It is possible that this
destruction of the wolves is due to some disease among them, perhaps to
hydrophobia, a terrible malady from which it is known that they
suffer greatly at times. Perhaps the bear is helped by its habit of
hibernating, which frees it from most dangers during winter; but
this cannot be the complete explanation, for in the South it does not
hibernate, and yet holds its own as well as in the North. What makes it
all the more curious that the American wolf should disappear sooner
than the bear is that the reverse is the case with the allied species of
Europe, where the bear is much sooner killed out of the land.
Indeed the differences of this sort between nearly related animals are
literally inexplicable. Much of the difference in temperament between
such closely allied species as the American and European bears and
wolves is doubtless due to their surroundings and to the instincts they
have inherited through many generations; but for much of the variation
it is not possible to offer any explanation.
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