Winner: Russian granny

1:09 video (Autoplay would not turn off in the embedded version.)

A wolf attacked 56-year-old Aishat Maksudova near her sister’s home in Dagestan in the Northern Caucusus. Maksudova was on her way to repair a fence, and tried to stop a wolf from attacking a calf. The wolf went after her instead, biting her leg and left hand, and knocking her to the ground. Fortunately, Maksudova was able to bring into play the axe she was carrying to repair the fence. She hit the wolf right on the head, splitting its skull and killing it dead.

Photos and another video at HuffPo.

Loser: wolf

Jon T. Coleman’s influential 2004 book Vicious – Wolves and Men in America argues for the reintroduction of wolves (from Canada) into the United States to repopulate their former hunting grounds, to “heal ecosystems overrun with herbivores, …bring a sense of wildness to national parks, … (and) brighten the human soul.” After all, the author observes: “There is no record of a nonrabid (sic) wolf killing a human in North America since the arrival of Europeans.”

These kinds of expansive claims are often published by writers on the Environmental left (who are insufficiently well-read), but a recent event in Northern Saskatchewan seems likely to eliminate the repetition of that particular refrain, and will probably impact regional wolf reintroduction debates.

On Nov. 8, student Kenton Joel Carnegie was walking alone near a remote camp owned by a mining exploration company when it is believed that he was killed by wolves.

Though an investigation is continuing, some wolves in the area had been attracted to a garbage dump and appeared to be less fearful of humans. Thus far authorities said Carnegie’s death is thought to be the first documented case in the wild of healthy wolves killing a human in North America since 1900.