Old wolf terrorizes campers in attack

Parks Canada says animal in bad health, desperate for food

TORONTO — A wolf attacked campers at Banff National Park and tried to drag an American tourist away before being driven off, the agency overseeing Canada’s national parks said.

The rare attack by an older wolf in poor health occurred Aug. 9 at the Ramparts Creek campground north of Lake Louise in Alberta, Parks Canada said.

Jon Stuart-Smith, a wildlife specialist for the agency, said it was the first time someone has been attacked and injured in a wolf attack at a national park in Canada.

He said the New Jersey man was camping with his wife and two children and heard noises near his tent around midnight.

Thinking it could be a bear, the man tried to scare the wolf off by making noise, but when that didn’t scare it off, he poked the side of the tent and the wolf bit him through the tent.

Stuart-Smith said the wolf repeatedly bit the man, ripped the tent open and started to pull him out.

A neighboring camper heard the noise and ran over and kicked the wolf, which then fled, he said.

The man suffered hand and arm injuries and was hospitalized. Stuart-Smith said the man and his family have since returned home to New Jersey.

A Facebook post by the man’s wife says “it was like something out of a horror movie.”

Elisa Rispoli said her husband, Matthew Rispoli, threw himself in front of her and the children and fought the wolf as it tore apart the tent. She called her husband their hero and the man who helped their guardian angel.

“I cannot and don’t think I’ll ever be able to properly describe the terror,” she wrote.

Stuart-Smith said a wildlife officer found the wolf about a mile away the campground and killed the animal after he got out of his vehicle and it started to approach him.

“It’s very unusual behavior,” he said.

The results of a necropsy confirmed that the wolf was the same one involved in the attack, he said.

“The animal was in very poor health — it was very emaciated, it was only 78 pounds, whereas an adult male wolf could be 150 pounds or more,” StuartSmith said.