The video begins by focusing on a large, black creature hunched underneath a cluster of trees. The camera inches closer second by second, until suddenly the dark creature stands to reveal its huge mass and lunges for the cameraman's dog.
This video of an eerily large timber wolf attacking a dog made the internet rounds a few years ago, but it is still a shocking account of just how large a timber wolf can be. The adult dog looks tiny in comparison. The wolf makes the trees look like saplings. Its size is awe-inducing.
The man behind the camera worked as a fishing guide in northern Saskatchewan, Canada, and shot this video on one of the trails near the lodge. This is how the story reads:
"We got a lot of bears that come around the lodge, but this year we had a black wolf that started to come around for a few days. We spotted the wolf through the window of the kitchen in the lodge and I made my way outside with the camera. The lodge manager Dan went for the shotgun," the story reads.
"When I started to take pictures, the wolf left, then returned a few minutes later and that's when Trigger took off after the wolf. The wolf waited for Trigger to turn away from him and that's when he grabbed the dog in the back end and threw her up in the air right in front of me. Dan shot the shotgun into the air and that broke the fight up."
After that, the story reads, the wolf left but returned a couple more times that day, apparently still looking for the dog. As for Trigger, we're happy to report the guide said she got away with just a few wounds and cuts.
Wolves are the largest living wild canine species. Timber wolves vary in size, from around 70 to 150 pounds, according to the National Wildlife Federation. The one captured on the video was clearly enormous. Their coloration has a wide variation as well, from grayish white to brown to black, like in the video. In North America, black wolves are believed to have acquired their color from wolf-dog hybridization, which occurred thousands of years ago.
Wolves are carnivores and will eat large mammals such as deer, elk, bison, and moose, or smaller mammals such as beavers, rodents, and hares. Domestic pets aren't usually on the menu. This huge wolf probably wasn't trying to eat Trigger but rather felt threatened by her advances.
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