Call it the Outdoor News Hound extreme kayaking trifecta.
Some weeks back I covered the story of a Florida kayaker whose craft was bumped by a huge hammerhead shark. Last week there was the wild tale of a great white shark that chomped on a California angler’s kayak.
Now here’s one out of northern British Columbia, where a hunger-crazed wolf attacked a long-distance kayaker on a remote beach earlier this month.
The unnamed paddler told wildlife authorities he used his bare hands to fight off the attacking wolf for a few long minutes, suffering multiple bites to his leg and hands as he fought to pry its jaws apart and put it in a headlock. He eventually was able to drag himself and the wolf to his boat, where he retrieved a 4-inch knife and began repeatedly stabbing the animal until it was near death.
British Columbia wildlife authorities said there was no doubt about the wolf’s intentions.
“This was a predatory wolf attack,” conservation officer James Zucchelli told the Vancouver Sun newspaper. “That fellow was perceived as a prey source. He was attacked with intent to eat. The wolf saw him and took off running at him.”
Using only his medium-sized knife, the kayaker punctured the wolf dozens of times in its neck and chest area before it limped away into the brush to die.
Afterwards, unable to paddle due to his hand injuries, the kayaker was rescued by the Canadian Coast Guard after he called for help on his marine radio.
Upon investigating the incident and discovering the wolf’s carcass, it was found that the animal was not rabid, but weighed only 55 pounds—far less than the average of 88 pounds for a healthy female.
A necropsy found the wolf’s stomach contained a river otter jaw, a feather and bones from a fish scavenged from the beach.
Fortunately, no kayaker parts were discovered in the digestive tract.
“There was nothing good in its stomach–shrapnel off the beach,” Zucchelli said.