Wolves are amazingly programmed, and their programs can easily override their logic and reason - as if they were a robot. Your pet wolf can love you, and be the best friend you have. Yet if you slip and fall, and try to get up too fast, it will tear you to pieces without ever even thinking about it. The wolf’s attack program is mostly a reflex to the sight of struggle and escape. It occurs without thought, because in nature thinking before attacking prey which was about to escape took too long.
The sheep didn’t look like it was afraid, or trying to escape, so the wolf’s attack program never came online, and the wolf literally had no idea what it was doing.
They are fascinating, brilliant animals, and many can be great pets if you are inside their head and can control the reflexive programs. But I would not recommend them to anyone who didn’t know already what they were getting into. The only reason I get on well with them is I was always around them throughout childhood, and I just reflexively adapt, knowing beforehand what action will precipitate what outcome. I think most people would have bad experiences, just due to an inabilty to grasp how their behavior is reflexive, and not reasoned.
Thanks for the insight..it could well explain what happened. I recall once seeing a clip of a wolf pack chasing down a caribou. The caribou, exhausted after running in deep snow, simply stopped, and lay down, and the wolves, confused, laid down right next to her. Only when, after 10 minutge, the caribou got up, and started to run, that the wolves took it down. IIRC, it was called a “coursing” response.