Gray Wolf 



packs, and more rarely wandering alone or by twos and threes. 

 Any sort of a country appears to suit them well enough, 

 provided there is game to be had. If anything, they were more 

 numerous in low, black swamps of hemlock and tamarack in the 

 North and the everglades of Florida than in the dense forests 

 of mountainous countries and uplands. But above all else they 

 preferred the wind-blown prairies of the West, where they followed 

 the bison herds in their wandering after new and green pastures. 

 The wolves seldom molested the buffaloes unless they were dis- 

 abled by wounds or sickness. The young calves were what 

 they were after when they skulked through the herd, dodging 

 the old bulls and angry cow-buffaloes in the tall bunch-grass 

 of the plains. At present the alkali deserts and badlands and 

 the barrens of the Hudson Bay country harbour the greater number 

 of those that still run in the open. In the heavy timber of the 

 Rockies those wolves that like to hunt in the shadow of the 

 forest find abundance of deer and smaller game and good hid- 

 ing that not only enables them to hold their own in numbers, 

 but even to increase in many sections. 



Whether going in packs or singly, they almost never resort 

 to still-hunting or ambush, but run down their prey by com- 

 bined speed and endurance. 



While they have been said to adopt as a member of their 

 own pack a dog that had deserted his master and taken to a wild 

 life, evidently sensible of the kinship that exists between them, 

 they look upon one that submits to the authority of man and 

 acts as his servant as the henchman of their worst enemy, and 

 their legitimate prey. 



They will also run down and kill their cousins, the foxes, 

 who, though swifter than the wolves for a short distance, lack 

 their endurance and wind. 



In summer the wolf packs separate to a certain extent 

 into pairs that seek out secluded retreats, and dwell for a 

 time in dens or burrows of their own digging, the she wolf 

 nursing her whelps at home while her mate keeps her supplied 

 with food. After the young wolves have learned to kill for 

 themselves, the family joins the pack again, knowing that their 

 peculiar method of hunting depends upon numbers for success. 



