1906 GAME COMMISSION. 11 



Wolves. 



The wolf is universally regarded as the symbol of ferocity and rapacity, 

 and his stealthy habit of tracking solitary travelers, and the hair-breadth 

 escapes so often recounted form a picture of life which might be a presentment 

 of a long past age rather than one of the twentieth century. Moreover, the 

 gloomy surroundings of the wolf's habitat are specially impressive. The 

 sombre pine forests and rugged mountains in which the packs make their lairs, 

 and the snow covered wastes over which, famished with hunger, they wander 

 in search of prey, are oppressive in their drearv suggestiveness. Fortunately, 

 however, for the traveler, the wolf is almost as suspicious as he is rapacious, 

 and the wayfarer, alive to the dangers that beset him, generally contrives to 

 outwit his pursuer. Some of the cowardice usually laid to the wolf's charge is 

 probably only an excess of caution induced by man's constant efforts to hunt 

 him down ; and thus it happens, in avoiding imaginary dangers, he often runs 

 into real ones. In Kussia what is known as the wolf " season " covers three- 

 fourths of the year, and the annual loss sustained by the destruction of domes- 

 tic animals is estimated at about a million sterling. This is not surprising when 

 we consider the sparseness of the population and the vast plains and forest 

 regions which the wolf chiefly haunts. Germany has comparatively few 

 wolves, and these have long been reduced in numbers by a cause which smacks 

 rather of medieval than of modern times. It was always the instinct of the 

 species to hang upon the skirts of an invading army, and the packs which 

 followed the German army into France in 1870 mostly remained in their new 

 quarters. Here for a time they were a constant menace, the thick forest covers 

 affording them ample shelter and security. The European wolf, which is the 

 common representative or " type " of the species is essentially a beast of the 

 woods, skulking in mountain retreats, from which under pressure of hunger he 

 descends upon the villages and farmsteads of the more open country. Of late 

 years the number of wolves in France have been onsiderably reduced, but many 

 are still found in its northern and eastern departments. Even in the south- 

 western provinces, their name is yet much more than a word of dread, and 

 the farmers have too frequent cause to complain of their ravages in spite of 

 Government rewards offered for every wolf killed. Not long since these ranged 

 from forty to eighty francs per head, while as much as two hundred francs were 

 offered for a known "man-killer." Not more then ten or twelve years ago re- 

 wards were claimed in France for more than one thousand three hundred killed in 

 one year, this being exclusive of those killed by sportsmen. 



Wolves in their hunting of wild animals show much adroit combination 

 and adopt very ingenious tactics, such as sending out scouts to turn the deer in 

 the direction where the main body of the pack lie concealed. One of the most 

 remarkable features of the whole tribe is their power of maintaining a steady 

 gallop of thirty or forty miles, a distance which it is no uncommon thing for 

 them to cover when in search of prey. The return to their lairs is generally 

 made in small detachments, though sometimes the pack will break up into units 

 A wolf hunt in India is described by an English traveler, who, while watching 

 with his telescope a herd of antelopes feeding in a large field, observed six 

 wolves evidently concerting how best to secure their own breakfast. Having de- 

 cided on their plan of campaign, they separated, leaving one stationary; four 

 crept stealthily round the outer edge of the field, and one lay in ambush at each 

 corner, while the sixth crept through a furrow to the middle of the field and 

 there lay down unobserved. When all w r ere thus posted, the first wolf suddenly 

 showed himself, and charging the antelopes drove them right across the great 

 field, when they were headed by another wolf who chased them in a fresh direc- 



