It’s pretty rare to come upon a wolf in the wild. They tend to be solitary animals that will avoid humans as much as possible.

As human populations continue to encroach further upon wildlife habitat, however, wolves are less able to avoid humans and human developments.

Such as in this video, when a wolf got stuck in a fence and couldn’t free itself.

It’s not just buildings and houses that take away wildlife habitat, it is also roads, fences, and walls. When a new road is built through wildlife habitat, it often causes chaos for the ecosystem.

It can cause animals to be cut off from their food sources, and habitats to become fragmented.

A new road means animals will have to learn to cross or possibly go hungry.

The wolf in this video had part of its habitat fragmented.

A wire fence was put up to prevent humans from crossing a road or trail at a certain point, but it does the same for wildlife in the area.

Wolves, however, are unaware that there would be an opening in the fence somewhere down the road where they could safely pass through.

The wolf attempted to scale the wire-fencing and ended up stuck.

By the time the man in the video stumbled upon the wolf, it was lying helplessly with its head on the ground and its foot tangled in the wire fencing.

What should you do if you encounter a wolf in the wild?

Normally, if you run into a wolf in the wild, they won’t be stuck to a fence. The Western Wildlife Outreach website says one should do the following if they ever find themselves in such a scenario:

• Stay calm and do not run.

• Stand tall and make yourself look larger.

• Slowly back away and maintain eye contact.

• Keep dogs on leash.

• Always hike/camp in a group and never alone.

One man in the video begins trying to cut the wolf free with wire cutters.

Judging by how little the wolf is moving, it seems they have likely been stuck like this for some time.

“We’re trying to help bud, we’re trying to help,” one of the men reassures the wolf.

Finally, after the man had been working away at the wiring, the wolf is able to pull their foot free and scatters off into the woods as fast as they can run.

They certainly didn’t seem as though they had sustained any injuries, they were just stuck.

While it was nice of the men to free the trapped wolf in this video, what happened to the wolf is a sad consequence of our continued encroachment into wildlife territory.

By putting up that wire-fencing, top predators like wolves and dingoes are cut off from their food sources.

A University of Washington study recently stated that top predators like wolves are at a major disadvantage due to increased habitat fragmentation.

“This research shows that apex predators like dingoes and wolves need large, continuous territories in order to effectively control the balance of their ecosystems,” said lead author Thomas Newsome of Deakin University and the University of Sydney in Australia. “Humans need a greater tolerance of apex predators if we want to enjoy the environmental benefits they can provide.”

Watch these men free a trapped wolf from a wire fence in the video below!

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Source: mrjasonoldfield/Western Wildlife Outreach