A man who got to within several yards of a group of juvenile wolves in Yellowstone National Park was being stupid and disrespectful but wasn\u2019t in much real danger, a wolf biologist said.<\/p>\n
A video of the Oct. 6 incident went viral\u00a0this week\u00a0after it was posted recently on the \u201cYellowstone National Park: Invasion of the Idiots!\u201d<\/a>\u00a0social media site.<\/p>\n A common assumption was that the footage\u00a0showed a \u201cpack\u201d of wolves closing in, perhaps planning to kill and devour the unidentified man.<\/p>\n But that isn\u2019t what was really going on, biologist Doug Smith, who led the wolf program in Yellowstone National Park for nearly three decades, told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n It was\u00a0a few juvenile wolves who approached the man more out of curiosity than anything else, said Smith, who had viewed the video.<\/p>\n Wolf watcher Wendy Bush of Bozeman, Montana,\u00a0told Cowboy State Daily that she was at Yellowstone\u00a0that day, and, after witnessing the incident, she briefly spoke with the man.<\/p>\n She described him as a younger man with Virginia license plates on his vehicle.<\/p>\n She said he appeared to be shaken up, \u201cbut relieved to be back at his car.\u201d<\/p>\n She said the idea that the wolves were closing in to attack is \u201can extreme exaggeration\u201d of the encounter,\u00a0and\u00a0she faults the man for getting too close.<\/p>\n \u201cHe walked toward them and drew their attention when you could have walked downhill and not drawn their attention,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Like \u2018Teenage Kids\u2019<\/p>\n Smith said that the risk to the man from the wolves might not have been \u201czero,\u201d but it was extremely low.<\/p>\n At one point the man can be seen shooting bear spray at the wolves. It didn\u2019t deter them, likely because it was shot from too far away to hit any of the wolves directly, witnesses said.<\/p>\n One of the wolves apparently started rolling on the ground in a spot where some\u00a0of the bear spray had hit, Smith said.<\/p>\n He likened such antics to the behavior of \u201cteenage kids.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the wolves rolled in it. They were messing around, having a good time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u2018This Could End Really Badly For That Guy\u2019<\/p>\n The video was taken by park visitor Keith Kerbs of Vancouver, Washington.<\/p>\n He told Cowboy State Daily that at the time, what the man was doing seemed extremely dangerous.<\/p>\n \u201cI was honestly thinking in my head, \u2018this could get really bloody and gory, so maybe I shouldn\u2019t be videoing it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cTo this day, I don\u2019t know what his motive or purpose was,\u201d Kerbs added.<\/p>\n About 100 people were watching the wolves from different locations when\u00a0the incident occurred, he said.<\/p>\n Most of the spectators were at respectful distances from the wolves, hundreds of yards away, Kerbs said.<\/p>\n So, \u201ca lot of us were just standing there in shock, thinking, \u2018what is happening?\u2019\u201d when the man started walking toward the wolves.<\/p>\n When the wolves started moving toward him as well, the situation turned tense, Kerbs said. Spectators started shouting at him to get back away from the wolves.<\/p>\n In his video, bystanders can be heard making comments about the man being in \u201cmortal danger.\u201d And someone is heard stating that \u201cthis could end very badly for that guy.\u201d<\/p>\n At one point, the man and the wolves go into\u00a0a depression in the landscape and out of the line of sight of Kerbs\u2019 camera.<\/p>\n Invasion of the Idiots site manager Jen Mignard\u00a0said that part of the video made her hold her breath.\u00a0<\/p>\n Part Of The Junction Butte Pack<\/p>\n Wolf watcher Marisa de la Fuente of Bozeman said she also witnessed the incident and is upset that it\u2019s being touted as a \u201cbig, bad wolf\u201d story.<\/p>\n She said the wolves in the video are part of the Junction Butte pack, which she\u2019s followed for years.<\/p>\n That pack currently has about 15 members, she said.<\/p>\n The handful of wolves in the video are \u201cpups,\u201d born in April, that were left behind that day when the pack\u2019s adults went out hunting, she said.<\/p>\n