Wolves were in season, and they knew it. Wolves and Bears are considered a bonus when Moose and Caribou hunting. When they fir5st saw the Wolves they thought, "Wow this is cool". Then when the Wolves stopped between them and their rifles they got concerned, but when the Wolves surrounded them they got scared. That's when they did not think to shoot the Wolves, all they were thinking was survival, and scaring the Wolves off. Only after the Wolves turned to run did they remember it was Wolf hunting season as well. Like I said When one realizes he is looking death in the face, it's a whole different matter. These men knew they were now the hunted, and soon to be pray/dinner.
Yes Wolves kill and eat people. Did you not hear about the school teacher out at Chignik, Alaska. She was out for a jog and got caught by a pack of Wolves. A good friend of mine went out there to do the investigation. From the evidence he concluded, the Wolves attacked her and pulled her down. She fought and got away, then ran. The Wolves caught her and pulled her down again. She fought and broke away a second time. She ran farther this time, but they caught her a third time and pulled her down. This time she could not fight them off. They killed her and eat her on the spot.
A year before that we had an old guy that loved to cross country ski. This guy would ski down the Tanana River to Nenana one day, then ski back to Fairbanks the next day. He usually did this on weekends. One Monday he did not show up where he did volunteer work, and the people there got concerned. They called the Troopers and reported him overdue. Troopers sent a plane to search the route. Plane saw the kill site from the air and called in a ground search unit. Troopers found a bloody spot and his skis. Farther up in the brush they found his back pack, and some of his clothing and a lot of blood in the snow. Farther they found his skull and some chewed bones, and some skin, and bits of clothing. Parts of him was scattered over a large area.
Same year a woman stopped at the Arctic Circle rest stop on the Dalton highway (The Ice Road to you lower 48 folks) and as she walked to the outhouse she was attacked by a Wolf that bit her buttocks, trying hamstring her. She was able to fight the wolf off and get into the outhouse. The wolf kept her in the outhouse for several hours till another vehicle stopped. The man in the second vehicle got out with a gun and ran the Wolf off. This man noticed the Wolf was a lactating female, so he was hesitant to shoot her. The woman in the outhouse came out and was taken to Fairbanks for medical treatment. The following day, just up the road from the rest stop another Wolf attacked a bicyclist on the road. As the guy was fighting and kicking at the Wolf a Trucker came along and swerved his big rig and hit the Wolf killing it. This Wolf was a male, not the same one that attacked the woman the day before.
To Wolves, if they think they have the upper hand, man is just another meal. They are higher on the food chain than man is unless man has a gun or other means of defending himself.
As for the Black Bear, wife said it was a small Bear anyway. She said it was too small to hang on the wall, so she thought it best to run it off and let it grow up.
We spent two days in the blind where I shot that Grizzly three years ago. Did not see anything but Ravens hitting the gut piles. Heard Bull Moose grunting after Dark, and Cow Moose wailing after dark as well, but nothing during daylight. A bull Moose came up and peed right behind the blind during the night. I was lying there in my sleeping bag, and could hear him, but it was after the Northern Lights had quite and I could not see a thing. Heard Wolves as well at night, but nothing during the day. The Northern Lights were sure beautiful during the night tho, shimmering and lighting the entire sky up. Light show dancing across the sky for hours, seeming so close you could almost reach up and touch them.
