The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-06-10
A PLAGUE OF caAY WOLVES.
Increasing Damage Doae on the Cattle
Ranges,

STRANGE to say, while the buffalo has
| been wiped off the face Of the contin-
! ent and the. antelope is found now but
rarely, the gray wolves have increased
| in number upon the plains said F. e.
| Archer of Denver. THE building of
railroads in all directions, with towns
| and cities on their lines, and the occu-
| plying of every available stream, valley
| and water hole by ranchmen have had
| the effect upon the wolf to make him
more cunning and bold. He is near
| enough to the dog in nature to adapt
| himself to the presence of humanity,
| and he shows the same sagacity N
| plundering that the dog does in serving
| mankind. In the old days the wolf fol-
| lowed the buffalo herds in their mi
grations and kept near them wherever
| they went No number of wolves would
venture to attack so much as a buffalo
calf while it was with the others, for
the buffalos travelled like an army with
the bulls in front and rear and TANKS,
ever ready to defend the cows and
calves against the attack of anything
but man. 1t was for the stragglers-
the very old or the very young. or the
disa bled buffaloes which fell out of the
herd-that the wolves lurked and wait
ed. In the winter, when pressed by
hunger, pack of wolves would muster
courage to attack and pull down one of
the solitary old bulls that in their de-
Ginning years had been eutfought and
driven from the herd by the younger
ones; but as rule the wolf preferred
to dine off carrion, or go good while
hungry, to risking his skin for fresh
meat.
1T was years after the stockmen
had generally occupied the Western
country before the wolves began to
make serious inroads on the stock. BY
degrees they found that beef was as
l,1ef Ia
that COW was easily pulled down and
killed, and that cattle, scattered in lit
tie punches over wide range. did not
organize to protect one another as the
buffaloes used to do in their great
herds. From killing calves and cows
the wolves came to the tackling of
bulls and steers, so that now over wide
tracts of country there is no safety for
any cattle on the ranges, except on
ranches which are constantly patrolled
by range herders with firearms, who
take shot at every wolf that shows
his head whiting shooting distance.
The slaughter of wolves is not great by
this method, but the cunning beasts
realize what the whizzing of a bullet
signifies, and it makes them fight shy
of the locality. To set trap or po1s-
oned bait for wolves is not of much
use, for they pass it by where they can
kill their own meat SO easily. More
over, many of the wolves have become
blood drinkers, and, on killing a COW
or a steer, will eat none of the flesh,
but suck the blood from the carcass
and go on 10 the slaughter of more cat
tie. Hunts on a grand scale, INTENDED
to drive the wolves into a common CEN
ter have repeatedly been organized,
but the results have been trifing, the
wolves inclosed slipping away between
the hunters long before the lines draw
closely together. Attempts to hunt
them with hounds have proved destruc-
tive to the dogs. with few casualties to
the wolves.
Commonly the wolves make their
attacks in packs of from three to ten
or twelve in number. In killinsva COW
or steer that offers fight their mode of
attack is always the same. While two
or more wolves engage the creatures
attention in front, wolf stealing up
behind makes leap and snap at the ami
mails hind leg, just above the gambril,
for the purpose of ham-string.ng it. If
the pack numbers as many as five or
six, two wolves will often spring to-
gether. each at a hind leg. The snap
ping bite of a wolf is like a knife
stroke, and the first leap often sewers
the tendon. If not. the attacks are
repeated until successful, when the
victim sinks helpless to the ground to
be bounced on by the whole pack, ev
cry wolf tearing at the throat or some
| other part where the arteries lie near
the surface, and snarling and swapping
at any of the others who crowd too
| closely upon him.
1T is the finer cattle, the thorough
| breds and graded stock, that suffer
| most from the attacks of wolves. They
| are less hardy and active than the ma
| tive stock and less accustomed to rough
and tumble fighting. A Texas bull or a
| long horned steer who has hustled for
| himself and kept his end up as fighter
with anything that came against him
! from the day he was weaned is no pic
| mic, even when alone, for a pack of
wolves. When he is with several of his
| fellows the wolves had better go away
| and hunt their dinner elsewhere, for
| the Texans, who fight cheerfully among
| themselves when nothing else is going
| on, pool their Issues and stand back to
| back against all 'varmints' and take en-
gray wolves, mountain lions or grizzly
bears as readily as they would poodles
| or coyotes, when they or the COWS and
| calves are threatened. The native cat
| tie are not so numerous north of the
| Arkansas river as they We're in the
| early days when great herds of pill
| grims were driven yearly from Texas to
| stock the ranges of the northwestern
territories, but they are by no means
extinct. and unless some means are
| found to check the ravages of wolves
| they may yet prove to be the most
profitable stock to rear.
"A friend of mine who had a cattle
ranch at Shively Springs, in Dakota,
about 100 miles north of Yankton, sla "
| a battle royal between five Texas steers
and seven wolves. 1t was in February,
| just after Il blizzard, and there was two
| feet of snow on the ground on a level
| With the steers We're two COWS and
three yearlings. They had been run
ming south before the storm, and, com
| ing to little knoll blown bare by the
wind. had all lain down to rest. They
| were so still that the ranchman had to
| ride near them to satisfy himself that
! they were not dead. Finding that none
| OF his own stock was in the bunch, lie
| rode away. He had gone a mile when,
| looking back, he saw seven gray wolves
| that had come out of the head of a
| canon near by and were making toward
| the cattle. With his field glass he could
| get an excellent view of the wolves and
| follow closely all their movements.
They We're having a hard time to make
their way through the snow. but they
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