Mature. How Wolves Hunt.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2084, 14 November 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

Mature. How Wolves Hunt.

The following curious incident is related bv Lord Siltoun, illustrative of the t&otics adopted by wolves in India for securing the capture of their prey. " We had sighted," he r ays, a small herd of antelopo, and wero about to try to get whhin range of them. '• The ground in front and all around was 1 maidaun,' or plain, but studded here and there with small clumps and belts of thorny bushes, most of the former high enough to hide an. The antelope were feeding on the plain, behind the left extremity of a narrow belt of bushes that stretched across in front of us for a few hundred yards, and we had managed to get up to a small bushy clnmp about 150 or 200 yards from them when Youug suddenly said— " ' Stopl be quiet ; ' and then, after a long look, added, ' Well yoa are in luck ; so short a time in this coantry, and yet about to see & eij>ht I have never myself seen but once before, long as I've been at Shikar,' and then he pointed out to me, about five or sir hundred yards to our right, and about as far from the right hand extremity of the belt of bushes as wo were from the left, a party of five large wolves, busily engaged in scraping & hole in the dry ground. " Wo hid ourselves from their eight, bat watched them, and presently saw four of them come towards us ; the fifth had laid down in the hola they had dug. "About half way they again stopped and scratched a shallow hole ; and then but three came od, leaving their companion crouohedin it. The three came right in front of the bush that concealed us, between us and the left end of the belt, and there, about forty yards to our front, they made a third shallow hole or depression on the surface, into whioh another of their party got. 1 ' The wind was blowing from oar left front what little there was of it ; and the remaining two wolves, taking advantage of every littlo bush or slight inequality in the ground that could afford them any shelter, proceeded to stalk np to the antelope round the left end of the belt, continuing their crawling approaoh until, having reached within twenty to thirty yarde, it waa etident that an 7 farther »dr»noe must give tho wind to their destined prey, when they dashed at them fall speed, and though they did not succeed in seizing one, during the panio that ensued they forced a doe to fly down wind, with them olose behind her. Breaking through the belt of bushea, her course led her diagonally aorots the plain, somewhat in the direction of the ambush farthest to the right, but rather wide of it. 11 When the wolf in that hole saw this he sprang out, and, beading her, be tamed her aoross or along tho line of holes. She passed rather wide of the centre onp, and its oooupant jumped np and followed close to her ; but she came so near that in front of ns a: to enable the wolf in it to spring oat and seize her. "B afore tho rest oonld oome up she struggled free, but he had torn her badly and lamed her, and she turned down past us, followed by the hungry crow. As iheoame on, said Young, • She can't live, bo you kill the doe and I'll take the biggest of these scoundrels,' and immediately the antelope and one of the wolves fell dead. " Tho otheri stopped, turned tail, and made of! at their best p&os ; we blazed oar seoond barrels after them and wounded another, but not severely enough to stop him. It wa« a rery interesting sight, and I could not help thinking that tho taotioa of the wolvea savoured as muoh of reason as of instinct. I had rather have got another of the wolves than the poor doe ; bat she oould not have lived, and it was meroy to kill her at once.