Idaho Wolves: Kings Of The Predators
March 4, 2009
Wolves near Sun Valley, Idaho, about 1/4 mile outside Parker Gulch, attacked and killed a mountain lion. It appears from autopsy results that the lethal kill came when wolves took out the lions throat. The pictures below, taken by Nils Ribi, show the wolf disemboweled. Authorities say that occurred after the lion was killed.
Reports say that the remains of a cow elk carcass was about 50 yards away and speculation is that both the wolves and the lion were drawn to the carrion at the same time and clashed.
This is testament of the voracity of a pack of wolves to take on a mountain lion and win.
The mountain lion was wearing an Idaho Department of Fish and Game tag on its ear.
Tom Remington
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I’d like to see them take on a Siberian tiger. Those animals do not take any shit from the wolves in their range.
Makes you wonder if the lions, being not that familiar yet with wolves, haven’t learned their fighting skills against the wolves.
I don’t know. I think size has a lot to do with it. A Siberian tiger is twice the weight of a cougar. Plus, tigers have been recorded to kill brown bears for food. Wolves are so scared of tigers that they simply vacate areas inhabited by them, without even a barking match.
Thats one of the reasons why I think the recolonization of jaguars is a good thing. Jaguars are true big cats (of the same lineage of African lions and tigers), while cougars are simply the biggest of the “small” cats (they’re more closely related to bobcats than they are to true lions).
2-3 or more wolves would take out the tiger..He would munch one, but another would gut the tiger so fast you couldn’t blink.. The wolves kill Grizzly bears…Bull moose, The tiger only has one mouth, wolf packs have several..and determination without fear..
Nils is a tree hugging wolf loving asshole.
The couger blew it, caught in the open and no where to run to.
I beg to differ.
http://www.savethetigerfund.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Search1&template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentFileID=559
A tiger is very different from a grizzly. It is faster, more agile, and is completely intolerant to other predators in its turf.
Wolves fear tigers for the same reason they usually fear humans; because they are hunted by them. Bears do not actively track down wolves in order to kill them as tigers do. To the wolves, the grizzly is either a food source or an annoyance. A tiger is something they dont want to mess with at all.
In Stephen Mills “Tiger”, there is an account of a female tiger being killed by 25 dholes (Indian wild dogs), but she took down five with her.
Whatever the outcome I would enjoy seeing the fight, we have packs here of 7 to 25 wolves..130+ pounds…and the occassional 150+ pound wolf, I agree the tiger kills a few but they get the tiger down in the end…I think these things are hybrids, hot blooded, and insane.. The wolf mission is not ESA minded but the destruction of a renewable human food source which will become more telling in the future….
By the looks of the terrain where this happened the Lion was caught out in the open otherwise he would have been up the first tree or on some out cropping to get away from the Wolves. Lions are cowards by nature when it comes to a pack of dogs or in this case the Wolves. His first instinct is to get away from trouble. One on one the Lion would do okay in my opinion but has no chance with a pack.
The Elk carcass may have been the Lions kill and he hesitated to long in giving it up and it cost him his life.
Personally, I would put my wager on the wolves if they outnumbered the tiger by at least 10, and even then, with heavy losses.
Seriously … the recolonization of Jaguars? Are you nuts? As if Mountain Lions aren’t dangerous enough …