Blanca’s Head. Life Study, 1894, by Ernest Thompson Seton
This is one in an ongoing series of nature essays from Lives of Game Animals (1925-1928) by Ernest Thompson Seton.
Also, check out this wonderful new film about wolves and Hopi culture.
The Gray-Wolf
Numbers of Wolves To-Day/Vol I pg. 263
“In 1918, the reports show that the Wolf was rapidly disappearing. The 1907 killings in the Cattle States, i.e., those west of the 100th meridian, totaled 1,723, and in 1918 had fallen to one half, or 849. Trapping is carried on more vigorously than ever. The argument from these facts and figures is that in all the Cattle States to-day there less than 3,000 Gray-wolves. Twenty-five years ago [ca. 1898 when ‘Lobo, King of Currumpaw’ was published], I estimated the number at 500,000.”
Marriage Customs/Vol I pg. 269
“The Wolf-hunters in New Mexico tell me that when they find a Wolf’s den, two old ones are sure to be hovering about, and in January [1894] I saw there at least one case of a male being deeply devoted to a certain female.” [The story of Lobo and Blanca.]
The Good Father Wolf/Vol I pg. 276
“What a commentary is invited by all this! Our only chance of trapping and destroying these wonderful creatures is by playing on their noblest emotions – love of their young or devotion to each other.”
A Killer of Deer, etc./Vol I pg. 297-298
“Now we come to the great food supply of the Western Wolves to-day, the Cattle of the ranges. Have we not robbed the Gray-wolf of his lawful ancient food, the Buffalo? Have we not declared war on him and his? Do we not harry and hate him? What more reasonable then, than this – that he should prey upon our gear, nourish himself and his family with the proper spoils of war, the Cattle that we call ours, but which are the property of those who first can get and keep them.”
His True Character—A Challenge/Vol I pg.336-337
“Thus have I offered evidence of the courage, the chivalry, the strength, the playfulness, the love loyalty, the fidelity, the friendliness, the kindliness, the heroism, the goodness of the Wolf – completing my attempt to set before you the faithful and fearless portrait of a creature so long maligned; to piece together the little scraps of truth I have found in countless hunter-tales, like gold raked out of garbage bins; to make you know the wild one’s true character and his way of life as it really is.
Now with all the evidence before me and much more of the same available, and with the story of Lobo in mind (for it is true in the main), can any one wonder that I love the Gray-wolf and credit him with true nobility of character – with the attributes of a true animal hero?”