Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1900-01-05
CRIMINALS AMONG WOLVES.
Great Cunning Manifested by These
Animals In California.

S0tWttN0eS AMON0 L
Great Cunning Manifested by These
Animals In California;.
E. Seton Thompson, naturalist to tbs
Government of Manitoba, has, urder
the title, wild Animals I Have
Known" given a series of observations
on the cunning OF beasts. That quality
10 in general the device Of the weak,
but the helplessness which it indicates
may be Of different grades. There is
the cunning Of wolves, which use their
wits to rob man Of his locks and cattle,
that Of tbs domesticated creatures,
which sometimes delight in criminal
acts. and the cunning BELONGING to self
preservation among those animals on
which others prey.
Mr.. Thompson claims for certain
animals. says the Scientific American.
a share Of the Difference paid to de-
PRAYED greatness. For example, there
was the wolf which, in the fourteenth
century, terrorized all Paris for ten
years: a lame grizzly bear which. in
two years, ruined all the h%og-raisers
and drove half the farmers out of busi-
ness, in the Sacramento Valley. and a
-rtain wolf in New Mexico, which
was reported to have killed q COW ev-
cry day for five years.
This wolf grew to be so we'll known
that an increasing price was set upon
his scalp, until the sum reached a thou
sand dollars. Ordinary meal OF hunt
ing OF trapping failed completely. The
wolf and his mate brought up their
cubs among some rocky precipices.
within q thousand yards OF the farm,
and killed cattle daily.
At this period Mr.. Thompson made
the acquaintance OF the vandal. and
tried to kill him by scientific methods.
He melted cheese mixed with fat of q
heifer in a china dish, cut it into Jumps
with a bone knife. to avoid the faint
Of metal, and concealed IN the Jumps
s%trychnine and cyanide. in odor-proof
capsules. In doing this he wore gloves
stepped in cows blood, and eve avoid
ed breathing on the hiatt.
One of these Jumps. placed in a tempt
ing position, disappeared. MIR. Thomp-
son followed the track to the next
lump, and the next, and noticed that
those also We're gone. at the fourth
together and scattered dirt Owe them.
The wolves now took to stampeding
and killing sheep. Half n dozen goats
are usually kept with each flock, as
leaders, and they are not easily stam-
pedcd at night; so when wolves are
about the sheep crowd about these
leaders and remain there while the
shepherds drive the wolves away. Tue
object of the wolves is to stampede the
sheep, and then pick them up, day by
day, afterward.
One night 6ley ran we the backs of
the huddlcd dock, and killed all the
goats in a few minutes. The sheep
were then available for prey.
Traps to the number of a hundred
and thirty were set in different parts
Of the big ranch. The trail of the pack
was followed, aud 1t became apparent
that the leader. warned by the scent.
stopped al the rest, and advanced
alone to the trap. He scratched until
he laid bare q dozen buried chains and
pickets. Then he entered an H-shaped
series Of traps, realized his danger, and
slowly backed out, putting down each
paw backward until he was Off the dam
gerous ground.
Afterward he sprung as many traps
as possible, by scratching clods and
stones at them with his hind feet.