THE TREACHEROUS GREY WOLF.
By Perry Davis.
The accompanying photo shows the writer holding up the skins of two
mighty greys; either wolf would have weighed a hundred pounds, and
measured six feet from tip to tip. Little does the average person
know of the great damage done by these destructive and blood thirsty
desperadoes of the western stock range. Cowardly and evasive, when
coming in contact with men, yet when these two blood thirsty
companions were running at large, were capable of torturing a full
grown cow to death; sometimes a bunch of them will destroy good sized
horses. The swift footed and aggressive range steer, equipped with
nature's weapons, his long sharp horns, falls an easy victim to the
powerful jaws, sharp teeth, and the wise generalship of these
terrible brutes.
[Illustration: Mr. Davis With the Big Wolf Skins.]
Five wolves have been killed in this community last winter, and there
is but little sign of others, and no complaints from the stockmen.
Billy Clanton claims to have lost about 40 head of cattle, mostly
calves and yearlings in the last eighteen months and he blames this
small bunch of wolves for that loss. The great state of South Dakota
pays the miserable sum of $5.00 bounty on grey wolves and $2.00 on
coyotes. Last year the bounty claims were paid 80 cents on the
dollar, as the claims were in excess of the fund appropriated for
bounty purposes.
I have heard of wolves attacking persons in the woods of the
Northeastern States; I have no reason to doubt this--they may be a
different wolf from our grey wolf, or buffalo wolf, as they are often
called. I have seen them in the Panhandle country of Northwest Texas,
in Colorado, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Montana and Canada and they are
all the same, as far as I could see, in looks, size and habits, and I
have never heard of them molesting anyone in the above mentioned
places. Of course, there is the coyote, he is everywhere I have ever
been and some call him a wolf. Fur dealers call him prairie wolf;
frequently some fellow will tell me about a black wolf, or a big
white one, but I just let him run it over me; I don't tell him he is
a prevaricator, neither do I get angry and try to kill him. I permit
him to think he is telling me something and try to look unconcerned
and solemn, but I think he has looked down on the back of a grey wolf
from high ground and he looked dark and the more he thought about it,
the darker it became, until he became almost too black for anything.
The same wolf standing on a hill above you, will show the white and
yellow on his breast and belly and that always looks so much like
that big white wolf. I do not doubt but that there is an occasional
black wolf, but I have never seen one.
I want to see every wolf and coyote in the country with his hide
nailed up to dry. I did not encourage others to trap when I was
wolfing, as I wanted to know how to work my range to the best
advantage, and beginners often make them hard to catch; their work is
too coarse and the wolves get wise. To the boys who inquired in the
July number about methods of setting and baiting for wolves, I will
say I will give you the best I've got. While an experienced wolfer
can give you some good pointers, he can do you no good, unless you
are an early riser and an energetic worker with lots of patience, for
successful wolfing is not a lazy man's job. Of course, I do not know
anything about trapping in the woods or in the country east of the
Missouri. No. 4 Newhouse traps are the best where you are trapping
wolves and coyotes both.
A prairie dog town is a good place, especially if the country is
rough around it, as wolves come to catch the dogs. Make a blind set
on some smooth mound, set about three traps close together. Kinsey
stakes all three to one pin, probably to save time, but I always
stake them so that they can't quite pull them together but it takes
more work. The wind generally blows from the northwest and wolves
generally come to a setting facing the wind, and you will see the
advantage in having your traps set on the "windward" side or set them
in a triangle with bait in center--a prairie dog cut in several
pieces and then put together to look natural. In picking the pieces
up, he is liable to step around some. If the dog is whole, he may
carry it away without being caught. It is not always necessary to
bait after you have caught one, as he leaves scent that will attract
others. Get traps in bare ground, don't chop out places in the grass.
In trapping along trails and creeks always remember the wind; this is
important. Roll up a bunch of wool to put under the pan and cover the
whole trap with dry dirt, especially in winter.
If you have been covering your traps with paper, cut it out--wool is
more convenient and the mice do not uncover your trap and the wind
does not uncover it so much. If you are bothered by having cattle
spring your traps at a carcass, set your trap under the edge of the
carcass where stock will miss them but when the coyote rears back to
pull off a bite, it is right where he will put his front feet. I have
often killed "Big Jaws," old horses and cripples and then set traps
on the trails they follow to feed on the carcass, but seldom set the
trap at the carcass. Good strychnine is good if one knows how to use
it. If you want to make drop baits, cut up small pieces of the paunch
and roll the poison up in it. They like that part of an animal and if
they swallow it while it is frozen, it will unroll in the stomach and
give the poison a chance to act quickly.
I often use a light wagon in setting traps and sometimes carry dirt
to cover with. I throw a wagon sheet out to stand on and do all the
work without stepping on the ground, as one should always leave as
little scent as possible. I think that most kinds of scent are good
or anything that smells rotten enough, but the old grey is certainly
cunning and hard to trap, especially if he has lost a few toes. There
are grey wolves that do not kill cattle; when I commenced to hunt
wolves, I studied them very carefully. I opened and examined the
stomach of all I caught and instead of finding them loaded with fresh
meat, I found over half without anything in the stomach at all;
others had pieces of bones, grass and old pieces of hide stripped
from old dry carcasses and I found rabbits, mice and gophers and this
was in the lower Musselshell Country where there were thousands of
cattle.
I have tried hounds, and have had some of the best that I could get
but they were never successful. I never had hounds that would kill a
grown wolf, but they often stopped the wolf until I could shoot it
and I never knew them to make a good fight more than once, besides
dogs knock their toe nails off on rocks and get crippled up with
cactus and often a whole pack will almost ruin themselves by killing
porcupines, the quills getting in the throat and sometimes will work
through the head and into the eyes and blind them. I can take traps
and beat any bunch of dogs I ever tried for both wolves and coyotes.
A wolf hound is often very stupid and does some very laughable
things. I had six good ones on a trip in Canada. I was going down the
Medicine Lodge Valley, had team and the hounds; on each side of the
road about three hundred yards ahead were a bunch of cattle, near
each bunch there was a coyote. I tried to send the dogs after them
but they could not see them, as they were sitting still. Just then
the dogs saw a badger about a quarter of a mile down the road, and
they were not long getting there. As they passed the cattle, both
coyotes started after the dogs and followed them to within a few
steps of the scene of battle, where the six dogs were tearing at the
tough skin of the badger. The coyotes seemed to think it was "heap
fun" and then one coyote jumped into the fight and out again and then
the other and they repeated it several times, when at last a young
dog discovered one of the coyotes and started him over a hill and the
other coyote following at the heels of the dog.
Finally the hound found that he was out-numbered and went back; the
other five never knew that there had been a coyote in the valley, but
were still tearing away at the dead badger as I drove up. Well, I
felt like saying something, but I didn't.