Archaeology, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
Anatomy, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
Sci Rep. 2024 Feb 28;14(1):4946. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-55521-8.
The so-called man-eating wolves of Turku, a pack of three wolves, reportedly killed 22 children in South-Western Finland in 1880-1881. Enormous efforts were carried out to eradicate them. In January 1882 the last remaining wolf was killed. Since then, there has been considerable debate regarding the validity and extent of the man-eating behaviour. This study aims to clarify whether man-eating behaviour can be observed from the remains of these wolves. One of the wolves was mounted in 1882 and is on display at St. Olaf's school in Turku, enabling us to collect hair keratin samples. Additionally, hair keratin was collected from two other suspected man-eaters. We analysed carbon (δC) and nitrogen (δN) stable isotope values to study the wolf's diet during the last months of its life. Samples from seven temporally concurrent wolves were used to construct reference values. Our analyses indicated that δN values of suspected man-eaters were relatively low compared to the reference sample. We could not detect clear trends in isotope ratios associated with potential man-eating behavior. We believe that this lack of distinctive patterns can be explained by the relatively minor role that man-eating played in their overall diet.
所谓的图尔库食人人狼，一群三只狼，据报道在 1880-1881 年在芬兰西南部杀死了 22 名儿童。为消灭它们，人们做出了巨大的努力。1882 年 1 月，最后一只幸存的狼被杀死。从那时起，关于食人的行为的有效性和范围就存在相当大的争议。本研究旨在澄清是否可以从这些狼的遗骸中观察到食人行为。其中一只狼于 1882 年被制成标本，现陈列在图尔库的圣奥拉夫学校，我们可以从中收集毛发角蛋白样本。此外，还从另外两只疑似食人的狼身上收集了毛发角蛋白。我们分析了碳（δC）和氮（δN）稳定同位素值，以研究狼在生命的最后几个月的饮食情况。使用七个时间上同时存在的狼的样本构建参考值。我们的分析表明，疑似食人的狼的δN 值相对较低，与参考样本相比。我们没有发现与潜在食人行为相关的同位素比值有明显的趋势。我们认为，这种缺乏独特模式的情况可以用食人的行为在其整体饮食中相对较小的作用来解释。
