Gotta be pretty brave or pretty stupid to provoke a wolf pack.
If you’ve ever wondered what it would look like a for a man to walk right up to a group of wild wolves, look no further than this video out of Yellowstone National Park. A wildlife photographer – along with other visitors in the area – could not believe their eyes as they witnessed an individual press his luck and attempted to rile up a wolf pack.
Tourists at the uberly popular and scenic national park have a knack for putting themselves in harm’s way, which often earns them the nickname of “tourons” (tourist morons). This particular “touron” seemingly ignored the National Park Service warning signs that are meant to be followed by the millions of people that visit Yellowstone each and every year.
The National Park Service advises tourists to stay 25 yards away from animals that are deemed “non-violent.” That list includes bison, elk, and other creatures that tend to be relatively docile – though docile is a relative term. When it comes to bears, wolves, and other apex predators, the NPS warns park goers to keep 100-yards between them and the animals.
Maybe they should just go ahead and stretch that number out to 100-yards for every animal, eh? Just to be safe, and cut out any sort of confusion? That being said, even with guidelines, you are always going to have people like this who don’t have a care in the world when it comes to following rules, and evidently don’t have a care about keeping themselves safe either.
Keith Kerbs, the wildlife photographer that captured this encounter on video from a safe distance, posted the unedited audio and video to his social media account. And I’m glad that he did, because there was a guy standing near him that was absolutely ripping the man that was provoking the wolves. At one point, you can hear him throw out an insult and speculate as to why the man was walking around the wolf pack with reckless abandon:
“I’ve never seen anything quite as stupid as this… I think he’s doped up.”
Hey, that could have been the case… though it is reckless speculation (just as reckless as the guy was being with his own life).
There’s a lot of suspense in the wildlife photographer’s footage. For a good bit, the man actually goes completely missing out of the frame. The onlookers guessed that he had walked into a ravine, which concealed his location. But there for a bit, the viewer of the video is left wondering if the wolves hurt the man or brought him to the ground.
Fortunately, the guy is later seen walking away from the wolves and making weird movements. That’s actually when one of the onlookers hypothesized that the wolf-pack-challenger could be under the influence. I feel like you’d have to be if you were actually going to face multiple wolves at once.
Kerbs shared the video, and also shared his side of the story in the post below:
“I’m in Yellowstone most of this week to photograph the scenery and wildlife. So far have seen quite a bit which I’ll share soon, but had to share this video I took this morning from a safe distance of a very foolish man and a pack of wolves. He almost didn’t make it out alive. I apologize for the language of fellow photographers and sightseers but decided to include audio for full effect.”
