Wolf
a crafty, rapacious animal of the dog family. Of all wild animals the wolf is most closely related to the dog. There are numerous species found chiefly in the north temperate zone. The corresponding animals of warmer climes are the jackal and the hyena. The last wolf in Great Britain was killed in 1710, but wolves are still numerous in some parts of France, Hungary, Spain, and Turkey. Thrilling tales are told of travelers run down by wolf packs on the forest roads of Russia. The common wolf of North America is very much like that of Europe. It stands about twenty-six inches high at the shoulder. The body is about forty-eight inches long, with an additional fifteen inches of tail. The nose is sharp. The sense of smell is keen. The eyes are deep set. The face is crafty. The fangs are formidable. The body is lithe, tough, and full of endurance. The foot is light and full of speed. The winter coat is long, shaggy, and coarse, well calculated to stand the storm. It varies in color from black in Florida and red in Mexico to white in Alaska.
The character of the wolf is well set forth in the nursery tale of Red Riding Hood. It is strong, cunning, ravenous, merciless, and we may add, cowardly. The wolf has none of the nice ways of a fox; none of the generous, faithful characteristics of the dog. It is an inveterate thief. It cannot be petted; it cannot be trusted. In captivity a wolf may be pounded or caressed, fed or starved, and it is a mean-spirited, treacherous, snapping, quarrelsome wolf yet.
In the wild the common wolf lives in the timber or on the prairie. It is active at all seasons of the year. The young, five in number, come early in May. They are of a brown color and weigh about a pound each. The female chooses a den in the bank of a ravine, in a cave, or in a burrow under a pile of brushwood.
Ordinarily wolves hunt separately or in small families, living on rabbits, partridges, and other small birds and animals, giving clearings and human habitations a wide berth. Wolves are the natural enemies of the young buffalo and the fawn, the calf of the moose and of the musk ox. In times of food scarcity the wolf grows bolder and attacks the farmer's sheep, hogs, calves, and stray poultry. Under some circumstances wolves gather in packs and hunt the larger animals. As distinguished from the prairie wolf or coyote, they are called timber wolves, and are frequently reported to have chased people, but instances of human life taken by American timber wolves are very few. Most states offer a bounty of from $2 to $10 for the destruction of a wolf. The common wolf, the timber wolf, the buffalo wolf, and the gray wolf, are names for the same animal, as distinguished from the coyote or prairie wolf.