Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/02/19/horse-not-alarmed-by-wolves.html
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Maybe a healthy, adult horse poses enough risk of damage to the wolves that it’s not worth the risk of attacking? Dunno, but seems logical.
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That horse has powers - it KNOWS when a wolf is hungry enough to make trouble and ignores them the rest of the time.
(Or, more prosaically, if they are not actively attacking, it figures it’s probably ok to ignore them.)
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Standard wolf tactic for taking down large prey is to seriously outnumber it and go for in-and-out bites at the hind legs until the prey is crippled. This pack is WAY too small to make that work with a large adult horse. Besides, the wolves don’t seem hungry enough to be that desperate.
Add to that that the horse is quite likely familiar with domestic dogs and has no special reason to fear the wild ones.
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Just echoing the other comments, but I think horse knows it can cave in a few skulls if necessary.
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The wolves seem confused by the sheer lack of fucks given
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Do horses roll in smells the way canines do? Maybe the horse thinks he is a wolf?
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From videos i’ve seen in the past i have noticed that behavior but i haven’t really been around horses to speak knowledgeably about it. I might ask a co-worker about it since she raises horses.
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Better title; “Wolves alarmed by Horse”. They seem pretty wary of it.
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I’ve been kicked, multiple times; it’s something those wolves wouldn’t forget.
@TheGreatParis They roll to scratch, help shed winter coat, massage sore muscles, etc. But mostly because it feels good. If one horse is doing it, others around often roll, too.
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I’ve known horses who amused themselves by kicking bricks out of their stable walls. I can see how wolves have to be pretty damn desperate to brave that.
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Lots of questions which don’t seem answerable, but this is def weird. Horse appears to maybe be a draft horse?, in which case it’s quite big and used to being intimidating. The wolves are def wary of it. But rolling on its back means the horse is just unconcerned. The wolves look a bit small/light, but wolves in the US regularly kill large, heavy animals such as buffalo, elk, and moose. Maybe the horse read the size differential and decided not to care? and by not running away it left the wolves’ hunting instincts confused/unengaged? (Maybe the wolves had just eaten a large livestock animal next door?)
BTW, the guy who shot the video says in the comments that after this “the horse just decided to go back eating some grass where he was before, leaving the poor wolves puzzled. After a few minutes the wolves decided to go away too.”
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I love when the humans documenting the process are all (in chorus) “Noooo!!!”
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Not to mention the metal shoes. Don’t run into those on wild animals.
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I’m guessing that this is not the first time this horse has encountered these particular wolves, as if some status was established before this encounter.
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The wolves are just thinking back to the day that Tabaqui and Shere Khan trailed the pony to their den, and then Shere Khan demanded he be given his rightful prey but Raksha told him off, and raised that pony as if he were her own pup.
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Or, “If you bite me, I kick your brothers and sisters to death. How hungry are you, punk? Didn’t think so. Hey, I have an itch. Watch this, asswipes.”
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Could they be wolf-coyote hybrids?
Or maybe the horse never saw wolves before and don’t have any reason to fear some kind of dogs, and the wolves never saw a fuckin’ big animal like that and they are a bit… scared ?
