DKAin I.KS AWi:M>lX 1 



increase their tolerance for the close proximity of people through repeated, long-term social interaction with people 

 and "being rewarded" in some fashion, whether food or otherwise. It seems that some period of time is required for 

 a wolf to habituate to human proximity, although precisely how long may be a function of setting and vary from one 

 individual wolf to another. MFWP would be as concerned about habituated wolves as we are about habituated bears 

 and will attempt to discourage habituation for all wildlife species and carnivores in particular. 



No wolf-caused human fatality has been documented in North America. All cases in which a human was injured 

 occurred where wolves have shared the landscape with people for a long time. Most incidents occurred in park or 

 preserve settings where wolves were legally protected, but individual wolves had become habituated. On the 

 contrary, there are no reported incidents from areas where wolves have recently rccolonizcd or been reintroduced in 

 the northern Rockies or the upper Midwest. In contrast, mountain lions are responsible for ten human deaths and 48 

 nonfatal injuries in the U.S. and Canada from 1890-1990 (Beier 1991). 



In Montana, hikers have unknowingly encountered an occupied den site and wolves barked. Other encounters 

 occurred away from wolf den sites and ended when the wolf retreated, without injury to human or pet. One incident 

 involved a hiker with two dogs and multiple wolves. Since the mid- 1 980' s, the only two injuries to humans by 

 wolves in Montana occurred when wolf researchers and managers handled uru^estrained animals during live-capture 

 operations. However, there have been 8 mountain lion-human incidents in Montana from 1990-1999 in which seven 

 people were injured and a young boy was killed (MFWP unpubl. data). These were all encounters in which the 

 human was not aware of the lion. 



In Montana, wolves have injured and killed domestic pets, primarily dogs. Most incidents involved herding dogs 

 associated with livestock operations. Other cases of dog depredations were hounds trailing mountain lion or bobcat 

 scent. Hounds typically do not switch scent trails from felids to canids, but may encounter wolves while pursuing 

 wild cats or at lion kills assumed by wolves. More hound dogs have been lost to mountain lions than wolves thus far 

 in Montana. Claar el al. ( 1999) summarized current understanding and knowledge of hound dog-wolf interactions. 

 Bangs and Shivik (2001 ) also noted wolves probably perceived hunting hounds and guarding/herding dogs as 

 "trespassing" competitors rather than as prey because wolves did not feed on the domestic dogs. 



Despite their wariness of people, wolves will still use natural habitats in clo.se proximity to humans. This is 

 particularly true in northwestern Montana where people build their homes in thick, forested habitats. Members of 

 the Murphy Lake pack are occasionally seen within 100 yards of homes and in rare instances closer. While this 

 pack is clearly accustomed to human activity within its home range, its members have shared the landscape with 

 people without incident for 10 years. One pack just outside of YNP is often seen in open grassland terrain. 



Because wolves live in social groups, people may see them more frequently than other large carnivores, although 

 wolves are not necessarily any more dangerous. Mountain lions and bears are solitary, except for mothers with 

 dependent young or during the breeding season. Wolves are much less .secretive than mountain lions. Wolves feed 

 and rest in open areas with good visibility, whereas lions tend to hide their kills and feed or rest in dense vegetative 

 cover. Wolves will also travel across openings in forest cover or natural meadows in ways that mountain lions or 

 bears do not. In addition, wolves use linear corridors such as roads, utility lines or railroad rights-of-way for 

 traveling and scent marking. Because of the differences between the secretive stalking behavior of mountain lions 

 and the broad, open searching behavior of wolves, people probably have a greater chance of a close encounter with a 

 mountain lion than a wolf. 



Another important consideration also steins from the fact that the natural order of existence for wolves in the wild is 

 to belong to a pack. Pack membership has attendant functions such as establishment and maintenance of social 

 hierarchies, patrolling and marking territory boundaries, pup-tending, hunting, bringing food back to pups, resting, 

 or interacting with other wolves or other wildlife species. Wolves affiliated with a pack are usually actively engaged 

 in one of these "purposes" and do not spend extended periods of time loitering in any one location - activity at den 

 or rendezvous sites notwithstanding. Pack-affiliated wolves, when seen alone, will usually be seen sporadically 

 because they are en route to someplace else for some particular reason. Even dispersing wolves will generally not 

 loiter and will move through an area near people. This is in contrast to a situation in which a single wolf is seen 

 repeatedly loitering in an area near people and does not appear to be affiliated with a pack. These individual wolves 

 could gradually loose their fear of people, become food conditioned, or otherwise interact with people at 



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