I have someone related to me that took in a stray Maine Coon cat that was actually a Bob cat and they didn't find out until the first vet visit. I think it had to go to some zoo or like Sanctuary place because they had it for quite a while and were feeding it like regular wet cat food.
If you mean 3 out of 4 facts:
"Individual weights can vary from 32 kilograms (71 lb) to 60 kilograms (130 lb)."
Which is well within the range of a large dog.
Dude, the article I linked literally mentions solitary wolves walking more than 500 km in search of a mate. Sure they "usually" move in packs, but that is what makes this story unusual, not impossible.
"Massive" is relative. To a child a 30 kg dog is massive.
They are not bigger than big dogs, they aren't always in packs, and they're skittish yeah but not usually that aggressive. This story could well be fake but it's perfectly plausible.
It probably helps that OP wasn't scared. He didn't act like a prey animal and flee, which can trigger hunting instincts. I also can't help but wonder if the wolf recognized a human child as being "young." I know dogs can do that - I've seen them change behavior around tiny humans and tolerate things from them that they wouldn't tolerate from adults. Granted, domesticated dogs have had many generations to acclimate themselves to us, but I wouldn't be surprised if a wild wolf recognized that OP was a "human puppy" and not a significant threat.
Also, OP had food, and considering the wolf went right for the pop tart when it was thrown, it's possible such a sociable, intelligent creature was playing nice in hopes of being given some all along.
Who knows? I'd say it's definitely a plausible story. If the story had been about a mountain lion, I'd have my doubts. But wolves don't usually go out of their way to antagonize humans. If some of them were able to be domesticated long ago, the same traits that brought them close to humans in the first place may still exist in the wild population.
Ha ha, "looks like he's going to call HR for inappropriate contact"
For the record, there has never been a documented attack of a healthy wolf on a person in North America. Obviously if they get rabies or distemper or something all bets are off.
that may be true but you should consider that HR departments are notorious for failing to document complaints from members of socially-disadvantaged groups
Teyrnon is wrong because they claimed that there are no documented attacks of a healthy wolf attacking a person in northern America. In fact, there have been three lethal and 24 non-lethal documented attacks by healthy wolfs since 2000 in north America.
Wyman was a wildlife biologist who worked as a caretaker in the Wolf Centre section of the Haliburton Forest & Wildlife Reserve. She was killed by five captive wolves on the third day of her employment.
There's a bunch of captivity based attacks that were not fatalities.
Most of the attacks were solitary joggers, hikers, dog walkers etc that would have been triggering a chase instinct. One of the incidents was ambush on two people:
Noah was awake and talking to his girlfriend when a lone wolf attacked from behind, biting his head. He kicked, screamed, punched, and grabbed, and it ran off. He was taken to the hospital, requiring 17 staples to close a large head wound and to get precautionary injections. Authorities killed the wolf the next day and sent the body for rabies and DNA testing. The wolf tested negative for rabies but was diagnosed with deformities and brain damage.
It's not completely out of the question that a wolf was investigating a nice smell, and after getting the prize left. Definitely fits the pattern of the animals slowly acclimatizing to human activity. That wolf wasn't dangerous then, but it would become dangerous.
Meanwhile cats just showed up, said that they live here now. 10,000 years later, cats run the internet and more or less still the same genetically for the past 10,000 years.
Toxoplasma gondii (/ˈtɒksəˌplæzmə ˈɡɒndi.aɪ, -iː/) is a species of parasitic alveolate that causes toxoplasmosis.[3] Found worldwide, T. gondii is capable of infecting virtually all warm-blooded animals,[4]: 1 but members of the cat family (Felidae) are the only known definitive hosts in which the parasite may undergo sexual reproduction.[5][6]
Can infect basically any mammal, but cats are their preffered hosts.
Yup, plus the friendlier ones were more likely to get fed, mean ones more likely to get killed, which resulted in more or less offspring like them. Do that for generations and voila, you're now a French bulldog
Yup, some people recommend actually scaring wild animals away and not attracting them, for exactly that reason. A wolf that has learned that hanging out with humans means food becomes a safety risk and is likely going to be shot one way or the other.
The kid didn't know, of course. But we should let wild animals be wild animals, and get our stone-age desire to pet wolves from some wolf sanctuary or something, where the wolves are used to humans anyway.
61 Comments
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de · 152 pts · 73d
Wolf: "W...What the.... brain overloads from getting pet like a good boy"
CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world · 158 pts · 73d
Wolf: I hope this doesn’t awaken something in me
WhyIHateTheInternet@lemmy.world · 68 pts · 73d
I wonder if those humans have any more of those delicious pastries
SillyDude@lemmy.zip · 131 pts · 73d
This feel oddly real and heterosexual, I don't like it
SalmiakDragon@feddit.nu · 34 pts · 73d
Don't worry, I'm pretty sure it's fake (and gay)
Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 73d
Yeah, it was really a spaniel, and he didn't 'pat its back' with his hand.
musubibreakfast@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 72d
The spaniel dry humped him and the pop tart was off brand. And the teacher didn't scream but just laughed
Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 72d
I have someone related to me that took in a stray Maine Coon cat that was actually a Bob cat and they didn't find out until the first vet visit. I think it had to go to some zoo or like Sanctuary place because they had it for quite a while and were feeding it like regular wet cat food.
IronBird@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 55d
fake - there was no wolf
gay - anon was eating a poptart
acockworkorange@mander.xyz · -5 pts · 72d
A wolf is a massive animal, usually not white, usually in packs, and usually skittish or downright aggressive. It's fake. But cool story.
Talentlesssculptor@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 72d
Alaskan Tundra wolves (wander down into Yukon sometimes) are white. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaskan_tundra_wolf
Even the Interior Alaskan(native to Yukon) wolf ranges in color from black and White. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interior_Alaskan_wolf
MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 72d
Terrifying pic in that link. I don't think a poptart would distract that fella.
potpotato@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 72d
Terrifying? Nah, that’s just a good boi
acockworkorange@mander.xyz · -7 pts · 72d
Still 3 out of 4.
Talentlesssculptor@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 72d
If you mean 3 out of 4 facts: "Individual weights can vary from 32 kilograms (71 lb) to 60 kilograms (130 lb)." Which is well within the range of a large dog.
"A wolf that has left its pack may travel up to 500 km (310.7 mi) to breed." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interior_Alaskan_wolf
Talentlesssculptor@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 72d
What?
acockworkorange@mander.xyz · -2 pts · 72d
"A wolf is a
usually not white,Still 3 strong reasons the story is more likely to be fake.
Talentlesssculptor@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 72d
Dude, the article I linked literally mentions solitary wolves walking more than 500 km in search of a mate. Sure they "usually" move in packs, but that is what makes this story unusual, not impossible.
"Massive" is relative. To a child a 30 kg dog is massive.
porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 72d
They are not bigger than big dogs, they aren't always in packs, and they're skittish yeah but not usually that aggressive. This story could well be fake but it's perfectly plausible.
Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 72d
It probably helps that OP wasn't scared. He didn't act like a prey animal and flee, which can trigger hunting instincts. I also can't help but wonder if the wolf recognized a human child as being "young." I know dogs can do that - I've seen them change behavior around tiny humans and tolerate things from them that they wouldn't tolerate from adults. Granted, domesticated dogs have had many generations to acclimate themselves to us, but I wouldn't be surprised if a wild wolf recognized that OP was a "human puppy" and not a significant threat.
Also, OP had food, and considering the wolf went right for the pop tart when it was thrown, it's possible such a sociable, intelligent creature was playing nice in hopes of being given some all along.
Who knows? I'd say it's definitely a plausible story. If the story had been about a mountain lion, I'd have my doubts. But wolves don't usually go out of their way to antagonize humans. If some of them were able to be domesticated long ago, the same traits that brought them close to humans in the first place may still exist in the wild population.
Mpatch@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 72d
It's fake because it's yukon. They don't have internet in yukon. Or people... never mind a school.
SethTaylor@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 72d
They have GMC SUVs though
Mpatch@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 71d
Funny. I like.
teyrnon@sh.itjust.works · 97 pts · 73d
Ha ha, "looks like he's going to call HR for inappropriate contact"
For the record, there has never been a documented attack of a healthy wolf on a person in North America. Obviously if they get rabies or distemper or something all bets are off.
Lauchmelder@feddit.org · 99 pts · 73d
There's also never been a documented case of a wolf contacting HR
Kimjongtooill@sh.itjust.works · 43 pts · 73d
There would be NDAs involved, so take that data with a grain of salt.
Kanda@reddthat.com · 23 pts · 73d
That's because HR will anonymise the contact data before publishing
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de · 11 pts · 73d
depends on how many furries are in your company
cypherpunks@lemmy.ml · 10 pts · 73d
that may be true but you should consider that HR departments are notorious for failing to document complaints from members of socially-disadvantaged groups
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 30 pts · 73d
Another element that could be at play here:
He thought it was a dog.
Dogs, because we domesticated them, have muscles around their eyes, that allow them to make eye/eyebrow expressions.
Wolves do not have these. Because they're the ones we did not domesticate for millenia.
So, if he was expecting dog expressions... wolves literally cannot make the same facial expressions.
They essentially always look like they have RBF, in comparison to a dog.
Tonava@sopuli.xyz · 5 pts · 72d
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 72d
Huh! You're right, I did not know that.
Huskies are... much closer to being actual wolves though, genetically speaking.
Seems like this applies to malamutes and samoyeds as well...?
Tonava@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 72d
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 71d
My, ahem, blind guess would be probably not, as they've... not been widely and thoroughly domesticated for 20,000+ years?
Tonava@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 71d
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 71d
No idea what the more precise timeline is, for when and where dogs started having eyebrow muscles.
Maybe if we did something comparable to the Human Genome Project, but for dogs, we could figure it out, lol?
ikidd@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 71d
It's thought the species we domesticated was distinct from wolves of today. That species went extinct in the wild.
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 73d
There have been documented healthy wolf attacks in North America. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wolf_attacks_in_North_America
Some on the list are rabid, but the list also includes both captive and predative wolf attacks, including fatalities.
Talentlesssculptor@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 72d
You are wrong. Candice Berner, Kenton Carnegie and Marc Leblond were all deemed to have been killed by healthy wolves.
There have been at least 24 non-fatal wolf attacks by healthy wolves since 2000 in north America alone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wolf_attacks_in_North_America
diaphragmwp@discuss.tchncs.de · 0 pts · 72d
So what? 17 people just disappeared for no reason in 2001 (list is mostly US incidents)
Talentlesssculptor@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 71d
Teyrnon is wrong because they claimed that there are no documented attacks of a healthy wolf attacking a person in northern America. In fact, there have been three lethal and 24 non-lethal documented attacks by healthy wolfs since 2000 in north America.
Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 71d
One of the fatalities is this
There's a bunch of captivity based attacks that were not fatalities.
Most of the attacks were solitary joggers, hikers, dog walkers etc that would have been triggering a chase instinct. One of the incidents was ambush on two people:
It's not completely out of the question that a wolf was investigating a nice smell, and after getting the prize left. Definitely fits the pattern of the animals slowly acclimatizing to human activity. That wolf wasn't dangerous then, but it would become dangerous.
Talentlesssculptor@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 71d
Yupp.
diaphragmwp@discuss.tchncs.de · 0 pts · 71d
Yes, "no xyz" is usually an overstatement. Your counterargument seems to suggest wolf attacks are common, however, which they are not.
Talentlesssculptor@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 71d
Not common, just possible. OP's story is incredible, not impossible.
TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world · 67 pts · 73d
An oldie but goldie.
ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one · 42 pts · 73d
Meanwhile cats just showed up, said that they live here now. 10,000 years later, cats run the internet and more or less still the same genetically for the past 10,000 years.
TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world · 46 pts · 73d
ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one · 2 pts · 70d
People get a dog to feel like a god. People get a cat so they have a god sitting on their chest meowing at them for food at 6 am.
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 16 pts · 73d
They kill rats.
Keep the granaries uninfested.
And roughly half of them also carry a parasite that rewires the brain/neurological DNA of humans via epigenetic manipulation.
Also they can be adorable.
Amir@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 72d
I thought that parasite wasn't carried long-term by cats, only by humans?
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 72d
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii
Can infect basically any mammal, but cats are their preffered hosts.
MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 72d
That doesn't stop people from trying.
HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 27 pts · 73d
The wolf his pack now calls Poptart
GraniteM@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 72d
"It was one time!"
chuckleslord@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 73d
No, you made a wild wolf more dangerous as it has now received food after being near a human. That wolf will now approach more people to get food.
Dog domestication took centuries to millenia. And the most dangerous predators are those that are descended from domestic or near domestic animals.
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de · 38 pts · 73d
Both are true. Curious wolves approaching humans and getting/stealing food was very likely the first step in domestication.
At the same time, it still holds true that it is dangerous
Frozengyro@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 73d
Yup, plus the friendlier ones were more likely to get fed, mean ones more likely to get killed, which resulted in more or less offspring like them. Do that for generations and voila, you're now a French bulldog
Saapas@piefed.zip · 10 pts · 73d
Anon is beastmaster, creating danger wolves
LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 70d
Yup, some people recommend actually scaring wild animals away and not attracting them, for exactly that reason. A wolf that has learned that hanging out with humans means food becomes a safety risk and is likely going to be shot one way or the other.
The kid didn't know, of course. But we should let wild animals be wild animals, and get our stone-age desire to pet wolves from some wolf sanctuary or something, where the wolves are used to humans anyway.
ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 73d
Wolves can get rabies, that can be a factor for being more willing to socialize with people.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 73d
My dog is rabid. Got it.
prenatal_confusion@feddit.org · 9 pts · 73d
TIL: I definitely don't have rabies.
kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 72d
No, your dog has Williams Syndrome.