Note 6 — Chapter XII · IN THE LOUISIANA CANEBRAKES

My own experience has been that wolves are more apt to kill cattle than horses, whereas with cougars the reverse is true. It is another instance of variability—doubtless both in the observed and the observers. Wolves may seize an animal anywhere in a scuffle, and a pack will literally tear a small deer to pieces; but when one or two wolves attack a big animal, like a bull caribou, elk or moose, or a horse or a steer, the killing or crippling wounds are inflicted in the flanks, hams or throat. Very rarely an animal is seized by the head. To any real naturalist or hunter, or indeed to any competent observer, it is unnecessary to say that no wolf, and no other wild beast, ever bites, or can by any possibility bite, one of these large animals, like a horse, moose, or caribou, in the heart; yet an occasional “nature fakir,” more than usually reckless in his untruthfulness, will assert that such incidents do happen; and, what is even more remarkable, uninformed people of more than average credulity appear to believe the assertion.