Marty,



I can understand your point of view, but looking at images of wolf pits none
would be secure unless they had spike sticking up from the bottom.  Some wolf
traps employed poisoned meats while other simply were holding pens until hunter
could shoot the "beast".  Our pit has posts angled inward which if they were
eight to ten feet in length would make for a difficult escape.  Digging out from
the base would be rather tough as the surrounding soil is a series of
well-developed thick dense clays.



Bill


On July 25, 2012 at 10:31 AM Marty Pickands <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I hate to burst the wolf bubble-  That feature is way to shallow to hold a
> wolf, and I suspect that even wooden walls would not have been enough. I grew
> up with a wolf/husky mix, and she could escape from ANYTHING by digging,
> chewing, climbing, etc. I spent half my youth running her down after she would
> dig out under our fence. At the vet where we boarded her during our vacations
> to Florida she would climb the eight foot chain link to get out of the dog run
> (after they tried wiring the latch shut because she was flipping it with her
> nose). They finally gave up trying to restrain her because: A, they couldn't
> and B, she was not actually trying to run away. She only wanted to come up to
> the office and visit. Unless there was something pretty lethal going on in
> that pit feature like spikes, of which there seems to be no evidence, she
> would have dug out the side of it in minutes, walls or no.
> 
> I like the potato pit idea.
> 
> 
> Marty Pickands
> New York State Museum