The Pack That Eats You Before You Die
A gray wolf weighs about 90 pounds. A moose weighs ten of them. Wolf packs bring moose down by the hamstrings and often begin feeding before the animal is dead. On Isle Royale, wolves killed nearly a quarter of the moose herd in a single year.
Ten Times Its Weight, Eaten While Still Breathing
A gray wolf is not built to kill a moose quickly. It has no crushing bite for the neck of an animal that size and no claws to hold it. What a wolf pack has instead is endurance, numbers, and a willingness to start eating before the moose has died.
Ninety Pounds Against a Thousand
An adult male gray wolf weighs around 90 pounds. An adult cow moose weighs 800 to 1,300 pounds, and a bull can reach 1,200 to 1,800. The prey outweighs each hunter by roughly ten to one, which is why wolves hunt moose as a pack rather than alone.
Hamstrings First
Wolves cannot bring a moose down with a single bite, so they cripple it. The pack targets the hind legs and hamstrings until the moose can no longer run or kick effectively. Once it is down, or too injured to fight, the feeding begins. Wolves often do not wait for the animal to die. Large prey is frequently eaten while it is still alive.
Built for the Chase
A wolf can sprint at 36 to 38 miles per hour, but only for short bursts. Its real weapon is range: a pack routinely travels 20 to 30 miles in a day and can cover far more when prey is scarce. A moose that is old, sick or trapped in deep snow is the one that gets run down.
A Quarter of the Herd
On Isle Royale in Lake Superior, wolves and moose have been studied together for more than six decades. The 2026 winter survey counted 37 wolves and roughly 524 moose, and estimated that wolves killed nearly a quarter of the herd over the previous year. Biologists did not spot a single calf.
When the pack does make a kill, it gorges. A single wolf can eat around 20 pounds of meat in one feeding, then go days without another meal. Ten wolves, one moose, and very little left behind.
Sources
- wolf.org: Hunting and feeding behavior (International Wolf Center)
- mtu.edu: Isle Royale wolf population nears historic high as moose numbers plummet (2026)
- isleroyalewolf.org: Eat all they kill (Wolf-Moose Project)
- nywolf.org: How fast do wolves run? (Wolf Conservation Center)
- adfg.alaska.gov: Moose (Alaska Department of Fish and Game)
