The Wolves Herd Caribou and Train Their Pups

The Wolves Herd Caribou and Train Their Pups is a daytime hunt that turns a passing mass of Caribou into a lesson for the young wolves. George gathers the family, while Angeline, Uncle Albert, and the Stranger lead the drive. The adults first move a broad stream of deer north, then focus on a smaller group of does and fawns; the pups join the pursuit but are unable to catch their quarry. The scene matters both for its display of coordinated hunting and for the contrast between adult experience and youthful exertion: the adults direct the action, while the pups learn through a chase they cannot yet complete.

A Hunt Begins in the Daytime

The action interrupts what the observer had taken for an after-dinner rest. Caribou continue to pass the resting wolves, and a doe comes within twenty yards of one pup without causing alarm. The pup watches her, looks back toward the family, and slinks away; even George’s approach and brief feint only send the doe back down the ridge. The encounter seems to promise little more than a short exchange between an unconcerned deer and resting hunters. Instead, George goes to Angeline again and persists until she rises and follows him.

Angeline’s response sets the family in motion. She and George approach Uncle Albert and the Stranger, who are sleeping, and both get up. The pups also rouse and hurry over. The adults and young form a rough circle and howl as they had at the den before setting out on a hunt. The Caribou barely react: only a few lift their heads, and those that do soon resume grazing. The contrast is striking. A sound that organizes the wolves does not, by itself, alarm the passing herd.

Angeline, Uncle Albert, and the Stranger leave together, while George stays on the ridge with the pups. When one youngster tries to follow the three adults, George turns him back, and the pup rejoins its siblings. The division of the group is clear before the hunt proper begins: three adults go ahead, while George remains with the young wolves.

Driving the Herd

With the wind coming from the south, the three adults move upwind in a close group, then trot in single file across the tundra. They pass Caribou without testing the small herds they encounter, including groups with fawns. Near the observer, Angeline pauses with the other two. After the wolves smell one another, she rises and turns toward the ridge where George and the pups are waiting. Her glance takes in at least two hundred deer between the groups, with more entering the valley from the east.

The three adults spread into a line, with a couple of hundred yards between them, and run north across nearly the full width of the valley. The pace is not all-out, but the formation changes how the Caribou can move: rather than simply avoiding a wolf by running to one side, herd after herd turns and travels north. Some groups try to break through. The nearest wolves converge on them and press them onward. The line cannot cover the whole valley, however, and some deer discover that they can pass around its open ends and resume their southerly course. Even so, the wolves have gathered at least a hundred Caribou and driven them toward the ridge.

Near the ridge, the mass of deer separates back into smaller bands and scatters in different directions. The wolves do not try to stop every group. They concentrate instead on a band of twelve does and seven fawns. Each attempt by this smaller group to turn left or right is blocked, until the deer abandon those efforts and run straight ahead. As the band passes a clump of willows at the ridge’s end, other wolves appear to meet it from the flank. The broad drive has given way to a more focused pursuit.

The Pups Join the Chase

George runs toward a doe with two fawns but veers away as he reaches them. Two pups race past him toward the nearer fawn. It dodges; one pup makes too sharp a turn, tumbles, and immediately gets up to continue. The other pups are mixed among the running Caribou, out of the observer’s sight. When the herd pulls away, all four pups appear at the rear, still running hard but losing ground.

One fawn begins to outdistance its pursuers as well. The pups continue at full speed, though they no longer have a chance of catching any of the deer. The scene shows youthful effort without presenting it as a successful kill: the pups take part in the chase, but the observed action ends with them falling behind. Their participation follows the earlier division of the family, in which the adults went ahead and George stayed with them on the ridge.

Rest After the Exercise

George watches from where he has remained, his tail moving slowly, while Angeline watches the retreating Caribou from the ridge. Uncle Albert and the Stranger have already returned and lain down to rest. The pups take half an hour to come back. So weary that they can hardly climb the ridge, they join the adults and flop down, panting. None of the adults pays them any heed; the chase has ended in rest rather than celebration or a visible kill.

The observer concludes that the day’s lesson is over. That ending gives the episode its shape: the adults organize a complex movement of the herd, the pups are permitted to run with the pursuit, and the young return exhausted after a chase they could not finish. In other hunts the observer had seen, wolves often tested deer and turned away when the animals ran well; here, the adults first drive a large body of Caribou and then focus on one smaller band. The contrast makes this hunt more than a sequence of pursuit. It records the pups’ participation in a family hunt and shows the difference between the adults’ coordinated work and the young wolves’ still-developing ability to keep up.