Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Autopsy: Animal fatally mauled teacher in Alaska

How many people are killed by wolves in Alaska, anyway?

I had the idea this was a lot less common than bear attacks.

- Tom

Wolf attacks are very rare. Much more so than being hit by lightning. The other documented fatal NA attack in the past 20 years or so was in Northern Saskatchewan. A fine young man new to the area out for a stroll.

When your number is up....

For christ sakes, where the hell do you guys come off with the idea she didn't have a clue as to how to protect herself?
She had been running an active trapline, I'd think she had some idea of her surroundings. She came to AK from PA, could be she'd spent a lifetime in the outdoors.

I did take note of one comment she entered in her blog..

"It's so important to be alert and aware of your surroundings, because we're not in PA anymore and everything is bigger and more fierce in Alaska! "

Sounds like she had a clue to me..just ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. And if ya don't know how that could happen, you just haven't been around....

For the past several decades...about one. Last week...

Attacking this young woman for making an error of judgement that no one else had suffered from for decades is unbelievable. Immature and self-centered beyond belief, among other errors on their part.

The young lady was happily learning how to hunt and trap in Alaska...you know, within the next six months or so she might have heard from the right person and joined the 24HourCampfire...

Would have been one hell of a lot better than some alleged people who have joined us.

Dennis

Her chances of needing iron while out running to protect herself from wolves was orders of magnitude less likely than her need to protect herself from two-legged predators in the same place...

Her diminutive size probably played the largest part in her attack...
art

You do not rate high enough to piss anyone off... Pathos is an entirely different emotion...

What does it take to ban someone? This is ridiculous.

Yes,it sure is. A pox on his filthy mouth, and brain.

Prayers for that Lady, and those who held ( and will hold her memory) dear.

GTC

Never had any trouble ignoring him.

I take no more notice of his posts than the ad at the top of the page.

Ooops! Sorry, Rick.

- Tom

Big 10-4 muledeer.

That dork gives himself far too much credit. He doesn't piss me off, he just makes himself out to be a rather idiotic travesty. Now if HE were to become the main course for a pack, I likely wouldn't waste any time being bothered by it.

DFTFT???

That a'int happened yet and probably won't because unlike you, in the former Empire State, we, in the Equality State, live with them day in and out, as well as other far larger predators BUT don't wander around in Nikes and tights unarmed.

I really think we need to send you some to cut down on suburban sprawl........

Soon to be California "east".

I see your still afraid of the dark in the "equality state". Take your oldballs back to NY and do western humanity a favor.

Thanks in advance....

Roscoe, he can take 'em to New Joisey. Or better, Massachussets.He misses the point though. I believe the Alaskans would verify that there hasn't been a wolf/human predation attack in recent memory and the unfortunate young Lady was jogging near a village. I would venture that our Alaskan compatriots here at least formerly viewed wolves as targets of opportunity rather than a severe threat. This changes everything.

have seen far more bears than I have wolves and you're a lot more likely to get chewed up by one of them than by wolves and the subject has been beaten to death "how to survive in bear country, yada, yada, yada"


running around in the wilds is far less risky than driving to work, but I guess we take solace that help is close by, either to mend you or bury you and familiarity breeds contempt

you take what precautions seem prudent to your situation, but it ain't ever foolproof. When your gig is up, it's up. And when it ain't it ain't.


she seemed far more prepared to deal with and embrace her environment than many of the schoolteachers that were hired to work the bush back in the 70's & 80's when the bush was recruiting schoolteachers far and wide to teach their children in villages and IIRC the majority of them survived, whether they stayed long term or not.


gotta agree with Art, her size probably worked to her detriment in this situation


you can shoulda, coulda, woulda these situations beyond sane discussion

feel real bad for her and her family, her last moments on this earth weren't joyful would be my guess, I hope she had many moments of joy prior in her far too short life.


she suffered a rare but cruel fate, it would seem to me decency would preclude making disparaging comments about her. YMMV

Right, i've heard there's lots of wolves in Florida. Dumba$$......

JeffA Thanks for the window into this young lady's life she
seems to have drank deeply of the life in Alaska and wanted
to experience it all. Once again Thanks. Cheers NC

I spent enough time fishing and hunting in Alaska to have a great respect for all wild animals there. It's not like you're entering a caged lion's den either. I'm not someone paranoid to the point of always carrying heat, just in case. I actually had more respect or wariness of running into a mama moose with a calf than a bear. A moose will kill you just as dead as a wolf or bear, they just don't eat you when they're done. Moose don't see very well and it's very easy to unknowingly sneak up on them. When you see the hackles raise up on a mama moose, it's time to leave.

I've carried a rifle slung over my shoulder while fishing along a river where literally every soft spot on the bank had pie plate sized brown bear tracks. I've seen two wolves chase down and kill a caribou calf. I've been thirty feet from a teenage brown bear without a weapon. My buddy and I "gave" a deer he killed to a Kodiak brown bear. I still never felt the need to ALWAYS pack heat. Common sense is a person's best defense in Alaska.

To critsize someone for not packing heat at every moment of every day while being in the woods is just not how it is.

I feel very, very sorry for the gal and her family and I'm not trying to be callous or insensitive to what happened but it's part of living and being an Alaskan. There are risks associated with being outside in the woods or even on the waters and I gladly accepted that as part of the lifestyle. Living in Alaska IS a lifestyle and not just a place to live.


1akhunter said it well.

"I feel real bad for her and her family, her last moments on this earth weren't joyful would be my guess, I hope she had many moments of joy prior in her far too short life. She suffered a rare but cruel fate, it would seem to me decency would preclude making disparaging comments about her".


OLDMAN,

Your comments in this thread are rude and obnoxious, once again, and that's putting it mildly. You don't deserve to be a member of the fire.


fish head

ALL of my cars and truck has a spare tire and jack in them, I never need them. Now I wonder if this has been a mistake carrying them when I never need them? I guess it's time to quit carrying my .357 mag in my front pocket, after all I haven't needed a handgun for protection for the last 35 years. And I really only needed a handgun twice in my life for protection.