The Wrangell sentinel. (Wrangell, Alaska) 1909-current, 1933-02-24

CARIBOU Win record set OF nOFns
which are, listed in a late book call
ed Records of North American Big
Came"
We ranged the deer on the heads
of East Fork and Middle Fork OF
Chulitna rivers, tributaries of up
per Susitna river, and around on the
north slope of Alaska Range to the
headwaters of the Nenana River and
the valley leading into Valdez
| Creek.
Caribou Join Reindeer
All through here in October and
November it is good caribou country
and always there are a few wolves
| following along. After snowfall we
| began to see a wolf track or two
once in a while. In the winter the
reindeer herd would be punched up
In the evening and left alone all
night. What an enticing bait for
| wolves! But we were never bothered
by them during the time was with
the herd. Our greatest trouble was
TO keep the big herds of caribou
away from the reindeer. Every
morning when we came out to the
reindeer we would find from fifty
20 one hundred caribou mixed in
with the deer and we would have
to carefully cut them out. Several
times the caribou went ON a STAN
pede out of the herd and quite a
few reindeer ran off with them.
domesticated for many generations
and close breeding has changed
them slightly in size, color and
contour.
Caribou Faster Than Wolves
Now a word about the running
speed of caribou, wolves and dogs.
One of our dogs was large collie
with deep chest and the build of
a hound and from his continuous
ceptionally fast l used to love to
see a good race and when running
bunch of caribou away from the
reindeer / would maneuver over
along back of some cover to get the
Jog up as close as possible, then tell
aim to Take EN- away" The dog
with his flying start sometimes got
as close as 200 feet of the caribou
before they got under way. They
would start with a mad scrambling
run, settle to a bounding trot and
gradually draw away. The collie
never had a chance of nipping their
heels and when the distance opened
to about 300 yards, he would give
up the race and come back after
running about mile and a half.
Now, then, to link up Incidents;
quite a few years back one summer
| watched two fast dogs catch
wolf in a sprint race. As they drew
upon him he whirled and faced them
and they put on the brakes and
would not close with him. l had a
.38 pistol and ran after them; as
drew up within 200 yards the wolf
dashed away. The dogs soon over
hauled him again. These proceed
lngs kept up until l had to give up
the race and l felt like showering
lead out there on all three of them.
Now by putting these incidents
together l know that a wolf cannot
catch caribou in a short dash or
sprint but has to stay with them
until he can drag down a weak
one or a calf. l have never seen a
wolf kill anything but l have watch
ed a chase and know what would
soon happen.
Wolf Hunt Habits
l was 'siwashing" around with
just what l could carry on my back
one summer in July up the Yanert
river east of Mckinley Park. The
days were so hot that was packing
nights, which were cool and almost
as light as midday. AS 1 was moving
along | noticed a caribou come trot-
ting slowly out of draw and head
across the valley. About 400 yards
behind him two wolves trotted along
keeping pace with him. / sat down,
took out my glasses and watched
them. could see that they had been
going for a long time as the carbon
was well blown and travelling with
his mouth open. They crossed the
valley, went over a low ridge and
out of sight. am confident that
the wolves followed that caribou I'M
til it stopped from exhaustion. and
that is the way they hunt.