There was a popular belief when I was a kid that Eskimos used a very unique method for hunting wolves. They would supposedly imbed the handle of a knife in the ice and coat the blade with seal blood. The wolf would then come along and lick the blade, cutting its tongue. Tasting its own blood, it would continue to lick till it died.
Sounds like b.s. to me, but the story came up at work the other day and one guy insisted that it was true.
Anyone got the straight dope on this one?
Peace,
mangeorge
Work like you don’t need the money…
Love like you’ve never been hurt…
Dance like nobody’s watching! …(Paraphrased)
I heard the same things about some farmers getting rid of blood-drinking bats (is there a better word?). It was added that the bats didn’t feel pain on their tongue, so they would go on licking until they died.
I doubt it very much. In most animals, certinly most mammals, cuts to the tongue heal very rapidly - more so than cuts anywhere else, IIRC. If you get your tongue pierced you are supposed to keep the piercing in for a period of several weeks straight at first; this is to ensure that the skin heals completely around the hole. If you take it out too early for even a minute (60 seconds) it may close up that fast. Another common sense reason folows: Have you ever cut (or bit) your tongue? Did you bleed to death? - It’s true that getting your tongue pierced is only a tiny hole, not a cut. And it does bleed a lot at first, but it quickly subsides. Maybe if you could cut the wolf’s tongue out somehow. . .
Or maybe you could hammer a piece of metal pipe into the ice/ground and coat it with blood - the wolf would lick the pipe and its tongue would stick to the pipe. Wouldn’t kill it, but it would keep it in one place and give you some time to come up with something. - MC
Here’s an appalling stomach-churning story that might shed some light on the credibility of this story.
I was working in Asia and there were a lot of stray dogs hanging out in the yard at work. One of them had been hit by a car or something and had a chunk of meat knocked off its hip. For a long time that dog spent every day obsessively licking its wound, eventually resulting in its internal organs bulging out through its hip. The dog disappeared, probably after it started consuming its own internal organs. I think it would be quite possible to fool a wolf into licking its tongue to shreds on a knife blade.
Had breakfast yet you guys?
No I didn’t call the SPCA. Across the street was a photography studio that had two huge wild eagles captured live and tied to their sign all day in the hot sun to draw in the customers.