Читать книгу Wolf and Coyote Trapping: An Up-to-Date Wolf Hunter's Guide - A. R. Harding - Страница 15

The wolf's method of attack is from the rear, springing on its victim and hamstringing it and literally eating it alive. The bite of the wolf is a succession of quick, savage snaps and there is no salvation for the creature that has no means of defense from a rear attack. This peculiar method of killing prey can not be practiced successfully on horses, owing to the fact that they can defend themselves by kicking, but for all of that, a considerable number of colts and a few full grown horses are killed. For this reason cattle suffer more than horses, but while the horse is, to a certain extent, exempt from attack by wolves, they are frequently killed by mountain lions, because their method of attack, a spring at the head and throat is more successful with these animals than with cattle. As food, however, horse flesh is preferred to beef by both of these animals.

One of the western trappers writes:

"Many times in the past thirty years I have watched wolves catch cows. The wolf is by nature a coward and will not, singly, attack a grown cow, though he will by himself kill a pig, chicken, calf, goat or sheep.

"On the ranges, where the stockmen and settlements are far apart, wolves go in bunches, from three to ten or even more, and when very hungry a bunch of them will attack a grown bull. They frighten him by snapping and playing around him till they get him on the run, when the bunch give full chase and stay close at his heels. While he is running in this way, one or more of them will grab him by the ham strings just above the hock joint. The bull makes, of course, a vigorous effort to free himself from the wolf, but before he can do so, the sharp teeth of the latter have cut or partially cut the ham string. They keep him on the run till they finally cut him down in both ham strings and then he cannot go further or fight the hungry wolves off.

"The whole bunch then eat his hams out while the bull is still alive, and after they get their full they let him rest. When they want to fill up again, they return and eat him till he dies, finishing the carcass as they require food.

"I have seen horses and cattle killed by wolves in this way live for several days with their hams eaten out, and have never seen the wolf make his attack or give chase in any other way. Being cowardly, he always follows behind and keeps out of all danger from the bull's hoofs."

Of cattle, calves and yearlings are generally selected, partly because the flesh of the younger animals is more to the wolf's liking and partly because they cannot defend themselves as readily as full grown animals, but full grown steers are also killed at times. Far more cattle are killed than are eaten. The wolf prefers fresh food always and in summer when their resources are unlimited they seldom return to the carcass for a second meal.

In "Bulletin 72," issued by the United States Department of Agriculture, the author, Mr. Vernon Bailey, has the following to say on the subject:

"The actual number of cattle killed by wolves can not be determined. Comparatively few animals are found by cattlemen and hunters, when freshly killed, with wolf tracks around them and with wolf marks on them. Not all of the adult cattle missing from a herd can surely be charged the depredations of wolves, while missing calves may have been taken by wolves, by mountain lions, or by 'rustlers.'"

Nevertheless there are data enough from which to draw fairly reliable conclusions. In the Green River Basin, Wyoming, on April 2, 1906, Mr. Charles Budd had 8 yearling calves and 4 colts killed in his pasture by wolves within six weeks. At Big Piney a number of cattle and a few horses had been killed around the settlement during the previous fall and winter. At Pinedale, members of the local stockmen's association counted 30 head of cattle killed in the valley around Cora and Pinedale in 1905, between April, when the cattle were turned out on the range, and June 30, when they were driven to the mountains. In 1906, wolves were said to have come into the pastures near Cora and Pinedale and begun killing cattle in January on the "feed grounds," and Mr. George Glover counted up 22 head of cattle killed by them up to April 10. Just north of Cora, Mr. Alexander, a well known ranchman, told me that the wolves killed near his place in June, 1904, a large three year old steer, a cow, 3 yearlings and a horse. On the G O S Ranch, in the Gila Forest Reserve in New Mexico, May 11 to 30, 1906, the cowboys on the round-up reported finding calves or yearlings killed by wolves almost daily, and Mr. Victor Culberson, president of the company, estimated the loss by wolves on the ranch at 10 per cent. of the cattle.

In a letter to the Biological Survey, under date of April 3, 1896, Mr. R. M. Allen, general manager of the Standard Cattle Company, with headquarters at Ames, Neb., and ranches in both Wyoming and Montana, states that in 1894 his company paid a $5.00 bounty at their Wyoming ranch on almost exactly 500 wolves. The total loss to Wyoming through the depredations of wolves Mr. Allen estimated at a million dollars a year.

In an address before the National Live Stock Association at Denver, Col., January 25, 1899, Mr. A. J. Bothwell said: "In central Wyoming my experience has been that these wolves kill from 10 to 20 per cent. of the annual increase of the herds."

Lieut. E. L. Munson, of Chouteau County, Mont., writing in Recreation, says: "It is said that in this country the loss from wolves and coyotes is about 15 per cent. * * * Wolves in this vicinity seldom kill sheep, as the latter are too carefully herded. They get a good many young colts, but prey especially on young cattle."

Mr. J. B. Jennett, of Stanford, Montana, says in Recreation: "A family of wolves will destroy about $3,000 worth of stock per annum."

The loss caused by wolves and coyotes in Big Horn County, Wyo., is estimated at three hundred thousand dollars per year. It has been variously estimated that each grey wolf costs the stockmen from two hundred and fifty to one thousand dollars annually.

Sheep, for some reason, are seldom troubled by timber wolves in the West, but suffer considerably from the attacks of coyotes; in fact, the loss occasioned the sheep men of Wyoming and Montana in this way is enormous. In summer when the sheep are driven up into the mountains, the coyotes migrate to those sections and kill sheep whenever the opportunity is presented. In the fall when the sheep are brought down into the foothills, the coyotes are also to be found in great numbers in those parts. In all probability there is a greater loss occasioned by the depredations of coyotes in the two states mentioned than is caused by wolves and mountain lions combined. Farther south, however, it is the wolf that does the most mischief. Where timber wolves are plentiful and very little stock is raised, as in the northern parts of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, sheep are not safe from the attacks of wolves, and for that reason few sheep are raised in those parts. It is probably the fact that the western range is very open and the sheep always carefully guarded by herders that they suffer so little from timber wolves in the Western States.

In the swamps of the Southern States, and especially in the lowlands of Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas, hogs are sometimes killed by wolves. In New Mexico, Texas, Colorado and Mexico where large numbers of goats are raised, these animals are frequently killed.

That an immense amount of game is killed in the wilder and less thickly settled portions of the United States and Canada goes without saying. In the West the wild game does not suffer as much as does the domestic animals, but in the heavily timbered portions of the country where little stock is raised as in the states bordering on Lake Superior and in the greater part of Canada large numbers of deer and other game animals fall victims to these fierce creatures. Regarding the killing of game on the western cattle range, Mr. Bailey has the following to say:

"At Big Piney, Wyoming, I examined wolf dung in probably fifty places around dens and along wolf trails. In about nine-tenths of the cases it was composed mainly or entirely of cattle or horse hair; in all other cases but one, of rabbit fur and bones, and in this one case mainly of antelope hair. A herd of 20 or 30 antelope wintered about 5 or 6 miles from this den, and the old wolves frequently visited the herd, but I could find no other evidence that they destroyed antelope, though I followed wolf tracks for many miles among the antelope tracks on the snow. Jack rabbits were killed and eaten along the trails or brought to the den and eaten near it almost every night, and a half eaten cottontail was found in the den with the little pups. While wolves are usually found around antelope herds, they are probably able to kill only the sick, crippled and young. The following note from Wyoming appeared in the Pinedale Roundup of July 4, 1906:

While riding on the outside circle with the late round-up, Nelse Jorgensen chanced to see a wolf making away with a fawn antelope. He gave chase to the animal, but it succeeded in getting away, never letting loose on its catch.

About a den near Cora, the numerous deposits of wolf dung on the crest of the ridge not far away were found to be composed of horse and cattle hair, though fresh elk tracks were abundant over the side hills on all sides of the den, while cattle and horses were then to be found only in the valley, 8 miles distant. Several jack rabbits had been brought in and eaten and the old wolf on her way to the den had laid down her load, evidently a jack rabbit, gone aside some 20 feet and caught a ruffed grouse eaten it on the spot, and then resumed her load and her journey to the waiting pups. One small carpal bone in this den may have been from a deer or small elk, but no other trace of game was found.

Talking with hunters and trappers who spend much time in the mountains when the snow is on the ground brought little positive information on the destruction of elk or deer by wolves. Mr. George Glover, a forest ranger long familiar with the Wind River Mountains in both winter and summer, said that he had found a large blacktail buck which the wolves had eaten, but he suspected that it had been previously shot by hunters. In many winters of trapping where elk were abundant, Mr. Glover has never found any evidence that elk had been killed by wolves. Coyotes constantly follow the elk herds, especially in spring when the calves are being born, and probably destroy many of the young, but wolves apparently do not share this habit. It seems probably, however, that in summer the young of both elk and deer suffer to some extent while the wolves are among them in the mountains."

In the Northern Peninsula of Michigan, wolves are very plentiful and large numbers of deer are killed during the winter months, the remains being found later by hunters, trappers, and lumbermen. The same conditions exist in Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, also in parts of Ontario, Canada. In the Rainy River District, wolves have always been abundant and much game has been killed by them. Farther east, they are just making their appearance of late years having followed the deer which are coming into the country from some other section. Farther east, in the eastern portions of New Ontario and in some parts of Quebec wolves are also numerous. One of our friends from Northern Wisconsin writes as follows: