Posted on 08/14/2019 6:13:58 PM PDT by ransomnote
It was about half past midnight when Russ Fee woke up to the sound of frantic shouts coming from a campsite next to his in Canada's Banff National Park. From within his tent, he listened, quickly discerning that the voices belonged to a man and a woman. They were screaming for help.
"I threw my shoes on. My wife tossed me a lantern," Fee said in an interview Tuesday with the radio show "Calgary Eyeopener." "I popped out of the tent and just started running toward their tent sort of yelling, 'I'm here! I'm here! What's wrong?'"
Fee, who is from Calgary, told the program that he expected to find "two really scared parents" whose child had wandered off into the woods. Instead, the sight that greeted him was much more distressing.
The family's tent was in shambles, Fee said, and sticking out of its entrance was the rear end of a large wolf.
In what officials with Parks Canada are calling a "very rare incident," a wolf attacked a New Jersey couple and their two children who were visiting the national park in Banff, Alberta, early Friday - a harrowing encounter that may have ended differently if it weren't for Fee's quick thinking, Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
"We are forever grateful to Russ who came to our aid," Elisa Rispoli, whose husband, Matt, was injured in the attack, wrote on Facebook. Describing Fee as a "guardian angel," Elisa added that the Canadian man probably saved her husband's life.
"It could have been so so much worse, and we are just feeling so thankful that we are all still sitting here as a complete family," she wrote.
The Rispolis were asleep in their tent at the park's Rampart Creek Campground when they were jolted awake after midnight by the wolf.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I blame Disney. People get warped views of wild animals watching stuff like Bambi.
It’s illegal.>>>
I did the Algonquin park canoe trip many years ago. we smuggled a revolver in with us. Bear attacked someone that year.
Tens of thousands of folks go camping in BC’s bear and wolf country every year, despite the lack of fire-arm defense.
I’ve encountered numerous bears, both black and grizzly, and a wolf once. I was probably in minimal danger in almost all cases, certainly no more than some of my other travel experiences on trails, mountains, crossing creeks, etc.
A coward dies a thousand deaths.
I thought my info was out of date. Canada is a lot more anti-gun now than they were in the ‘70s
Maybe Africans should hunt down and eliminate all lions. They eat people. Where does it stop? I like wolves. I like mt. lions too. Sidearms are not only for self defense against humans.
That’s really odd for a wolf to do something like that. Normally you get a warning like “Little pig! Little pig! Let me in! Or I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your tent down!”
That "oh crap" moment when you realize you just pissed off a wolf and you're only carrying a Colman camp lantern.
I read someone’s conjecture that they want wolves and grizzlies back in nature to get the cowboys/ ranchers/ farmers out of the picture.
For a very long time man has encroached on land that animals have been on for centuries and it's getting to the point where in many areas the animals are pushing back. In Anaheim, CA. where I lived we had all sorts of animals pushing back and living in the housing tracts, Opossum, Raccoon, Fox, Hawks, Owls and lots of Coyotes that are so unafraid of people they even wander streets in the daytime and have not only taken pets they have tried to carry off small children.
Bet they were eating something meaty and delicious-smelling and the wolf wanted some of it.
Not according to the article.
They had no open food.
Article says it was an older wolf, nearing it’s end of life, as the reason why it entered and attacked.
You would think Canadians would at least camp with baseball bats or a golf club, since they aren’t allowed to carry a firearm, for protection.
A lantern just won’t cut it, against man nor beast.
Wolf did not like NJ types any more than the rest of us?
I would suspect there are laws against hunting wolves with artificial light in Canada, I know it’s illegal in Idaho. Then there’s the whole “what caliber lantern/artificial light thing” argument. Idaho has limits on tag requirements and weapon usage as well as legal hunting time restrictions. Plus seasons when you can hunt a certain species. Just jumping up outta bed and bashing your odd wolf with a lantern ain’t all it’s crapped up to be everywhere. Don’t care if you are from NJ. This ain’t NJ it’s ID.
Ok, I get that they can’t have guns up there. But who the hell sleeps in a tent without a K-bar or similar fighting knife?
Especially when it’s YOUR job to protect your wife and kids.
Lol! There have been 4 fatal attacks against humans in the last 10-15 years. There was also one fatal coyote attack.
I would do the same.
I follow laws that I believe are moral, others meh...
Canadians, apparently. And Americans who can't cross the border with firearms. And people from New Jersey who effectively can carry firearms because of the laws & regulations in their state.
Bambi and his relatives have killed FAR more people than wolves, mostly by committing suicide by car.
Bambi and his relatives have killed FAR more people than wolves, mostly by committing suicide by car.
Great point!
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