On an evening fishing trip within Arizona’s White Mountain Apache Reservation, TikTok user @_kyletsay18 saw something he didn’t expect to see: wolves chasing an elk. He caught the chase on video and shared it to TikTok so tens of thousands of other people could watch the drama as well. The elk escapes the wolves by crossing the wide river to safety, ultimately leaving the predators in the lurch.
“Pretty cool evening on the WMAT (White Mountain Apache Tribe),” wrote @_kyletsay18 in his TikTok post, which Arizonagram shared to Instagram. Arizonagram points out that many people don’t realize there are wolves in Arizona, adding that Mexican gray wolves are making a “quiet comeback” in the state.
[RELATED: Sound on: Gray Wolves Whine, Howl, and More for a Trail Cam]
“Wolves in Arizona aren’t just some fairytale howls in the distance,” wrote Arizonagram. “They’re real, raw, and making a quiet comeback, especially near the White Mountains, where the Apache tribe calls home. The Mexican gray wolf, or ‘lobo,’ is the underdog of the Southwest. once nearly wiped out, now slowly crawling back into the ecosystem like it never left. These wolves are scrappy, smart, and way too familiar with survival, which makes sense since they’ve been dodging bullets and bad PR for a century.”
Watch as an elk escapes from two wolves in Arizona here: