Originally Posted By: texican
Pretty much every wild animal that preys on other animals, will chase down and attack anything that's running from them... it's instinct.

It depends on the animal.
All the cougar attacks here in modern times have been on joggers and mountain bikers, there haven't (AFAIK) been any on hikers.
It's simply that cats automatically chase anything that runs.

Wolves are largely scavengers near people (you don't get many wolf packs hunting through streets) so a pet dog or cat or trash cans raided are more common.
A desperate wolf might have risked attacking a lone person, but if they were running or not isn't likely a factor - except of course that if they were aware of the wolf in time they could probably have scared it off.



Edited by NobodySpecial (03/28/10 05:11 PM)