CHAPTER XXIV
HUNTING RUSES AMONGST THE HIGHER ANIMALS—WOLVES, FOXES, AND JACKALS—UNTEMPERED JUSTICE—GESTURE-LANGUAGE IN MEN AND DOGS—THE CAPE HUNTING-DOG AND HIS PREY.
In several of the preceding chapters we have seen something of the stratagems and contrivances made use of by various creatures—fish, insects, birds, or crustaceans—in order to secure their prey. Similar devices, as might be expected, are not unknown amongst the mammalia also. The list, however, is not so long as one might expect, considering the superior intelligence of this class of animals, but we must remember that it is not so easy to study the habits of wild quadrupeds as it is those of insects and various small creatures. It is principally with wolves, foxes, and jackals that the observations in question have been made, no doubt because such animals, owing to their abundance, or through other reasons, have come more into contact with mankind.
All these three species, either habitually or occasionally, hunt together in concert—that is to say, either two or more carry out a certain plan, in which each helps the other. Thus, in India, Mr. Elliott observed, one morning, two wolves standing side by side as though in consultation, whilst far off, upon the plain, grazed a small herd of nylgaus—the typical Indian antelope—on which their eyes were, from time to time, fixed with a greedy longing. At length the plan of campaign was decided upon. One of the wolves trotted quietly off to a small nullah or ravine, where it lay down amidst the bushes with which its sides were dotted, whilst the other, with a stealthier pace, made a wide circle which brought him, at length, unobserved, on the farther side of the antelopes, and at no great distance from them. Further concealment was now unnecessary, and suddenly flinging off the mask, the wolf rushed down upon the startled creatures, and began to drive them towards the nullah. This it did by continually rushing round, either on one side or the other, according as the herd showed a disposition to break away to right or left of the line along which they were required to go, exactly as a sheep-dog drives the sheep to the fold. At length, when the nullah was reached, the wolf that lay behind a bush on the very edge of it, leapt suddenly out, and selecting a doe, sprang upon it, and being joined by its fellow strategist, the two soon pulled it down, and feasted on it at their leisure.
What would have happened had the wolf behind the bush failed in securing an antelope, and had the herd in consequence got away? We may surmise from the following anecdote, as told by Jesse in his well-known Gleanings from Natural History. “A sportsman—I think it was in Scotland—had walked out one evening with his attendant, hoping to shoot a hare. They proceeded together to some rocky ground, part of which formed the side of a very high hill, which was not accessible for a sportsman, and from which both hares and foxes took their way in the evening to the plain below. There were two channels or gullies made by the rains, leading from these rocks to the lower ground. Near one of these channels the two men stationed themselves. They had not been there long when they observed a fox coming down the gully, and followed by another. After playing together for a little time, one of the foxes concealed himself under a large stone or rock which was at the bottom of the channel, and the other returned to the rocks. He soon, however, came back chasing a hare before him. As the hare was passing the stone where the first fox had concealed himself, he tried to seize her by a sudden spring, but missed his aim. The chasing fox then came up, and finding that his expected prey had escaped, through the want of skill in his associate, he fell upon him, and they both fought with so much animosity that the parties who had been watching their proceedings came up and destroyed them both,” thus making incomplete a most interesting observation.
In all probability, therefore, the two wolves, had the one that lay in ambush missed his spring, would have fought too, and this makes me the more inclined to believe a story which was told me—not, however, by an eye-witness—of wolves in America: from which it would appear that when the stratagem is carried out by more than a pair of associates, the duty of seizing the prey, if it devolves upon a single member of the band, may be a very dangerous one indeed. In the case alluded to, the wolf that had to do this lay down by a small stream, at a place where it was fordable, and a wapiti was driven down upon it, through woods that fringed the bank, by the rest of the pack, amounting to a dozen or more. Knowing the ford, the wapiti made straight for it, and the wolf, springing up at the critical moment, either missed his mark or was shaken off by the powerful quarry. He was foiled, at any rate, and the wapiti, dashing into the water, gained the opposite bank and got clean away. Hardly had he disappeared when the pack, headed by a wolf of great size and strength—evidently the leader—came up, and now a most remarkable and, withal, tragic scene was enacted. The wolf that had failed flung itself on its back, and whining in the most pitiful way, appeared to bespeak the mercy of its incensed fellows, and especially of the grim-looking leader, whose action in the matter all seemed to await expectantly. For a moment or two—during which the whines and cries of the wretched criminal rose to an agony—the latter seemed to waver, but ferocity, or long-established custom, carried the day. He sprang forward to execute justice, and his example being instantly followed by the rest of the pack, the poor penitent was quickly torn to pieces and devoured on the spot. I cannot, as I say, vouch for this story, as I have not read or heard the original account of the person who is supposed to have witnessed the incident, but it tallies very curiously with the other two, both of which are authentic.
Awaiting Judgment.
The great leader of the wolf pack stood over the wretched delinquent, hesitating whether to be merciful or to give the signal for him to be torn in pieces.