The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-11-20
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKN, Director.
Washington, ID. O.
THE QUEST OF THE LONE WOLF.

THE QUEST OF THE LONE WOLF.
Washington, d. c., Nov. 16.-This
| sounds like a title for a movie, but it
is really an accurate description of a
| job just finished by H. p. Williams of
! Custer, South Dakota, who is one of
| the most experienced of the small
| standing army of trappers employed
! by the Biological Survey in its work
| of discriminating predatory animals.
| williams was directed to spend all
of his time in the task of getting one
| old and cunning wolf, which had been
| dining on beef and eluding rifle, trap,
dogs and poison for years. Ranchmen
! old prairie pirate, but word has just
| been received at the Biological Sur
vey that Williams has been successful
| in his long hunt. The hide of the
Dakota freebooter will probably be in
| Washington before long.
If you think that the pursuit of a
single wolf is an inadequate occupa-
: ton for a government employee, you
| should be informed that this wolf is
! estimated to have destroyed SIS, 900
worth of beef and mutton during his
| lifetime, and that he was piling up
| the score at the rate of more than a
| thousand dollars year.
This wolf had developed a cunning
which compares favorably with the
| mental operations of many humans.
For example, when he killed a COW, it
was his custom to travel a few miles,
and then come back. paralleling his
| first track at a distance of q few rods.
| He then returned to the edge of the
| thick timber. When hounds were put
| on his track, he watched them go by,
and retired to safety in one direction
while they were going in the other.
A Hard Job.
To find and kill a single wolf in a
large and broken wilderness might
seem hopeless task, but the govern
| ment hunters have gotten their meth
DDS of work down pretty fine. They
know that a wolf, like a man, is a
cGeature of habit. However widely he
may range, he always returns to the
same places eventually.
Furthermore, wolves are also like
men and like most other creatures,
in that they cannot do wholly without
others of their kind. Wolves have
signboardS, as have dogs, where pass
ers-by register their presence for the
information of the next conner. By
locating these canine registers. the
wolf hunter can map the range of a
wolf or that of a band of wolves with
tolerable accuracy. He usually finds
that wolf travels in a great circle,
sometimes a hundred and fifty miles
| in circumference. He never kills
| twice in succession in the same vicin-
| ity, but the hunter may nevertheless
guess about where the next kill will
| be.
| Wolves soon learn how to detect
| poison in meat, and express their
scorn of such crude methods by
scratching dirt over the poisoned bait.
| Poison will kill out the young and
| foolish animals in a region when it is
! first used there, but the survivors are
| wise and cannot be taken that way.
| Traps are a more reliable method, but
| the wolves paf UiSa m fhoCo
The utmost precautions must be used
| to hide the scent of iron. The hunter
stands on a calf hide while setting
/ the trap, he smokes the trap itself and
| handles it with blood-soaked gloves.
Even so, the wolf who is old and wise
often walks around the trap as care
| fully as tho it were marked with a
| danger sign. Hunting with hounds
/ and lying in wait with a rifle are the
other chief methods.
! The lobo or gray wolf is one of the
few figures of the old west that still
survives. These wolves in the early
i days hung on the TANKS of the buff
| falo herds in great numbers, killing
| off the old bulls, the strays and calves.
| They were so common that buffalo
| hunters seldom wasted any of their
precious ammunition on them. But
when the buffalo herds were gone and
the cattle herds, working slowly north
| from Old Mexico, began to cover the
great plains, the lobo became the
| greatest pest of the business. Except
| ing his small cousin, the coyote, he
has been the hardest of all the preda-
tory beasts to destroy. Time was when
| the lordly grizzly used to come far
| down on the plains, and kill the largest
| bulls with a blow of his paw. The
grizzly could fight, but he could
fore the repeating rifle he retired in
dwindling numbers to the farthest
recesSes of the mountain canyons. He
still kills a few sheep, but scarcely
anywhere is he factor in the cattle
| business.
But the wolves, after just about
! fifty years of persecution, are still very
much a factor. They are greatly re-
| duced in numbers, but nearly every
section of open range country still has
its little band of wolves. And their
appetite for beef is enormous. 1t costs
$1,000 a year or more to support every
one of them. The biological survey has
therefore decreed hnmerciful war
against them, and II is probable that
they are doomed. In some sections.
as in that where Williams hunted, only
a single wolf is left. In such cases the
wolf has been known to steal march
on civilization by mating with dog
and raising a litter of wolf-dogs that
are Just as bad as wolves, and some
| times worse.
The Wise Coyote.
The little coyote, also a true wolf,
has survived the advance of civiliza-
| ton much better than the lobo- He is
still numerous all over the West, and is
reported to be extending his range
eastward. The coyote does great dam
age to sheep, taking regularly 10 per
cent of the lamb crop, in many sec
lions of the Southwest. but he is not
a menace to cattle. Furthermore, he
does not depend upon stock for a liv-
ing to the extent that the wolf does.
If the sheep men make it too hot for
him, he can retire into a desert coun-
try, where you would think a buzzard
would starve. and there live on mice,
lizards and an occasional jack rabbit.
1t is possible to reduce his numbers in
sections where he is a pest but he is
in no danger whatever of being ex-