In January, 2012, Glenn Villeneuve was attacked by a pack of 20 wolves. It was a very unusual event. Villeneuvea detailed the event, including pictures of the extremely large pack. He gave an extensive interview to Joe Rogan.
Villeneuve has been one of the stars of the reality show, Life Below Zero. The attack event is discussed starting at 13:30 on the video. Villeneuve explains he never expected such an attack to happen. It was far outside many years of experience dealing with wolves. He does not know why the wolves came after him that day. They had never been aggressive toward him before. The reason for the attack may have something to do with the extremely large wolf pack.
The discussion of the wolf event starts at 13:30 on the video. Glenn Villeneuve sees a pack of 20 wolves on a kill on the lake ice, 500 yards from his cabin. This is an extremely large pack of wolves for the area. It is very unusual. His cabin is far above the arctic circle. In January 2012, it is twilight in the middle of the day.
An Unusually Large Wolf Pack Leaves Its Kill
At first, Villeneuve grabs a camera and walks to about 350 yards from the pack of wolves to take pictures. It is not clear if he is armed on this first foray. His batteries go bad and he starts to go back to cabin to get fresh batteries. Villeneuve looks back and the wolves are running at him. He is 30 yards from the cabin. He sprints to the cabin and gets inside. He looks out the window. The 20 wolves are milling around 50 yards from the cabin. In a short time, the wolves go back to the kill on the lake. Villeneuve goes back out to take more pictures. This time he has his rifle with him, but no spare ammunition.
Villeneuve goes out about 150 yards from the cabin. The wolves are about 350 yards away. Some of the wolves start moving toward him, but slowly, hesitantly. He slowly retreats. The wolves move a little closer. When he is about 100 yards from the cabin, they start galloping toward him. Again he sprints to the cabin. He drops the camera tripod. He has only 4-5 rounds in his rifle, and is unsure whether he could stop the attack. Again the wolves are milling around 50 yards from the cabin when he is inside. Again the wolves go back to the kill on the ice.
Villeneuve Takes a Stand With His .30-06
Villeneuve thinks about the situation. He needs to teach the wolves he is not prey. He needs to teach them he is a dangerous predator to be avoided. He decides to see if he can lure the wolves closer to the cabin before he starts shooting. He makes sure he is ready. He checks his rifle, a .30-06, and grabs extra ammunition. He goes outside the cabin. To lure the wolves closer, he starts running back and forth from the cabin to the lake shore, about 50 yards. The wolves come running at him again. This time he sits down at the lake shore and takes aim.
He starts shooting when the wolves are 264 yards away, killing one wolf. He shoots two more as they keep coming. They are no longer all galloping toward him, but continue coming in spurts, some milling about. As the third wolf is hit, the wolf pack has had enough. The “prey” is far too dangerous; they run off. The tracks show some wolves came as close as 50 yards from Villeneuve before they all retreated.
The shooting probably took less than a minute. It took that long because Villeneuve had to reload with individual cartridges while the wolves were coming at him. His rifle only has a four round magazine. He does not say how many shots he fired, presumably somewhere between six and nine.
One wolf’s back had been broken, but it was still alive. Villeneuve ran back to the cabin to obtain his .22 rimfire to finish off the wolf which was wounded, becuase it is important to minimize destruction of the fur. Wolf fur is valuable to construct parka hoods. He discovers the animal they had killed on the lake ice was a 1 1/2 year old bull moose.
Wolf Attacks Are Rare—But They Happen
Glenn Villeneuve is very careful to explain this is an extremely rare event. The circumstances remind me of the case of Crist Kolby, who was almost certainly killed by wolves in 1939, at his trap line on the Thorn River, on Prince of Wales Island in Alaska. When Kolby did not return as expected, an investigation was mounted.
The evidence recovered indicated Kolby was on his trapline when he found the mainspring on his new Smith & Wesson .357 magnum revolver was broken. On the way back to his cabin, he was pursued and attacked by wolves. His remains were found near the shoreline of a lake, just short of trees he might have been able to climb.
These sorts of attacks are very rare, but consider what might have happened to Glen Villeneuve if he were miles from his cabin and did not have a working firearm. No one knows why the wolves came after Villeneuve or Kolby. Perhaps it was because he retreated. Maybe the size of the pack is important.
Perhaps this was what happened with Kolby. A single man, without firearms, can be brought down by a pack of wolves. A small team of men, even two or three, armed with spears and clubs, presents a far more difficult problem for a pack of wolves.
Wolves have learned over many millennia to respect and fear humans. Historically, as recounted in “The Gray Wolf Revealed” by Kaj Granlund & Will Graves, p.127, most wolf attacks on humans are on children, then on women, then on lone men. The vast majority (88%) of human victims of wolves were people under the age of 20. Above the age of 20, 86% of the victims were women.
A person with a working firearm, if they have rudimentary skill, will nearly always win in a fight against wolves.
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About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
Wolves don’t attack people!
Coyotes don’t attack people!
No one needs a gun!
Until they do !!!
I had a 90% wolf hybrid. Had to feed it meat because dog food would make it loose weight. Could bite through a pine 2×4 just playing. Bit holes in a stainless steel feed dish. She was absolutely able to take an arm. Was head, shoulders and elbows over a 5′ chain link fence. Absolutely loyal but was not a dog as people think of dogs, more like part of my pack and had to be treated as such. This article is the first I heard about wolves attacking and killing someone but judging from the one I had you… Read more »
I had watched this episode Villeneuve is referencing, IMO a semi-auto M-14 with a 20-round mag. would do the job in that he had to manipulate the bolt action prior to each shot, the wolves closed the distance on the snow and ice quickly.
This would be a good use case for a full auto weapon. queue the Twisted Sisters.