expensive; any flying one is a thrill many people want to experience,” he commented for RT.
Aside from the fact this guy is anti hunting, I need to ask; How does one exaggerate 400 wolves in one pack killing 30 horses?
Please! I’m anxiously awaiting.
Tom Remington
