Could I beat a singular wolf in a fight?

barehandhunter · 1 year

The answer is yes, although I suspect you underestimate the power and lightening-fast reflexes of a wolf. As someone who's had direct experience with captured and hybrid wolves, I can tell you that unless you've been in the presence of one of these animals -- particularly a healthy adult gray -- you simply cannot understand the beast's incredible strength and destructive potential.

That said, canines, like many other large predators, have a particular vulnerability which can be exploited with greater and lesser degrees of success by humans. Nature has designed feral canines, mentally and physically, to attack fleeing prey using mouth structures specifically configured to keep bitten animals from pulling away. However, they have no physiological mechanism for preventing an object from being 'pushed into' their mouths and throats.

The recommended survival technique for an attacking 'domesticated' dog (extrapolation is necessary, for obvious reasons) is to offer the forearm, then use the free arm to secure the back of the animal's head. The legs are then wrapped around the canine's torso and the animal rolled onto its back. Ordinarily a dog will, at this point, attempt to dislodge the forearm from its mouth and get back to its feet. With proper resolve, the animal can be held in place and the bitten arm shifted so that a fist can be pushed into the dog's throat and esophagus. With only a few inches insertion, respiration can be profoundly restricted, causing the dog to expire within 30 seconds to a minute.

I'll do another post soon on how to properly field dress, skin, and prepare a dog for eating.

Sciencing · 1 year

Wikipedia has several very interesting sources related to wolf attacks. Apparently, non-rabid wolves can easily tell armed humans from un-armed humans based on their demeanor. Victims of wolf attack are typically children or women, and they are typically subdued with a concentration of attacks to the face before being dragged off and eaten.

Attacks are also a very individual problem. Typically a wolf that learns to attack humans once will continue to do so frequently until it is killed. Wolves that begin to attack humans only do so after a long period of familiarization with humans (experiences which are non-violent).

These facts lead me to believe that your best shot would be against a wolf that is unfamiliar with humans and thus afraid. You can stand your ground and "act armed" and the wolf will likely be intimidated. However, should this ruse fail, or if this wolf has attacked before, it is less likely to be intimidated and thus you will have to physically subdue the wolf.

The average wolf weighs around 80 lb, but large examples exist up to more than double that. Assuming you encounter an average animal, I think you would have a shot if you knew what to do. I think if this was your first experience fighting a dog-like animal you would likely lose.

Diablo_En_Musica · 1 year

"..more hidden wolves in the trees."

ಠ_ಠ

You've clearly done your research. I'd say you are more than prepared for the fight. Just watch out for their talons. And god help you if you go anywhere near their eggs.

thegentlemantheif · 1 year

It can attack from one powerful place (it's mouth) and I can attack from 4 (or 5 if I am that brave)

1 left arm

2 right arm

3 left leg

4 right leg

5 turkey slapping a wolf is fucking brave

nomerde · 1 year

This deserves a thorough analysis:

	wolf	redditor
Physical attributes	Massive jaw equipped with dagger like teeth able to crush even the bones of animals twice its size, four sets of claws that slash through skin like butter	Small twitch muscle control from hours of playing Xbox 360
Experience	Kills animals regularly in order to feed itself in the wild	Obtains food by opening box and punching numbers on a microwave display
Number of Kills	Many, basically been killing its whole life	Once accidentally ran over a chipmunk driving his mother's car to school

Hmmm, this one's a tough one to decide.

maybejolisa · 1 year

I've seen wolves rip apart wire-link fences with their teeth because they were bored and wanted to be on the other side of the fence. If you can do that by punching, I guess maybe you've got a shot.

(source: worked in wolf rehabilitation center)

LuciferBowels · 1 year

My grandfather killed a German Shepherd once. Maybe you can use some of his techniques. The German Shepherd attacked him while he was walking his dog, instead of going with the punch or kick technique he chose to shove his fist into the German Shepherd's mouth. He worked his fist into the dogs throat, occluding his airway, then he watched the life slowly dissipate from the animal.

934875293487 · 1 year

A singular wolf is hard to beat. Being the exceptional, extraordinary wolf that he is and all.

atm0 · 1 year

Best askreddit question in a long time.

whitepeachtea · 1 year

You might have a chance, unless it was a full moon. Wolves get more powerful during the full moon.

Source.

skittles15 · 1 year

When he jumps on you, just press V as he goes for your neck. You will then twist the wolf's head, breaking its neck.

MaximusLeonis · 1 year

A lone wolf is in a dangerous position. They usually can't take down anything larger than itself alone. Which is why they are always alone.

If you are in a gladiator battle against a wolf, where you know that you wouldn't fight another wolf, then you can win easily. It might destroy your wrist or ankle, but that wolf is dead once it tries to hold on.

If you were to encounter a lone wolf in the wild, DON'T RUN THE FUCK AWAY, because other wolves are nearby. Instead try to intimidate it by yelling and making yourself appear bigger.

edit: Running away is a bad idea. Sorry for suggesting it. If anybody died due to a wolf attack before I was shown my mistake, you have my sincerest apologies.

positronJon · 1 year

Hmm let's take it a bit further: what about a pack of humans vs a pack of wolves?

Doctor_B · 1 year

I think the secret about nonhuman animals is that they're incredibly fast and strong compared to us. I mean, yeah, you're probably almost twice as heavy as an adult wolf, but people are basically meat pinatas when we're unarmed.

All this talk about kicks to the chest and dodging bites and shit is great, but unless you are a trained and experienced wolf fighter you are going to miss, panic and get fucked up. Have you ever been attacked by a dog? I have and it fucking sucks.

A wolf probably wouldn't attack you, but on the off chance that it did you would be torn to shreds.

SmartassStrongNThis1 · 1 year

Depends on how much you're like this guy...

rsvr79 · 1 year

Having been in a bite suit for police dog training, I think I can safely say the wolf would fuck your shit up. You would flail ineffectively and scream like a little girl at this beast that would keep lunging at you and ripping chunks of flesh out of your dangling appendages.

elperegrino · 1 year

jcoopz · 1 year

Nice try, Edward Cullen.

ChicagoBurdman · 1 year

Wolves = Pack animals.

Raptors = Pack animals.

Robert Muldoon didn't stand a chance and he was an Aussie with a hat. My personal opinion is that you don't stand a chance.

frexels · 1 year

I think it depends on the first attack. You can't attack first because the wolf would undoubtedly bite whatever you attacked with (and the only reasonable thing to attack it with would be your legs), throw you to the ground (rendering you defenseless) and proceed to maul you to death. So, you'll have to wait for the wolf to attack.

You aren't going to be able to kick the wolf away. Grey wolves can weigh up 130 pounds of solid muscle. They are crazy fast, so I doubt you'd be able to aim your kick to its nose/face accurately enough for you not to accidentally kick it in the mouth. Your only option would be to try to intercept the attack with your forearm. But, wolves are very strong. It would probably crush the bones in your forearm. If you can withstand the pain and are not immediately thrown to the ground and stunned by the wolf, you might be able to punch it in the face with your other arm and eventually suffocate/strangle it. It is more likely that the wolf will break your arm, shake you to the ground, drop your arm and then bite your throat. At which point you will probably be killed, but if by some miracle you manage to survive, you will probably eventually die of blood loss.

You'll have to combine the forearm block with a wolf-tackle. Your initial attack has to sufficient to knock the wolf over so you can climb on top, gain control and kill it. This is not exactly a skill you can train for. It has to be one part determination and three parts luck.

So, the real question is, are you lucky?

Peritract · 1 year

This is so weird, I just woke up, opened reddit, and this made me remember my dream. In my dream, I was in bed when a wolf suddenly appeared, and when I tried to use my gun, it for some reason exploded, leaving me one-on-one with the wolf, and the wolf just snarled and walked away.

HWPlainview · 1 year

Dwight Schrute?

slasher_lash · 1 year

Listen to me - DO NOT DO THIS. You ever watch animals, like outside, running around, bounding from tree to tree and shit? They have SKILLS. NATURAL SKILLS. You don't have those because you're human and we traded that shit in for microwavable popcorn and books. You have to think about what you're going to do when they just DO IT. It will fuck your shit up sideways. You won't know what hit you. A sensei once told me that animals know Aikido. Watch a squirrel. A squirrel can fuck you up. A wolf? HELL NAW.

awesimo · 1 year

This is probably going to get lost in the comments, but oh well.

My family is from Quebec. A long time ago, my grandpa and other family members were out trapping in the north. Personally, I think trapping is a shitty way to hunt, but this was old times I guess.

Anyway, these guys set up a trap for some animal like a fox or a rabbit or something, I'm not sure what. Probably wabbits.

They leave the trap out for a night or so, and when they come back to it, there's a goddamn couragewolf stuck in the trap, staring them in the face, teeth bared and all. Naturally, my grandpa's cousin shot it. Down goes the wolf.

Cautiously, the men approach the wolf, and open the trap. Once the trap opened, the motherfucking adrenaline-filled wolf jumps out, viciously snapping its slobbering jaw.

Without a moment's thought, my grandpa's cousin one-punched the wolf in the head, shattering its skull along with every bone in his hand.

So, yes. You can kill a wolf.

TL;DR: a relative of mine killed a wolf with his bare hands by punching it in the face.

norris528e · 1 year

Courage wolf? No Insanity Wolf? Hell no Scene Wolf? Probably

quetzal1 · 1 year

Professor of Wildlife Biology here. My answer has several parts. First, there exist no reliable documentations of anyone ever being killed by a wolf....anywhere. This suggests that wolves are unlikely to attack you in the first place, even if they see you are present in sufficient numbers to attack you, and are very hungry. This alone suggests that your scenario is not likely to ever happen. Still, let's pretend it does....

Deception is a common mechanism by which other prey may communicate false information to predators about their ability to be caught. For example, cats and other organisms raise their fur or take on other shapes that make them appear to be larger than they are in an attempt to deceive other organisms into thinking they are more difficult or dangerous to kill than they actually are....and so to stop the predator from attacking. This is the strategy you are suggesting should work for you.

If it weren't a very successful strategy it wouldn't have evolved as a behavioral strategy by so many prey. It works for humans, too. This is a way to dissuade Mountain Lions from attacking people. Joggers and bicyclists at the urban-wildland interface have learned this. HOWEVER, this only works when the perceived risks outweigh the perceived benefits to the predator

The benefits are the meal. Which may be more valuable if the animal is very hungry or less beneficial if it must be shared too much with other predators. The risks may include injury (which could lead to death), death itself, or more commonly a great expenditure of energy (which may also make death more likely if the animal is weak or has few fat reserves). You can see that, as for humans, animals decisions (conscious or not) are contingent on a complex interaction of factors. They are integrated in decisions to attack or not, and how much to keep attacking.

Ultimately, and in summary, I would say that it is next to impossible for this scenario to arise. If it did, you'd be likely to scare them off. I think they could kill you easily if one or more wolves made up their mind to do so. This is irrelevant, however, because clearly evolution has shaped their behavior such that they avoid conflicts with us. Whether this is an adaptive response, or not, is unclear, and ultimately irrelevant to your question.

Leave wolves alone. They have enough shit to deal with.

AspiringRapper · 1 year

I hear you're supposed to kick wolves in the chest...remember that young padawan.

Ikarus3426 · 1 year

I would think being pack animals, they wouldn't be as strong or brave a fighter if alone. Maybe they'd run off, especially if you make yourself look threatening or to much trouble to take down safely. But just for the sake of argument it does attack you, they're pretty fast. I've noticed your plan is to dodge and then quickly strike, I'm not sure you'll have the chance. Even if you did dodge them, a quick strike probably wouldn't do anything. They're tough and big too. So let's say you dodge and swift kick. Not sure it'll be hard enough to rattle him from his objective of biting you as close to your neck as possible. Plus, I'm assuming you have no weapons. He has teeth. One bite from him hurts a lot more than one punch/kick from you.

Your best hope would be to dodge him quickly as he lunges, get behind him or at least on top of him, then quickly bend down and grab him, holding his head still with one arm and his body with another, then putting all of your weight on him to hold him down. Once you've got him down, you can try to stay on him until you think he'd be submissive to you (I don't know if this would even work) or you can try to break his neck. But if you let go of his body, chances are he'd flail and get away, so you'd only have one arm to do it.

edit: Just looked up how much the Eastern Wolf weighs (a wolf that lives in North America) and for the males it's 70-115 lbs on average, possibly larger. Females are slightly smaller. Depending on your size you MIGHT be able to hold one down, but it wouldn't be easy.

Nexlon · 1 year

A wolf outclasses you in both speed and relative power. If it manages to bite you, you're pretty much fucked. Wolves are not easily frightened, are uncanny hunters, and have a powerful lunging jump. I would say your chances are rather slim in hand to hand combat, especially if it gets the jump on you.

If you're fast and lucky enough and get the wolf by its legs or head, or if you use even rudimentary tools, I would say you've at least evened the odds.

Euromutt · 1 year

Let me start by pointing out that your question contains so many hypothetical conditions that it's exceedingly unlikely ever to occur in real life. But speaking as someone who volunteers at a sanctuary for captive wolves, and who's been in wolves' enclosures, in the (supremely unlikely) event that you found yourself in a half-acre arena with a wolf that was sufficiently hungry to try to attack and kill you, my money would be on the wolf.

Look, in principle, a single wolf can bring down an adult elk, and you don't have a large set of antlers or four sharp hooves. Your expertise in wilderness survival and first aid isn't going to do you any good in an arena, and the very fact that you bother to mention such irrelevancies in a scenario you yourself have concocted is indicative to me that you pretty much don't have a clue what you're talking about. You may be willing to "sacrifice arms or legs for the greater good" in principle, but the fact is that once you lose a limb, you're going to be incapacitated, suffer wound shock, and probably exsanguinate (i.e. bleed to death) in short order, at least without immediate medical attention, and again, the very fact that you add such implausible claims to your scenario indicates to me that you don't have a fucking clue what you're talking about.

Listen to me: an adult gray has sufficient jaw strength to bite through the thick end of a wooden baseball bat in one bite, if it so chose. It can bite through a moose femur in five or six bites. There is no branch you can tear off a tree that will stop a healthy adult wolf, or even delay it for more than a few seconds. I don't care how hard you think you are, the only way you would see off an adult wolf would be if it wasn't particularly interested in you in the first place. Yes, you can scare off a wolf by making yourself as large as possible, but most adult humans can do that simply by wearing a wide-brimmed hat.

Swallow your pride and tell your girlfriend she's right. In the (again, supremely unlikely) event that a single wolf tried to take you on, the wolf would win.

SpartacusJones · 1 year

Yeah, I totally think so. Depends on the tools you have. Something with reach, like a spear (even a shitty sharpened-branch kind) would probably help a LOT. I read an interesting passage in a book I had to read for an anthropology class about the importance throwing to humans and apes. The writer, an anthropologist, wrote about a first-hand experience where a pack of wild dogs started to surround her and get aggressive. Thankfully, she was on a rocky beach, so she just picked up some rocks and started chucking them at dog heads. It wouldn't have been enough to actually win a serious fight, but it was enough to frighten away some not-too-smart predatory animals. And that was multiple dogs- not as vicious as wolves, but if they'd attacked she would have been seriously injured or killed.

No longer on topic, but still interesting, the anthropolgist talked about how the ability to throw things was key for our early survival, hunting and defense, but that it's also the same motion used in breaking of flecks of rock to create stone blades. The whipping motion of the wrist used to smash two rocks together and chip off bits to get a sharp edge is just like throwing.

Smidgens · 1 year

If you see one grinning at your window, don't let him in. He'll cheat at cards, and then murder you.

beefwich · 1 year

I think you could inflict enough pain on a single wolf to make it stop attacking and retreat.

You might not know this, but you are much deadlier than a lone wolf because you have an ability it doesn't: the ability to fashion a rudimentary weapon. Using a stick or a stone, you could inflict enough damage to at least dissuade an attack.

If it were a pack of wolves (or a bear), it'd be a different story. But one wolf, yeah, you'd fuck that wolf up.

drivebycomment · 1 year

Maybe a wolf. But a pig? Certainly not.

[deleted] · 1 year

Wolves have a huge bite force. I think they can crush bone, I doubt you'd be able to take it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwB2Lzkacps I don't know how viable this video really is but, they measure this wolf biting at 406 lbs. You'd either have to know what you're doing or be REALLY lucky to take an adult wolf down.

One more video totally unrelated: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUbmt-ze_os&feature=related

I think if you saw that you'd shit your pants and run even if you knew it was the wrong thing to do haha

Everyoneheresamoron · 1 year

The answer is no. And here's why:

You aren't going to be put in a cage with a wolf. That's not how wolves fight, and it would be disingenuous to suggest that it would a fair setup.

If you are "Fighting a wolf", he's going to be attacking when he thinks you're at your weakest. He can wait. That means you'll be out in the cold for several hours, tired and alone.

So in a typical wolf vs person scenario, the wolf usually wins. Because he's not going to go into the nearest walmart and start picking fights. He's going to let you come to him.

[deleted] · 1 year

Yep, you have a weapon: your jaws. Just get to his throat faster than he can get to yours.

Biting a wolf to death would be FUCKING BLACK METAL! \m/

cardboardshell · 1 year

No fucking way. Just look at those blood-thirsty eyes!

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