148 Department of Conservation of Louisiana 



better prices are those possessing a soft, silky pelage, 

 which are dyed and used as trimmings. As the fur is a 

 natural light gray, it takes the various dye shades nicely, 

 and many color creations are thus secured. The pelts pos- 

 sessing a flat, coarse pelage are valuable for automobile 

 robes and like uses. 



While the wolf has been persistently hunted by man in 

 Louisiana, as it has been in other parts of this country 

 where its destructive habits make it an outlaw, it appears 

 to be on the increase, and, slowly but surely, extending its 

 range in the state. In some localities war is declared on 

 this outlaw because it is destructive to domestic animals 

 and sporadic raids have been made on it by cattle men 

 and others. 



The tales that have prevailed for years as to ferocious- 

 ness of the wolf, and its alleged habit of hunting in packs 

 after man, tales that have come from Russia, Canada and 

 the wilderness regions of the northern tier of the states, 

 have their counterpart in Louisiana, but, as elsewhere, their 

 attacks on man have been grossly exaggerated. 



One story of an alligator hunter who was surrounded 

 by a pack of wolves in the Wild Cow Range section of Cam- 

 eron parish in the summer of 1926 was investigated and 

 found to have some foundation. Dave Moore, an aged trap- 

 per and alligator hunter, was interviewed the morning 

 following his experience at Cameron Farms ranch. He had 

 been out in his pirogue shining for alligators and had taken 

 several of the saurians he had killed to a dry knoll and was 

 skinning them by the aid of his carbide light. He had 

 been hearing the wolves howling, at a distance, throughout 

 the early part of the night, but paid no attention to their 

 noise. While he was engaged at his skinning task his car- 

 bide light went out about 2 a. m., and, while refilling the 

 lamp in the darkness, he was surprised and made quite un- 

 easy by hearing the wolves howling close to him. He de- 

 clared he could also hear their feet pattering through the 

 shallow water all about him and was positive the pack was 

 circling the knoll. 



