342 Wild Beasts 



of audacity as due to hunger. Most probably it is ; they 

 would hardly go hunting while in a state of repletion. But 

 the question is, how these authorities find out the exact 

 state of their dietaries, and can be certain that they must 

 be starving before they will attack the wild Asiatic ox 

 or American moose ; also how much less food is required, 

 to urge them on to assail a party of men. 



In seasons of scarcity wolves of the northern plains 

 prey upon prairie-dogs, ground-squirrels, hares, foxes, 

 badgers, etc. ; small creatures that offer no resistance, 

 and which it is only difficult to catch. At the same time 

 they hunt the large game of North America, and although, 

 much to the disgust of a certain class of writers, the 

 common wolf, which weighs about a hundred pounds, does 

 not select a buffalo bull in the best fighting trim as an 

 object for attack when a less formidable animal of this 

 species can be found, or meet the moose, that often 

 stands six feet at the withers, or indeed any creature 

 that can kill him, in such a way as to give it the best 

 opportunity for doing so, he often has to fight and fre- 

 quently comes to grief. But they "give every human 

 being a wide berth," says Roosevelt, and it would be 

 strange indeed if they did not, since none are apt to be 

 encountered who, according to the wolf's experience, are 

 unprepared for offensive action, or who do not make 

 it their business in those parts to destroy him. This 

 fact has been completely realized by wolves of the plains, 

 and it is for this reason that in these latitudes they have 

 now become, what Colonel Dodge asserts that they are, 

 "of all carnivorous animals of equal size and strength, 



