Animals Are Sad When Others Die!
Lobo was a wolf who lived in America from 1889 to 1894. Many wolf-hunters tried to kill him, but they never could. He was so smart and strong that people called him “the king.” In this part of the story, hunters finally catch and kill Blanca, Lobo’s mate.

Adapted from Lobo the Wolf: King of Currumpaw by Ernest Thompson Seton.
Seattle: Storytellers Ink, 1991.

In a canyon where Lobo was often seen, the hunters placed a dead cow and her cut-off head as bait. They surrounded the body and head with steel-jaw traps and hoped Lobo and his pack would try to eat the cow or her head and be caught. Later, when the trappers came to check the trap, they found one small wolf had taken the cow’s head and had been caught by one of the traps. The wolf’s footprints showed that she was trying to run away with the head.

The hunters followed the wolf down a trail. They had gone about a mile when they saw her. She was a white female they knew as Blanca, Lobo’s mate.

Blanca tried so hard to get away from the men that she was able to outrun all the trappers, even though she was carrying a 50-pound cow’s head and had a steel-jaw trap on one of her legs. But the hunters finally caught up with her when the horns on the cow’s head got caught in the rocks. Blanca was stuck.

Blanca knew she was cornered. Turning to fight, she cried out for help, sending a long howl out over the canyon. The hunters heard the responding cry of the king, Lobo. That was her last cry, for now the trappers had surrounded her. Although she fought hard to live, the hunters outnumbered her, and she was killed.

While the hunters killed Blanca and rode home with her body, they heard Lobo’s cries as he searched for Blanca. He must have known he could not save her by staying with her. The trappers had guns, and Lobo’s whole family had been killed by guns. All that day, the trappers heard him howling.

Seton finally said to the other trappers, “Now, indeed, I truly know that Blanca was his mate.” As night fell, Lobo followed the trappers, his crying sounding nearer. There was a sound of sorrow in his cry. It wasn’t a loud, angry howl, but a long, sad wail. “Blanca! Blanca!” Lobo seemed to cry.

DID YOU ALSO KNOW?
• Aunt Gigi, an older chimpanzee with no children, adopted two orphan chimpanzees whose parents had been killed! (The Great Ape Project, Paola Cavalieri and Peter Singer, eds., 1993)

• Elephants often try to save dying relatives by keeping them from falling down or feeding them. When their relatives do die, the elephants grieve and sometimes even bury them! (When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson and Susan McCarthy, 1995)

• Geese mate for life and mourn when their mates are killed. Geese have also been known to feed their blind geese companions! (The Souls of Animals, Gary Kowalski, 1991)