Zebras, Wolves, and Aggression

Factual Questions
1

Over in this thread about the domesticability of zebras, several people have mentioned without dispute that wolves are very aggressive. Is this true?

Like any large carnivore, a hungry wolf that doesn’t know humans will certainly try to eat you, and will defend itself if it feels threatened, but I’m thinking of ‘aggression’ as meaning ‘unprovoked attacks’. Long ago I read Farley Mowat’s book Never Cry Wolf, which describes how he lived among Arctic wolves, and found them to be quite peaceful and harmless. (I know that it’s not highly regarded as an accurate source, but it’s a good read. The one scene I recall was when he used many pots of tea to help him mark the territory around his tent.)

So, are wolves really as aggressive as they are commonly depicted, or are they just large carnivores that will mostly leave you alone when they aren’t bothered?

2

Wolves don’t seek out humans as prey, but they are wild animals, not domesticated ones, like dogs. Any wild carnivore is going to be “aggressive”. They are very territorial, and they hunt in packs, making them much more effective killers than they would otherwise be as individual animals.

3

In that thread, I don’t think anyone was referring to a general aggressiveness towards humans, but to the way wolves act within their pack structure. Domesticating wolves would require modifying how wolves relate to the now human pack leader.

If your semi-domesticated wolf thinks he can challenge for the alpha position, you’ve got a big toothy problem, and the end result will be a mauled human and/or a dead wolf.

CMC +fnord!