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THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



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RUSSIAN WOLF 



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This nr a most chara;:y*:slic pfcoiograpA of one of the so-cailea "greyhound wolves'* of th 



Russian forest 



from Moscow twenty-four 

 French soldiers, with their 

 arms in their hands, were 

 attaeked, killed, and eaten by 

 a pack of wolves. 



From very early times 

 special hreeds of dogs have 

 been trained to guard sheep 

 against the attacks of wolves. 

 Some of these were intended 

 to defend the flock on tin- 

 spot, others to run down the 

 wolves in the open. The 

 former are naturally hred 

 to be very large and heavy ; 

 the latter, though they must 

 be strong, are light and 

 speedy. Of the dogs which 

 guard the flocks several races 

 still survive. Among the most 

 celebrated are those of Al- 

 bania and the mountainous 

 parts of Turkey, and the 

 wolf-dogs of Tibet, generally called Tibetan Bloodhounds. The Tartar shepherds on the 

 steppes near the Caucasus also keep a very large and ferocious breed of dog. All these are 

 of the mastiff type, hut have long, thick hair. When the shepherds of Albania or Mount 

 Rhodope are driving their flocks along the mountains to the summer pastures, they sometimes 

 travel a distance of 200 miles. During this march the dogs act as flankers and scouts by day 

 and night, and do battle with the wolves, which know quite well the routes along which the 

 sheep usually pass, and are on the lookout to pick up stragglers or raid the flock. The Spanish 

 shepherds employ a large white shaggy breed of dog as guards against wolves. These dogs 

 both lead the sheep and bring up the rear in the annual migration of the flocks to and from 

 the summer pastures. 



Colonel Theodore Roosevelt says of hunting wolves: "In Russia the sport is a science. 

 The princes and great landowners who take part in it have their hunting-equipages equipped 

 perfectly to the smallest detail. Not only do they follow wolves in the open, hut they capture 

 them and let them out before dogs, like hares in a closed coursing-meeting. The huntsman 

 follows his hounds on horseback. (These hounds are the Borzoi, white giant greyhounds, now 

 often seen in England.) Those in Russia show signs of reversion to the type of the Irish 

 wolf-hound, dogs weighing something like 100 lbs., of remarkable power, and of reckless and 

 savage temper. Now three or four dogs are run together. They are not expected to kill the 

 wolf, hut merely to hold him. . . . The Borzois can readily overtake and master partly 

 grown wolves, but a full-grown dog-wolf, in good trim, will usually gallop away from them." 

 Wolf cubs are horn in April or May. The litter is from four to nine. There was one "i 

 six a few years ago at the Zoological Gardens at The Hague, pretty little creatures like collie 

 puppies, hut quarrelsome and rough even in their play. When born, they were covered witli 

 reddish-white down ; later the coat became woolly and dark. 



The European wolf's method of hunting when in chase of deer is by steady pursuit. Its 

 speed is such and its endurance so great that it can overtake any animal. But there is no doubt 

 that the favourite food of the wolf is mutton, which it can always obtain without risk on the wild 

 mountains of the War East, if once the guardian dogs are avoided. M. Tschudi, the naturalist 



