Wild Things

by Scott Noyes
Solving Tips

Story

Wolf

Wild animals symbolize serenity, power, and freedom. When nature unleashes its fury, however, even the noblest of creatures will flee. Five animals (a grizzly bear, a mountain lion, a snowshoe hare, a stag, and a wolf) were caught in various locations (forest, frozen tundra, meadow, mountainous crag, steppes) by a different natural threat (an avalanche of snow, a flash flood, a tornado, a thunder storm, and a wildfire). Each escaped harm through its skill, courage, or dumb luck (one hid in a cave, one leapt a phenomenal distance, one outran the threat, one fell in the river and was swept to safety by the current, and one merely stood his ground and looked danger in the face).

Using the clues below, can you determine which creature was caught in each location by each hazard, and how each escaped harm?


./Labels/h_Animal.png ./Labels/h_Location.png ./Labels/h_Threat.png
./Labels/v_Grizzly_bear.png ./Labels/v_Mountain_lion.png ./Labels/v_Snowshoe_hare.png ./Labels/v_Stag.png ./Labels/v_Wolf.png ./Labels/v_Forest.png ./Labels/v_Frozen_tundra.png ./Labels/v_Meadow.png ./Labels/v_Mountain_crag.png ./Labels/v_Steppes.png ./Labels/v_Avalanche.png ./Labels/v_Fire.png ./Labels/v_Flash_flood.png ./Labels/v_Thunder_storm.png ./Labels/v_Tornado.png
./Labels/v_Action.png ./Labels/h_Fell_in_river.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Hid_in_cave.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Leapt.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Outran.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Stood_ground.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/v_Threat.png ./Labels/h_Avalanche.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Fire.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Flash_flood.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Thunder_storm.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Tornado.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/v_Location.png ./Labels/h_Forest.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Frozen_tundra.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Meadow.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Mountain_crag.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Steppes.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
x o blank
x o blank x o blank x o blank x o blank
x o blank x o blank x o blank x o blank
JavaScript Grid by Scott Noyes

Clues

  1. A fearsome stag, a lofty crag:
    Each tells a separate tale.
    A fire bright, a stormy night:
    Two stories more regale.
    One danger outran, and so it began:
    All five in single portrayal.
  2. Neither grizzly bear nor snowshoe hare
    was threatened by the flood.
    No wolf ever trod that meadow's sod
    nor the tundra's frozen mud.
    No creature leapt over stony steppe
    to save its flesh and blood.
  3. The mountain lion held firm his scion,
    And escaped peril safe and intact,
    by his mighty leap, from one bouldered heap,
    to a mound of dry earth tightly packed.
    Yet the twenty-foot flight gave him such a fright;
    now his knifelike claws don't retract.
  4. One creature fell into the swell
    bolstered by the thundering storm.
    There was no threat, though it got quite wet,
    to be fierce raging current borne.
    Three miles out, this riparian scout
    sat bedraggled, muddied, and forlorn.
  5. The snowshoe hare: either fire's red glare,
    Did escape in a cave found exclusive,
    Or else, on the crag, felt his courage flag,
    as he outran some threat. Now conclusive
    evidence mounts that, by all accounts,
    the avalanche was not forest intrusive.
  6. The winds swiftly swirled, a tornado hurled
    Debris into the sky,
    But no lone wolf's howl, nor grizzly bear growl
    Was menaced by breeze gone awry.
    Grass strewn meadow land saw either flash flood's strand
    Or the bear go lumbering by.
  7. Either avalanche swept towards the lion that leapt
    while the flood was outrun by the bear,
    Or the flood water surged towards the wolf who emerged
    Safe, near the forest in which stood the hare.
    Stand firm on his ground, with snow sliding down?
    No creature would ever so dare.



Solving Tips


Use an X when you are sure that two fields do not match. Use a dot when you are sure that two fields do match. Click once to place an X. Click a second time to place a dot. Click a third time to clear the box.

Select marker color by clicking the colored radio buttons. You can use colored marks to indicate which clue provided a value, or to indicate a guess that might not be correct, or just because you like solving puzzles in teal.

Use the "Save" button to save a puzzle in progress. Use the "Load" button to reload the puzzle. This feature uses cookies - fear not, we aren't tracking you or stealing credit card numbers (we couldn't, even if we wanted to.) At the moment, only one puzzle may be saved at a time on each computer (unless using different browsers or accounts). There is no warning if you save over another puzzle, and no undo!

Use the "Current Solution Window" button to parse the grid for your solution. This feature simply looks for dots in the top set of rows and creates a list that you can copy and paste into your email for submission.

If you want to clear the grid and start over, just refresh the page. Note that there is a bug in IE6 (and possibly other browsers), so that if a color other than the default is selected, that color may appear to be selected after the reload, but the actual color used will be the default.

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What would you like to see added to the JavaScript grid? Send me your requests and ideas.

Bug Reports
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Scott
snoyes@gmail.com