Expert: Jonathan Wright - 8/23/2006

Question
Jonathon, ive noticed a handful of questions about wild animal encounters and you were able to answer them very, very well, giving links to where u got your opinion from and such. Well I also read about a bear fighting a pack of wolves BUT I didnt see any place it mentiond how many wolves. Now im not sure if it is this site I read that on, if not i appologize. Wolves all come in differnt species and different sizes AND pack sizes right? So, lets say the biggest type of wolf of.... Ok let me put it like this
Bear vs. 1 Wolf
Bear vs. 5 wolves
bear vs 12 wolves
is that ok?  Thank you for your time.

Answer
Dear Ethan

Thanks for the question and thanks for the kind comments. I have looked up various websites for you about conflict between wolves and bears, but none of them state the number of wolves involved, although a pack of wolves is able to kill a solitary bear.

Wolfbehavior (http://www.freewebs.com/alphawolfsabrina/wolfecology.htm) and Wolf Country (http://www.wolfcountry.net/information/WolfPack.html) say that wolves and bears can coexist peacefully and often avoid each other, although wolf-bear interactions can be quite violent. Grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) may dig up, kill, and eat wolf pups, so wolf packs will try to drive away grizzly bears that get close to the dens, where wolf pups are living and may kill a bear that gets too close to the den.

http://www.freewebs.com/alphawolfsabrina/wolfecology.htm says that wolves and grizzly bears may fight over animal carcasses. Bears will scavenge off kills made by wolves, and may try to drive a wolf or a few wolves from a kill. Wolves can be quite aggressive towards black bears and may prey on black bears. Wolves may kill and eat hibernating bears. Wolves will also attack black bear cubs, when the mother bear cannot get to them and hurry them up a tree fast enough. Black bears occasionally kill wolf cubs.

KellyC (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060820183205AAqanOo) says that wolves kill black bears and feed on grizzly bears much more than was previously thought. Wolves may purposely hunt and kill bears, not just as a defence. Their cooperation as a pack of many individuals makes them far stronger than a solitary bear, which may fear wolves and tends to run away from them. Kelly says that a pack of wolves will kill and eat a solitary bear, while bears may eat wolf cubs, but not the adults.   

While none of the sites gives a specific number, I would guess that a pack of 12 wolves could win a fight, although I'm not sure about a pack of 5 wolves. Unless a solitary wolf were very agile and fought against a sleepy or unfit bear, I don't think it would have much of a chance. Apart from this, I would say that a grizzly bear would be stronger than a black bear or other species of bear, apart from, perhaps, the polar bear. This means that if a pacck of wolves could kill a grizzly bear, I don't think it would have a problem with an individual of another species of bear, except the polar bear.

I hope this helps.

All the best

Jonathan