What would you do if you crossed paths with a wolf out in the wild?
It’s a situation that many wish to never find themselves in. There’s always that saying that wild animals are “more afraid of us than we are of them,” but sometimes that can all be thrown out the window. Though if you keep your distance (the NPS says to stay 100 yards away from wolves), you’d probably have nothing to worry about with a wolf.
But there’s always that wild animal factor… you just never know.
Fortunately for some snowmobilers riding around Marquette, Michigan, they were able to get close to a wolf out in the wild and walked away (rode away might be the more accurate way of putting it) with a stunning video and cool story to tell. And to be clear, they weren’t planning or trying to run into a wolf. They were scooting around on a wooded trail and the wolf standing in the middle of the path left them no choice but to come to a halt.
As one of snowmobilers, Chris Jones, told MLive:
“We were coming around a corner and going up over a little knoll. He was standing right in the trail. We came to a complete stop and he wasn’t scared of us. He walked around and kept trying to walk toward us. We backed up to give him some room.”
It was very smart of them to try and put plenty of space between them and the wolf. They likely knew that crossing paths with a wolf was a possibility, but with surveys estimating that there are only 770 or so wolves in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, it wasn’t something they were worried about.
That being said, the snowmobilers came face-to-face with the wolf, and understandably, they were in awe. Well… they were in awe and they were slightly terrified as the playful wolf seemed very relaxed and did dog-like things:
“He rolled around on the other side of the trail. Then he kind of walked away and just stood there. It was both neat and scary. It’s a wild animal and you don’t know how it’s going to react.”
That’s exactly right… can’t ever predict a wild animal’s behavior.
Encounters like this might start happening more and more in Michigan, as the state’s Department of Natural Resources suggests that the wolf population (specifically in the Upper Peninsula) has made a “gradual and natural return” since the early 1990s. They believe that wolfs have migrated there from Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada.
And this particular wolf just so happened to be in the right place at the right time (or the wrong place at the wrong time, depending on who you ask) for these snowmobilers to experience this unexpected and potentially once-in-a-lifetime meeting with the wild canine. Chris Jones says he has seen glimpses of wolves in the wild, but this experience stood out above all the rest:
“Nothing like this, though. It’s not something that I’ve ever seen.”
You can view the video that Chris Jones captured from his snowmobile at the link below:
