Excerpted from Günther Bloch & John E. Marriott’s The Pipestone Wolves: The Rise and Fall of a Wolf Family (RMB, 2024).

Seventy-four per cent of the 140 encounters between a wolf and a human (with and without a dog) were observed with a distance of over 100 metres (but not more than 150 metres) between the subjects, whereas only 26 per cent were under 100 metres. However, importantly, as all the zeroes in the corresponding columns indicate, not one direct attack, threat or bluff charge toward a human (with or without a dog) was observed in the five years of data observations collected. It’s also important to note that in 71 per cent of all observed encounters, the wolf left the area when confronted by a human (with or without a dog); they only behaved tolerantly in 29 per cent of the documented cases. Bold, Type A wolves left the area in 66 per cent of all encounters with humans (with or without a dog) and behaved tolerantly in 34 per cent of all documented cases. Shy, Type B wolves left the area in 78 per cent of all encounters with humans (with or without a dog) and only behaved tolerantly in 22 per cent of all documented cases (and only 7 per cent of Type B wolves that encountered humans at a distance less than 100 metres behaved tolerantly).

Wolves’ tendencies to retreat and show avoidance and/or fear were most obvious when humans tried to approach the wolves. Thirty-five observations were made when humans without a dog approached a bold, Type A wolf, and in 74 per cent of those cases, the wolf would leave the area. Thirty-seven observations were made when humans approached a shy, Type B wolf and the shy wolf only behaved tolerantly five times.

Regardless of its basic character type, we never saw a Pipestone wolf behave in a habituated (fearlessly approaching a human) or food-conditioned manner (fearlessly begging for food) toward humans (with or without a dog).

It is extremely important to note that although all of the Pipestone wolves were exposed to park visitors more than any other wolf in Banff National Park, none of them ever showed any potentially dangerous, aggressive or predatory behaviour toward humans. And of all the wolves that showed some degree of tolerance and curiosity toward humans (with or without a dog), all of them still exhibited avoidance and/or fear behaviours during all 40 tolerant encounters observed. In this context, we were not able to document any cases of so-called abnormal behaviour.

If we summarize our field observations on wolf–human encounters (with or without a dog), we can’t help but conclude that the link park employees have repeatedly tried to create between wolves that have adapted their behaviour to live in close proximity to human infrastructure and those same wolves being a potential danger to humans is wrong. The whole theory and hypotheses simply do not hold any water. In fact, it’s our belief that with the onset of uncontrolled park visitation and the social media fire-storm that accompanies wolf sightings these days, it is the wolves that need protection from “aggressive” and/or “predatory” humans, not the other way around.

The Pipestones’ den location, which as we previously mentioned has been occupied by a new wolf family since April 2015, is just 200 metres away from the Bow Valley Parkway. These new wolves, like the Bows and the Pipestones before them, need to raise their pups in part by using the road close to their den site on a daily basis. It’s our belief that the new generation of “wolf lovers” is going to have to be actively managed to avoid running into the same problems the Pipestones had to deal with that disrupted their natural behaviour patterns and movements so severely.