Range Of The American Gray—Wolf (detail) 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. See Part I, The Gray Wolf, and the beginning of a series on Lobo, the wolf made famous in the story “The King of Currumpaw.” In this section Seton references the Wolves trapped during his 1893-1894 Wolf hunting trip in New Mexico; he also lists the Winnipeg Wolf, an animal he documented in Animal Heroes from 1905.
Introduction/Vol I pg. 251—253
“The genus Canis is composed of the true Dogs. They have long pointed muzzles, long legs, long bushy tails, and pointed ears; have 4 toes on each hind-foot and 5 on each front, but the innermost of the 5 toes is very short and small, and raised so that it does not touch the ground; the claws are blunt and non-retractile.
Size of male (nubilus). A good-sized Gray-wolf that I caught at Clayton, Colfax County, New Mexico, Dec. 1, 1893, was 5 ft. 2 in. (1575 mm.) from nose-tip to tail-bone tip; of this, its tail was 16 in. (406 mm.); shoulders, 27 in. (686 mm.); girth of neck, 18 in. (457 mm.); girth of chest, 28½ in. (724 mm.); girth of forearm, 8 in. (209 mm.). Its weight was 102 lbs.; other ♂s caught in the region weighed 90 and 78 lbs. W. R. Hine weighed the Winnipeg Wolf, a ♂at 104 lbs. The Friedensfeld (Manitoba) Wolf, a ♂, weighed 76 lbs.
T. P. James, of Clayton, N.M., assured me that in the fall of 1892, he killed a huge Wolf that turned the standard scales at 150 lbs.
The largest Wolf of which I have details was captured by G. W. Myers, of Billings County, N. D., in 1902. It weighed 168 lbs., and measured 7 ft. 10 in. in total length. These, however are extreme, and the weights taken in New Mexico more nearly represent the normal ♂.
Size of female (nubilus). A ♀, taken near Clayton, N. M., Dec. 29, 1893, was 4 ft. 7½ in. long (1410 mm.); tail, 12 in. (305 mm.), but imperfect; hind-foot, 10 in. (254 mm.); height at shoulders, 25 in. (635 mm.); weight, 75 lbs. Another weighed 80 lbs., and a third, a poor one, only 55 lbs.”
Colfax County Wolf
“Colour. The skin of the Colfax County, N. M., ♂ is now before me. It is, in general, a dull, yellowish-white, becoming nearly pure white on cheeks, chest , and inside of hind-legs. The upper part of the muzzle, crown, and outer side of each limb and the entire plantar surface of each foot is tinged a clear pale sienna. On the backs of the ears, the sienna is much deeper and stronger. Beginning on the muzzle between the eyes are many black tipped hairs which give a grizzled look. These increase in length and number, and continue over head, upper neck, shoulder, and back to the basal third of the tail, where they end in a black spot 1 in. wide and 2 in. long. After this, the tail hairs are faintly tipped brownish black; the tail itself ending in a dark tip of blackish hairs, with a few white ones interspersed.
The under-fur or wool is brownish gray on the under parts, becoming much darker on the limbs and much browner and darker on upper parts generally.
The dark spot on the tail near its base is formed by a curious tuft of stiff, black-tipped hairs, without woolly under-fur; it marks the place of the usual tail-gland. The claws are dark horn-colour.”
Compared with a number of Coyote skins taken at the same place, there is no absolute difference. The Coyotes are more strongly tinged with sienna above, and more nearly pure white below. Also, their under-fur on the back is tipped with a rich brown instead of dark gray-brown. But they have the same black tuft over the tail-gland, and there is little but size to distinguish them when living.