People eat wolves rarely and wolves are not seen as a regular meal almost anywhere in the world. Sometimes, wolves may be eaten in gastronomy or as part of rituals, but even that is very uncommon.
Wolf meat is tough and doesn’t have the most pleasant smell, and it’s expensive.
Wolf hunting is also illegal in most parts of the world – and where it is legal, hunters have to obtain special licenses to hunt them.
This makes wolf meat extremely expensive, meaning that wolf meat has an exotic dish tag to its name and is not commonly found in restaurants around the world.
Do People Eat Wolves?
People have hunted wolves for around 10,000 years, and it’s highly likely that initially, wolf meat was on the menu of humans for many centuries.
As the development of cuisine, materials, and cooking methods progressed, as well as the ability to herd animals, people started looking to other sources of food instead.
Wolf meat just wasn’t the best tasting meat and it was particularly hard to get, so humans started eating other types of meat.
Wolf hunting has a long history, though.
People have hunted wolves for thousands of years and we can trace the first real evidence of wolf hunting to the sixth century when the first written source was found about wolf hunting. However, it’s very likely that wolf hunting was present much earlier and some historians will say that it started almost 10.000 years ago.
Wolf meat was eaten initially all over the world, but with time, it was a practice that was only observed in some Asian countries like Mongolia and China, as well as parts of Russia and some other neighboring countries.
Today, wolf meat eating is considered exotic.
Wolf meat is very hard to get, because it is not sold legally almost anywhere in the world. This makes it logistically hard to get the wolf meat, especially if you don’t have the right connections.
Some people have also sold wolf meat on the dark web, but that’s illegal, and not many people opt to buy meat that way.
Another reason as to why people don’t eat wolf meat anymore is because there are many other types of meat readily available to be bought.
Pork, beef, and chicken are some of the most common meats, and they’re produced on a mass scale, which makes them easy to buy and not very expensive.
For these reasons, wolf meat is not a very common dish around the world.
Read Also: What are Male Wolves Called?
In Which Countries Do People Eat Wolf Meat?
Today, people may eat wolf meat where wolf hunting is legal, such as in Mongolia and in some other Asian countries.
It may also be the case that people eat wolf meat in some remote areas of the world, such as in Siberia or Alaska where the temperatures are cold and where there are not many types of meat around to be found. However, there is not much in the way of evidence that this does happen.
The fact of the matter is that almost any part of the world nowadays is sufficiently supplied with other types of foods and meats.
This means that wolf meat is just not considered to be a type of meat that may be included in your local supermarket.
In addition, wolf populations are endangered in some parts of the world, which is why wolf hunting is mostly illegal almost anywhere in the world.
Wolf hunting has to be done with a license and is sometimes done in areas where wolf population is dense in order to thin down the wolf population.
Wolf is an endangered species in 48 of the US states, while it is widespread in states like Alaska where wolf population is often dense and has to be regulated by the authorities in order to prevent wolves causing trouble to farmers and people in Alaska in general.
In those states, wolf populations may be thinned down and reduced as to keep the farmers and their herds safe.
However, wolf meat eating is still not present in those states and fairly uncommon. Even there, wolf meat is seen as an exotic meal that might be tried every now and then, but not a type of meat that would be eaten on a regular basis.
Read Also: Are Wolves Friendly with Humans?
Why Don’t Most People Eat Wolf Meat?
Wolf meat is not eaten because wolf meat is not the best tasting meat to begin with, but also because wolf hunting is illegal and most countries around the world prohibit hunting wolves without having a license to do so.
According to people who have tried wolf meat – from forums and online boards – it does not have the most pleasant smell in the world, which is the first obstacle as to why people don’t eat wolf meat.
Wolf meat is also quite tough, because the vast majority of wolf meat will be muscle with not much fat. It’s likely dry and hard to chew, which means that wolf meat might not be the best tasting meat in the world.
Another big reason as to why wolf meat is not eaten so commonly is because wolf hunting is illegal and punishable by law in many countries and states.
One of the only countries in the world that allows wolf hunting is Mongolia, and even in Mongolia, wolf hunters need a license from the government to hunt wolves, which might be costly and hard to get.
For these particular reasons, wolf meat is not very popular around the world and will likely remain that for many years to come.
Read Also: Can you Ride a Wolf?
Conclusion
While there are some historical sources that say people have eaten wolves in the past, our meat eating habits have changed drastically since the 18th century. Wolf meat is off the menu almost anywhere in the world for many different reasons.
Today, wolf meat is considered to be an exotic meal that is hard to come by. You might only be able to obtain wolf meat through connections or illegal ways, and even then, you probably wouldn’t enjoy wolf meat as most other regularly eaten types of meat.
I am the founder and owner of Fauna Facts. My mission is to write valuable and entertaining information about animals and pets for my audience. I hope you enjoy the site!