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"The Custer Wolf is Dead." (1921) [pdf]
- Litost 2y agoIt's worth remebering this last phrase "In that simple fashion does the man who outwitted the cleverest of animal criminals tell his story." whilst reading Aldo Leopold famous short piece from A Sand County Almanac, Thinking Like a Mountain: https://ia600707.us.archive.org/6/items/ThinkingLikeAMountain/Thinking%20Like%20a%20Mountain.pdf https://ia600707.us.archive.org/6/items/ThinkingLikeAMountai...
- CobrastanJorji 2y ago"I now suspect that just as a deer herd Lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortal fear of its deer." That's a great quote, right there.
- cushychicken 2y agoI agree - that’s a standout even with a lot of beautiful prose in that piece.
- Litost 2y agoYes, as you both mention, great prose and great insight. One of my favourite pieces of nature writing as it succinctly cuts through what seems to be the modern disease of problem creation masquerading as problem solving so elequoently and hard hitting. Obviously because we so often seem to fail at taking the long term and/or ecological and/or interconnected system view.
- egypturnash 2y ago"The price on his head was $500". In 1921. Inflation estimators say this is about $8800 now.
- joeevans1000 2y agoSo sad.
- salynchnew 2y agoRelated article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custer_Wolf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custer_Wolf
- lxe 2y agoThis was featured in This American Life 581, which is a nice episode https://www.thisamericanlife.org/582/when-the-beasts-come-marching-in https://www.thisamericanlife.org/582/when-the-beasts-come-ma...
- Hilift 2y agoFarmers in South Dakota were so poor they couldn't afford to trap/stop the wolf, so they enlisted the federal government to do it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custer_Wolf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custer_Wolf
- tetris11 2y ago"the wolf took to fallen timber and so could not be tracked" Do fallen trees give off a funky scent that masks a wolfs?