Wolves | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 30, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 50.

Wolves.

It is not clear whether wolves are simply wild dogs or not. There exist among them the same close resemblance and the same varieties as in the different kinds of dogs. Some naturalists hold that the wolf is the parent of the dog, and some characteristics seem pretty well to establish this fact. They readily intermix and raise puppies half wolf and half dog; and if these are born in a kennel at home, as has been known, and raised in a domestic state, they become quite gentle, though partaking largely of the lank form and vicious look of the wolf. It is reasonable to suppose, also, that if these puppies are born in a wild state that they receive their education from the mother, and are, when grown, very good wolves.

The wolf is a swift runner, and hunts deer and other animals, large packs of them associating together for this purpose. We once spent ten days hunting buffalo on the Platte River, and we found wolves constantly hovering round the herd for the purpose of catching, if they might, a wounded or sick animal, which they would soon dispatch by cutting his ham-strings with their sharp teeth, when the poor buffalo would let down behind and become an easy prey to the hungry horde. I chased on horseback one old gray wolf of immense size for miles, but finally abandoned the race as fruitless. One, however, was taken in at long range while feeding on the offal of a buffalo we had shot and dressed an hour before.

Accounts are given of wolves attacking man when hard pressed by hunger, but in general they are cowardly and stealthy. They defend themselves, however, with great vigor when compelled to do so. They are not easily trapped, being extremely cautious, and appearing to understand a trap and its purpose almost as well as those who set it. At Emmetsburg, Iowa, not long since, an old hunter set a trap in the snow for a wolf that passed a certain way daily, and then watched from an up-stairs window to see him get into it. In a little while the wolf came jogging along in the path, and although great care had been taken to cover everything up in the snow, the wolf detected instantly the work of an enemy and stopped as still as a post, moving not a single toe, but looking carefully all about on the ground for a moment, and then backed slowly out and away, stepping in the same tracks he had made coming in. When a rod or two back, he sprang to one side and ran as for life.—Sel.