They seem to share the spoil as
intelligently as they catch it, the wolf that lies beside the runway and
pulls down the game giving up a portion gladly to the companion that
beats the bush, and rarely indeed is there any trace of quarreling
between them.
Like the eagles--which have long since learned the advantage of hunting
in pairs and of scouting for game in single file--the wolves, when
hunting deer on the open barrens where it is difficult to conceal their
advance, always travel in files, one following close behind the other;
so that, seen from in front where the game is watching, two or three
wolves will appear like a lone animal trotting across the plain. That
alarms the game far less at first; and not until the deer starts away
does the second wolf appear, shooting out from behind the leader. The
sight of another wolf appearing suddenly on his flank throws a young
deer into a panic, in which he is apt to lose his head and be caught by
the cunning hunters.
Curiously enough, the plains Indians, who travel in the same way when
hunting or scouting for enemies, first learned the trick--so an old
chief told me, and it is one of the traditions of his people--from
watching the timber wolves in their stealthy advance over the open
places.
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