WOLF TALES CIRCA 1987
Algonquin Provincial Park
Reflecting the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) media news release the headline in The Bancroft Times read: “Girl Bitten By Wolf in Park”.
Dan Strickland, Communication and Biological Services Supervisor, said this wolf first appeared on the Park scene in 1986. It was seen at least once “last winter and again in May.” During the summer it was seen nightly, regularly, in the Pog Lake Campground area. At organized Wolf Howls it would run up to people and touch them. It approached one parked car and chewed on the bumper. It seemed fearless of people. That was one howl to especially remember. The wolf would walk by campfires. It was never violent. Via the moccasin telegraph its stories became widely known. As it appeared fearless of people, people became fearless of it.
Sunday August 9, 1987, 2.30 a.m.
A group of 400 Ukrainian youths from New York State were camping in the Park. A 16-year old girl was sitting by her campfire when the wolf approached her, close enough for her to pet it. When the girl shone her flashlight into the wolf’s eyes it responded by grabbing her arm. As she was wearing a thick woollen sweater and a sweatshirt she only sustained two scratches, each two inches in length, in the shape of a ‘V” on her right forearm. The girl apparently wasn’t overly upset.
Strickland hesitated to describe this action as an attack. “The wolf could have crushed her arm had it wanted,” he said. He described the scratches as “tiny dots; incipient breaking of the skin.”
The wolf instantly released the girl’s arm then continued to linger in the area. It walked over to a tent, scratched on it, found a girl’s shoe and sauntered off with it into the bush. The wolf disappeared and the shoe recovered.
A doctor and a Para- medic accompanied the youths. The medic washed out the scratches with an antiseptic but did not awaken the doctor who once informed and “after consultation with medical authorities precautionary anti-rabies injections were begun.” The first began that same day, a second scheduled for the following Wednesday and as the group was heading for Ottawa the third would be administered there. These new anti-rabies shots are apparently much less painful than the former abdominally administered ones.
“This incident should be taken for what it is – a one in a million event that has very little likelihood of ever being repeated,” said Chris Goddard, newly appointed Park Superintendent.
10:00 p.m.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) spotted the wolf on the highway near Pog Lake. At 10:30 a Conservation Officer (CO) identified the wolf and terminated it.
According to Strickland, “There was a cessation of nightly observations of this super-fearless wolf.” On Tuesday it was affirmed that the wolf was NOT rabid. The wolf was a 2/3 year old male. It weighed 60 pounds.
Internationally famed wildlife author R.D. Lawrence has studied and written about wolves much of his life. He suggests that the girl unwittingly provoked the wolf when she flashed her light into its eyes. He also suggests that the wolf “gripped”, as opposed to bit, her arm and the resultant scratches resulted from the girl withdrawing her arm. Lawrence is “100% certain this was not an attack but a fast reaction of reprimand as one wolf would do to another wolf. It was more in the nature of a disciplinary action, just as it might grab a subordinate pack member.”
Lawrence speculates this wolf was fearless as it had become comfortable with people. It was accustomed to the Park’s Wolf Howls which attracted as many as 1200 people; it became used to people “smells” at the campgrounds and because the wolf is a highly sociable, intelligent animal it became naturally more curious about people – much as people have become naturally more interested in wildlife.
George Kolenosky has studied the Park wolves since the 1960s. To him this was not an attack but “more in the nature of a disciplinary action against the girl; just as it might grab a subordinate pack member.”
ANOTHER TALE
Dan Strickland found the following so mind boggling that “it couldn’t be fabricated.”
A man and his wife were sitting around their campfire when a wolf suddenly appeared. It grasped the man’s coat and tugged. Then, it put its jaws around the wife’s neck and after pulled on her pony tail.
1963 – Lake of Two Rivers Air Field
A baseball game, in progress, was suddenly interrupted when a lone wolf appeared and stole second base. Then it returned and stole third base. Attitudes towards wolves in the 1960’s were quite different from today (1987). You won’t be surprised to learn that ‘they’ shot that wolf which was a female – and not rabid.
1970
In the ‘70s Rosy appeared on the scene near the former Park Museum; not to be confused with the newer Park Visitor Centre. MNR photos show Rosy peering in the museum windows. Perhaps she had seen her image in the reflection? Rosy gave birth to a litter of wolf pups in the area and they were the source pack for Park wolf ‘Howls’. It wasn’t unusual to see Rosy patrolling throughout the campgrounds. The only action to her discredit was the consumption of three Park visitor pet dogs. Rosy disappeared after a couple of years.
Record Wolf
The heaviest wolf ever recorded in the Park weighed 84 pounds. In northern Ontario 100 pounders aren’t unusual. The Algonquin wolf appears to be a combination of salt/pepper with a reddish-cinnamon colour behind the ears, on the face and down its legs.
And Finally…
Attendees at a medical conference were slightly amused at the sign which read: “Conference on VD and Physically Transferable Diseases – Official Carriers Singapore Airlines.”