"Russia 1812 Retreat and wolves" Topic

I've read a lot of the first person narratives over the years but don't remember anything about wolves being problematic to the French.

Is there a source out their describing them or is it just facts assumed? Wolves are hungry, French are weak and often unarmd ergo they are prey to the former.

I haven't read Sgt Bourgogne yet – are those wolf stories in there?

Of course there are no first person narratives. The wolves ate them ;)

I would bet that the Cossacks killed a lot more French and Allies than wolves…..even in Russia.

Wolves would have scavenged the dead and near dead, not attack the living. Why should they risk injury attacking groups of men when the whole place is littered with dead and dying?

I don't think Wolves are very dangerous to humans, they just get a bad press. I'm sure more than one isolated straggler ended up in a Wolves belly but like Dave Crowell says, they wouldn't have been around to write about it.

I imagine a small group of stragglers--especially those dragging the wounded with them--would be very concerned about packs of wolves attacking them before they made it to the safety of a main column.

Funny how consistently wolves got bad press before they became endangered…

European wolves have been documented as preying on humans. I would not be surprised to learn hat some stragglers ended up as prey. I think it likely that most of the wolf predation on humans during the retreat was on the dead and dying though, not on those who were still able bodied.

Being in a group shadowed by a pack of wolves just waiting for you to weaken enough to become their next meal would be the stuff of nightmares.

Happened to a friend of mine in Canada who went running on the prairy on a winter's day. After a couple of miles he noticed a lone wolf just padding along keeping level with him about 50 yards away. He turned around and came home twice as fast with his grey escort practicaly all the way. Now, deep down he knew that he wasn't in any real danger, but he felt really frightened. Imagine if you were already feeling like you were on your last legs. Needless to say, I think that morale might have been 'problematic'.

Maybe the Wolf wanted to make friends with your Canadian mate, in the same way as the Wolf in 'Dances with wolves'?

Nah, who am I kidding, it wanted to eat him.

Artilleryman

The Wolf was probably hoping he would drop some food that he could scavenge, since humans are generally messy creatures.

But, as far as I'm aware, Wolves are more afraid of humans than we are of them and any attacks may be more due to a lack of availability of food, usually caused by human activity.

On the plus side I saw a series about man who lived with Wolves and has a Wolf Reserve. The Wolves were great and no threat at all, unless they were threatened by humans in some way.

On the negative side I saw a documentary in which some Wolves followed and attacked a heard of buffalo/bison (can't remember exactly which) in the winter. One Wolf got a grip on the leg of its victim and would not let go, except when it was butted and thrown in the air by its victim.

This kept happening and you could hear the howls of pain from the Wolf as it flew in the air and tumbled over on the ground, and it was soon covered in its own blood. But it kept at it and eventually its victim succumbed to its fate. But it was Winter and the Wolf was obviously hungry, which suggests that, if humans enter their territory and they are hungry and there is a lack of food, they may well attack the sick and wounded.

If you are one of the sick and wounded, of course, and you have a loaded musket, and as much as you might love animals, you are not going wait to see if they are looking for scraps.

link

Skeptic

Good link but they also state that a Wolf attack is rare. But that woman certainly had a lucky escape.

There have been some interesting studies on the domestication of "wild anamials". It appears that there are
a range of genes within a number of animials that can be breed up or breed down to give completely different behavior to humans. They can become a pet and companion like a dog, or a very wild skittish animal that trembles near people and just tries to escape. Some animals are possible to domesticate and some are not.

link

There should be a range of behavior in wolves as well.

On another note, notice how wolves are reestablished themselves in the Chernobyl region.
link

I live out in the woods where they have reestablished wolves and now there are quite a few of them, as I see them often. (They also like to leave their droppings on roads, perhaps an act of defiance?) There have been no reports of aggression towards people and although the hunters claim they are making the deer scarce (as if 600,000 hunters aren't), they are eating up people's dogs. The state recompenses them.

The Chernobyl Wolves sound a bit scary. Like something out of a sci-fi movie. Humans and radiation equals death but the Wolves prosper. Make ya wonder if the sci-fi movies are not just based on pure imagination but glimpses of the future appearing as imagination? You may laugh but think of mobile phones and communication handsets in Star Trek!

I'm now more than halfway through the memoirs of Sgt Bourgogne and have found a few mentions of menacing wolves. A couple of times the good Sgt is accompanied by only one other (Picard) and another incident occurs outside a Polish hut whithin which the same two will take refuge with its inhabitants.

They've rejoined the main body at this point so I don't know of they'll get a chance to drive off more with fiery branches or musket balls. Nevertheless -the narrative provides some interesting scenario ideas.

The wolves were following the retreat in large packs but really had more than enough to do with those that died from the cold.

The numbers of stragglers killed by Cossacks are within the 3 digit range. Many more died from the hands of local militia and peasants that were looking for revenge. To me these atrocities are next to murder. Ugly bits of history that are not worth being played.

I think my faved bit of RfM history is the part where a bear is being woken from it's hibernation and decides to go on a rampage. :--)

And remember this? YouTube link

As a former owner of a large domesticated wolf,i can honestly vouch that he was a gentle giant.Casper was 16+ when he died,hated being indoors even in severe weather warning conditions.One day while romping around the fenced yard (3 metre bounds)he discovered a warren of bunnies.Drawn by the high pitched squeals i investigated to find he merely was pointing them out.His onlyreal battle was with a steel pen i built him,he could dive through the chain links with ease.Eventually he got a heavy chain tether and 4 foot spike and the pen came down…he lived peacefully and was a great friend.

Ah. And now I read in the Adventures of Captain Parquin that he and a detail were riding in a column of procurement wagons in Prussia when they were attacked by a pack of wolves at night. The peasant drivers hid while a number of chasseurs tried to fight the wolves off, killing a couple. The wolves wouldn't yield and they had to abandon two wagons, their teams, and the contents of the wagons behind.

Ah, Flashy ol' chap, I was about to chip in with the Parquin scenario, as I'm reading that book at the moment.

It's great isn't it? All those duels, and the wounds he incurred in combat … a bullet in the mouth, taking out six teeth! Ouch!! And that story with the wolves. And then there's his frequent amorous skirmishes… What times, and what a life!

Bourgogne's memoirs are great too. S'funny how the top brass – de Segur, Clausewitz, etc. – are much less fun to read. The guys on the sharp end tell far more involving and exciting stories!

Wild predators become more dangerous to vulnerable people (e.g children) if they are fed by people, lose their fear of people and see them as a source of food. Don't feed wild animals!

Druzhina
Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers