Would a lone wolf be capable of bringing down an adult cow or horse?
I know that a wolf pack definitely could; but I am not sure of an individual wolf’s capacity to kill something that large.
Also, what about a coyote? What is the largest prey animal that a single coyote could successfully handle?
Thanks in advance for any information that you can give me.
For old, young or sick animals, a wolf would be able to take down either. A coyote can take down a sick/old/young deer without trouble.
It’s much easier with a few friends though, and then they can take nearly anything. They’ll usually stick to the old/young/weak though. It’s less work.
More likely though, it’d look for small game, and scavenge any leftovers it can find.
Could it? perhaps. Would it? I’d say no, the risk of debilitating injury would be way too great for the benefit.
Are you speculating on a lone horse or cow, too?
Because that’s quite unrealistic – these are herd animals; they stay together in a herd (especially when grazing in an open area where there are wolves). And the herd will act together to protect itself from predators.
I believe that the action of protection is to run. The herd survival is at the expense of individual members, not by direct action, though individuals are protected by “numbers.”
Not to say that the individual member won’t fight back, but the herd as a whole won’t generally “join forces” and mount an active defense against the predator.
There were some pictures going around the Internet a while back of a mule that successfully and lethally fought off an attack by a mountain lion. If a mule can beat a mountain lion in a fight to the death, I imagine a horse can do the same thing to a wolf.
Animal-vs.-animal fights come down almost entirely to which animal is larger. Predators with sharp teeth and claws have a slight advantage over “unarmed” animals, but not as much as most folks think.
I was thinking of just one individual animal. If the cow/horse was in a herd, at this point all the other individuals have run away. The wolf springs upon his prey, and… now what? Does the cow/horse have a fairly good fighting chance against this lone predator?
A lone wolf is not going to take down a healthy horse or cow by itself. No way no how. They wouldn’t even attempt it.
Horses will form into a defensive circle, with the foals in the center, and the mares around them, hind ends (kicking end) outward. And the herd stallion running around outside the circle, attacking the predator from the side as the mares are kicking at him.
This reaction happens mostly in early spring foaling season, when the herd has recently born foals in it. At other times, they will run away from danger, but staying in a herd – they do not break up and scatter.
Predators that attack larger grazing animals depend greatly on surprise – think of the documentaries you have seen of lions sneaking up on gazelle herds. And a lion is much bigger & stronger than a wolf, and a gazelle is smaller than a horse. But still, the lions depend mostly on stealth.
If predators are able surprise their prey and leap upon them & grab hold with teeth or claws right away, they have a fair chance of success. But if they miss in that first leap, they have a much smaller chance of getting a meal – probably less than 50%.
A quick hoof to the head, and our lone wolf is debilitated or dead. No lone wolf is going to risk that. Part of the working of a pack is that one predator distracts while the other lunges. A lone wolf doesn’t have such an advantage. The best a lone wolf could hope for would be to maybe separate a calf and take it down – and even that would be iffy because of the presence of the mother. More likely a wolf on its own would just resort to small game and carrion.