24 WOLVES IN KELATION TO STOCK^ GAME, AND EOEEST EESERVES. 



summer range in the mountains. The twenty breeding dens located 

 and mapped in the Green River and Wind River valleys were mainly 

 along the foothills of the Wind River and Salt River ranges, while 

 a few were in bad-land ridges out in the open valley. On the Gihi 

 Reserve, in New Mexico, the two dens of Avhich I heard were 

 in side canyons of the river valleys. A steep south slope is usually 

 selected for the den, preferably a barren bad-land slope, but some- 

 times merely the wall of a rocky canyon or a sagebrush hillside, 

 broken by ledges or strewn with large bowlders — locations that afford 

 good sentry posts from which the old males can watch for the ap- 

 proach of enemies. 



Knowing the kind of country the wolves breed in, it is only neces- 

 sary to ride over it until wolf tracks are found. Good tracking- 

 snow often lies on the ground in Wyoming, Montana, and the Da- 

 kotas during the early part pf the time when the young are in the 

 dens, and this makes it particularly easy to find them ; but even where 

 there is no snow it is entirely practicable to locate them by riding 

 along the crests of the ridges and across good wolf country. 



Except for the tracks of an occasional pack of bachelor wolves 

 Avhich are wandering through the country in the breeding season, it 

 is safe to assume that every track either goes to or comes from a den. 

 When a track is found the direction of the den can often be told by 

 the lay of the land and the time when it was made. Since the wolves 

 hunt mainly at night, to find the den a track made in the evening 

 should be followed backward and one made in the morning forward. 

 As the tracks approach the den they often gather into well-worn 

 trails or runways, which become so conspicuous near the den that no 

 mistake can be made as to its location. 



The young are usually born in caves, among rocks, in washed-out 

 cavities in bad lands, or in old badger holes in banks that have been 

 enlarged by the wolves. I was shown where 5 young had been dug 

 out of a burrow in the bottom of a small valley, but this was in June, 

 Avhen the pups were large enough to have left their original home 

 and had probably taken temporary refuge in a badger hole. The 

 dens are generally large enough for a man to crawl into and get the 

 pups without having to dig. A stout hook on the end of a stick 

 will sometimes be very useful in getting the young out of crevices 

 between the rocks or from side chambers out of reach. There is no 

 danger of encountering the old wolf in the den, for she usually 

 sneaks off before she is even seen. One litter of 8 pups taken from a 

 cavitj^ under a large bowlder when they were about 6 weeks old 

 fought as fiercely as their strength and puppy teeth would admit, but 

 they could not cut through my buckskin glove. There is no real 

 danger from the young while they are still in the dens, unless blood 

 poisoning should result from a scratch of their teeth. 



