Прыгоды з жыцця прыроды
Adventures from the life of nature
Вячаслаў Грамыка
Для сярэдняга школьнага ўзросту
Выдавец: Беларусь
Памер: 263с.
Мінск 2003
The wolves' movement was classical and regulated, the first year young wolves skillfully followed the she-wolf and the father-wolf brought up the rear.
Kuzmich moved farther following the wolves' footprints. The chain of footprints was as even and regulated as ever. It stretched to the sledge road by which farmers went to the forest for firewood. The footsteps crossed it, then whirled in the thicket and disappeared completely. But the old forester understood at once what it meant. The wolves went back to the road by their own trace where they had crossed the road for the first time. They passed very carefully, treading softly. An inexperienced man would have never guessed what the matter was, since that track did not differ from the other at first sight. In reality it was double. Thus, having walked back along its track the pack of wolves took the road and moved along the strip, rammed by sledges, which stretched by the forest at the beginning and then turned into the depth. And several peasants' wood sledges,
which went to the forest in the morning, have erased the wolves' tracks on the road, but not for Kuzmich.
He skied along the same route more than one and a half kilometer. Kuzmich even started thinking whether he had overlooked the place where beasts of prey jumped off the road, then he decided to walk into the depth of the forest a little bit more. Soon he noticed the track, which originated right from the road.
He thought that the wolves had decided: the camouflage they had made was quite enough, and perhaps they were not intending yet to have the day's rest. Having whirled a bit, they took the road again, went further and turned off it several times more, then returned again.
But all of a sudden all their tracks, dispersed as if in a disorder and now it was possible to discern exactly that there were six wolves in the pack. They were moving in broad sweeping leaps and then it became clear that the predators smelled the prey. That is exactly so: here their tracks intersected the track of an elk, not a very big one, two or three years old.
Puzzling out one track after another, Kuzmich gradually understood what had happened here by the morning.
The experienced leader made its way around the elk.
In such cases wolfs movements are always precisely planned; it is especially strained, ready to attack the prey at any moment. Though, one can very rarely see and observe a wolf at this time and not every hunter is lucky in that.
Actually, the leader of the pack was tracing out its amazing curves, but not for the sake of showing off. The wolf overcame noiselessly even the most dense parts of the forest, softly and surprisingly swiftly. It lay down right in the place where an elk was bound to go.
Meanwhile, the she-wolf walked along the elk's trace and young wolves have scattered on both sides, butting off the way for an elk.
The elk, looking for escape, rushed forward, but a mature predator stood in its way. It made a big leap and dug its razor-sharp teeth into the elk’s neck, into the most vulnerable and vitally important place; a stream of red and thick blood burst out from the
cut artery. At the same moment, young wolves pounced on the elk from the sides. They started tearing the animal apart ferociously. The she-wolf had only to join them.
Though, wolves do not always succeed in dealing with an elk so quickly and easily. Sometimes it happens that an old and mighty stag resists desperately and even attacks himself. It happens that with an accurate kick of a sharp hoof, an elk cuts the back of the head of a mature wolf and then all the rest take to their heels, daring to come back to that place only in a day or two to eat up their killed congener.
But this particular elk was still young, it must have strayed from the herd and became an easy prey for a pack of wolves.
***
Having regaled themselves with fresh meat, wolves hanged about by the place, wallowed in the snow and, having dragged the elk's remnants under the fallen tree there, they covered them with some snow and made for the place of their regular day's rest.
Now they were walking not so cautiously, lazily hauling heavy bellies. Probably they wanted to lie down as soon as possible somewhere in the thicket after long night marches, after hunting.
Kuzmich knew that now they would be lying low for several days and if they would want to profit a bit, there is still some meat remaining, it is nearby.
The wolves have passed another kilometer or two and lay for the day's rest in a remote old forest among wind-fallen tress covered with snow, at the bank of a small brook overgrown with thick shrubs.
But obviously, instinct of self-preservation was working in them. They lay down by the block-age of dried-up bare trees, having flattened themselves against it and the grass shooting from under the snow; their gray, slightly reddish hair almost merged with it and with the bare trees. Even if anybody came up very close, he would have hardly noticed the wolves at once.
And it is altogether very difficult to approach them.
As soon as the wolves got settled and began dozing, one of the young she-wolves went aside a bit and sort of stiffened, pricking up its ears. Today it stood sentry, not a single foreign sound or rustle should pass by its keen ear and in case any danger appears, the she-wolf would make a sign to the rest.
As soon as the forester approached the place of wolves' day's rest, by about half a kilometer away, the she-wolf raised its head, having smelt something suspicious and immediately made a sign to the pack. The latter, having risen to their feet, neglecting tiredness, ran about eight kilometer through the forest entangling the tracks, many times jumped aside, crossed the same place twice and then lay down to rest, posing, of course, a sentry again.
But that didn't confuse Kuzmich and only enkindled his hunter's passion. The forester did not mean to have the wolves over the barrel on the bed. He wanted to trace them, to determine their most probable location so as to prepare for a battue later on.
The old man even didn't worry that he had frightened the wolves off and they had walked far away from him. He knew perfectly well that if there were enough food for wolves in the neighborhood, they usually wouldn't stay too long in the same place. They undertake rather frequent and long journeys, constantly change areas of their raids for prey and places of their day's rest. If wolves fell into a habit of visiting some place, then even despite long marches they, in some time (as a rule it happens on the fourth, fifth and sometimes on the eighth day) would return again to that place almost for sure.
They know these parts better and, probably and most likely, their den is somewhere nearby. It seems that wolves make a short journey in the neighborhood — across the fields and forest tracts, looking out for the place where it will be possible to call on again for prey. During such journeys wolves call on the places of human habitation. Now they can attack a dog, which had moved far away from its home, then they pick up thrown-out pig guts in the backyards (during the season when boars are flayed), sometimes they regale with carrion near stables or farms.
Having made a round of the neighborhood wolves come back and again cover approximately the same routes several times. Therefore, it is important to trace once the place where wolves hunt or to find the day's beds so that one could reckon on meeting them there in 5 to 8 days.
After that early ski march Kuzmich understood everything what had happened recently in the neighborhood.
He visited farmsteads once more, called on nearly every hunter and instructed everybody to be ready for hunting in 4 days.
The old man advised people not to lounge about in the forest with no need so as the beasts would not be frightened, said he would show up again very soon and made for his home.
***
At home Kuzmich had a good sleep first of all, so as to be fit. The next day he got down to prepare for hunting. He had to make a string with small bits of bright red cloth attached to it (winter round-up on wolves is impossible without small flags). It should be mentioned that wolves react to red flags in a very peculiar way. These daring and cunning beasts, which steal sheep before shepherds' very eyes, fearlessly get into a sheep barn or kill a mighty bull in the field, don't dare to cross a line marked by an ordinary string with bits of red cloth fastened to it. That is why the hunters, having determined the place where wolves lie in hiding, cautiously encircle this area with small flags — as they say, they make a battue for wolves.
Such areas may reach 3 — 4 kilometers in diameter. So, having stretched out the string, the hunters usually remove the flags in one place, making the so-called “window”, where a firing line is arranged. There may be several such “windows”.
Beaters raise wolves from their bed place and the beasts, not daring to approach the strained string with flags, rush into free “windows” where they are caught by the hunters' fire.
Such hunting seems very simple at first sight. In reality it is very complicated. Wolves, when they have been closed round, often use cunning, behave in the way nobody expects them to — one can only be amazed at their discretion and sharpness of wit.
Anyway, the main thing for a hunter here is to close round the beats in proper time, not to allow them to leave the circle ahead of time.
Getting ready for the hunt, Kuzmich drew out several reels, which he had hidden under the roof of the barn last spring. Strings with flags were wound round these reels. Kuzmich unwound the skeins thoroughly, stretched them across the hut from one wall to another. Then he stoked his stove very hot so as the strings would get dry and become light. At the places where flags were loose on the sting the forester fixed them fast using strong brown thread. He replaced those flags, which had been worn out, torn and were faded because of time with new ones, having cut them from red cloth. In such a way he received several long strings with bright flame-colored flags.
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