I agree - one wolf (if that is a red wolf, and not a fox) isn't much of a threat if you know what you're doing, and I do - but back in the ancestral environment they might not have learned fear of humans, so it could be enough of a threat to earn the word. Even if it's a threat you can dispose of, you still must attend to it.

If it's a fox, you're perfectly safe, of course, unless it's rabid.