A Canadian man claims he was hunted and chased by a pack of wolves for several hours and is lucky to have made it out with his life, CHEK News is reporting .
Sylvain Rollin, 30, says he’s not 100 percent sure what kind of animals chose to make a meal out of him on Wednesday, July 5. He thinks it was probably wolves, but he couldn’t see them, and was more focused on getting out of the forest alive, rather than making careful notes on what kind of animal it was.
It bears noting, however, that there were no witnesses to Sylvain’s encounter, no photographic or video evidence, and no physical evidence beyond some scratches that could have been the result of any number of things.
Nevertheless, from here on out, the Inquisitr will take Sylvain for his word. Here’s what he says happened.
Sylvain is new to the town of Tofino, on the coast of Vancouver Island. Nevertheless, he quickly managed to get a job with the town’s Public Works department. On Wednesday, he finished work and was headed home to the campsite where he was staying, on a trail through the forest.
If you’re wondering why Sylvain was living in a campsite, or how his job could have sent him into the middle of the forest – your guess is as good as ours. He doesn’t say.
On his way home, it became dark and that’s when, he says, a pack of animals started following him.
Now as you already know, forest critters will almost always avoid humans at all costs. Even top predators, such as wolves or mountain lions, will generally leave humans alone, except on rare occasions. This is one of those occasions, and Sylvain thinks he knows why this wolf pack chose to hunt him rather than scatter when he came by: he thinks they were teaching the younger animals to hunt, and chose him as the day’s lesson.
“I was afraid that if I gave up I was going to be their food. I had the feeling I was being hunted.”
Over the next several hours, Rollin furiously tried to make it to safety. However, being that it was dark and he was in unfamiliar surroundings, he quickly got lost. His pursuers were never far behind.
“I got really scared and I knew I had to do something so I tried to go back on my footsteps but I just got deeper and deeper and I really got lost.”
Rollin says he swung branches at his pursuers, used a knife, climbed a tree, and even swam in a swamp to try to dodge the wolves.
What saved him, however, turns out to be the wolves’ evolutionary cousin, the domestic dog. Eventually, Rollin made his way to a home where he heard a pet dog barking. The dog’s barks apparently scared the animals away, and his ordeal was over. The homeowner gave Rollin some dry clothes and helped him get home.
Now, all Rollin has to show for his ordeal are scratches on his arms, face, and legs – wounds he got not from the animals themselves, but from twigs and thorns, bramble, and whatnot.
Not everyone believes Rollin’s story, however. He swears – apparently in response to haters who doubt his story – that he wasn’t on alcohol or drugs that night.
And as for the wolves, Rollin says he doesn’t want them harmed. He says he shouldn’t have been in the forest – the wolves’ territory – alone and at night.
According to International Science Times , there have been fewer than three dozen documented, confirmed incidents of wolf attacks on humans in North America.
[Featured Image by Tom Silver /Shutterstock]