Wild Animals I Have Known

by Seton, Ernest Thompson; Arnason, David

• ISBN13: 9780771093807
• ISBN10: 0771093802
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-08-04
• Publisher: New Canadian Library

Summary

In Wild Animals I Have Known, Ernest Thompson Seton guides us through the inner lives of the creatures he met on Manitoba's plains, New Mexico's ranges, and in Toronto's ravines. His portrayal of the ways of nature is a fascinating reflection of the conflicting impulses of his time: Romanticism is tempered by scientific observation; sentimentality by Darwinian dispassion. Yet each of Seton's animal heroes - Silverspot the Crow, Raggylug, the Cottontail Rabbit, and Wully, the Yaller Dog - is in his way an exception among his kind.

Author Biography

Ernest Thompson Seton was born in South Shields, Durham, England, in 1860. His family emigrated to Canada in 1866 and settled near Lindsay, Ontario. Four years later they moved to Toronto, where Seton received his early education. He graduated from the Ontario College of Art in 1879 and pursued further studies at the Royal Academy in England, and at l'Académie Julian in Paris.

Seton returned to Canada in 1881 and joined his brother on a homestead near Carberry, Manitoba. There he made extensive notes on the behaviour of animals and birds, complementing his studies as a naturalist with commissioned work as an illustrator and painter.

His first collection of animal stories, Wild Animals I Have Known (1898), won immediate critical and popular acclaim, and was followed in the next four decades by more than thirty volumes of such fiction.
Seton founded a youth organization, the League of Woodcraft Indians, and in 1910 joined Lord Baden-Powell in establishing the Boy Scouts of America. In the same year, he wrote the Boy Scouts of America Official Manual.

In 1930 Seton moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he set up Seton Village, a centre for environmentalists, naturalists, and students of North American Indian culture.

Ernest Thompson Seton died in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1946.


From the Paperback edition.

Table of Contents

Note to the Reader	p. XI
Lobo, the King of Currumpaw	p. 3
Silverspot, the Story of a Crow	p. 33
Raggylug, the Story of a Cottontail Rabbit	p. 57
Bingo, the Story of My Dog	p. 97
The Springfield Fox	p. 123
The Pacing Mustang	p. 153
Wully, the Story of a Yaller Dog	p. 187
Redruff, the Story of the Don Valley Partridge	p. 211
Afterword	p. 250
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Lobo
The King of Currumpaw

 

I
 
Currumpaw is a vast cattle range in northern New Mexico. It is a land of rich pastures and teeming flocks and herds, a land of rolling mesas and precious running waters that at length unite in the Currumpaw River, from which the whole region is named. And the king whose despotic power was felt over its entire extent was an old gray wolf.
 
Old Lobo, or the king, as the Mexicans called him, was the gigantic leader of a remarkable pack of gray wolves, that had ravaged the Currumpaw Valley for a number of years. All the shepherds and ranchmen knew him well, and, wherever he appeared with his trusty band, terror reigned supreme among the cattle, and wrath and despair among their owners. Old Lobo was a giant among wolves, and was cunning and strong in proportion to his size. His voice at night was well-known and easily distinguished from that of any of his fellows. An ordinary wolf might howl half the night about the herdsman's bivouac without attracting more than a passing notice, but when the deep roar of the old king came booming down the cañon, the watcher bestirred himself and prepared to learn in the morning that fresh and serious inroads had been made among the herds.
 
Old Lobo's band was but a small one. This I never quite understood, for usually, when a wolf rises to the position and power that he had, he attracts a numerous following. It may be that he had as many as he desired, or perhaps his ferocious temper prevented the increase of his pack. Certain is it that Lobo had only five followers during the latter part of his reign. Each of these, however, was a wolf of renown, most of them were above the ordinary size, one in particular, the second in command, was a veritable giant, but even he was far below the leader in size and prowess. Several of the band, besides the two leaders, were especially noted. One of those was a beautiful white wolf, that the Mexicans called Blanca; this was supposed to be a female, possibly Lobo's mate. Another was a yellow wolf of remarkable swiftness, which, according to current stories had, on several occasions, captured an antelope for the pack.
 
It will be seen, then, that these wolves were thoroughly well-known to the cowboys and shepherds. They were frequently seen and oftener heard, and their lives were intimately associated with those of the cattlemen, who would so gladly have destroyed them. There was not a stockman on the Currumpaw who would not readily have given the value of many steers for the scalp of any one of Lobo's band, but they seemed to possess charmed lives, and defied all manner of devices to kill them. They scorned all hunters, derided all poisons, and continued, for at least five years, to exact their tribute from the Currumpaw ranchers to the extent, many said, of a cow each day. According to this estimate, therefore, the band had killed more than two thousand of the finest stock, for, as was only too well-known, they selected the best in every instance.
 
The old idea that a wolf was constantly in a starving state, and therefore ready to eat anything, was as far as possible from the truth in this case, for these freebooters were always sleek and well-conditioned, and were in fact most fastidious about what they ate. Any animal that had died from natural causes, or that was diseased or tainted, they would not touch, and they even rejected anything that had been killed by the stockmen. Their choice and daily food was the tenderer part of a freshly killed yearling heifer. An old bull or cow they disdained, and though they occasionally took a young calf or colt, it was quite clear that veal or horseflesh was not their favorite diet. It was also known that they were not fond of mutton, although they often amused themselves by killing sheep. One night in November, 1893, Blanca and the yellow wolf killed two hundred and fifty sheep, ap

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Excerpted from Wild Animals I Have Known by Ernest Thompson Seton
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.