334 AXXUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



State laws, and no effort is made to take an}' except individuals 

 known to be destructive to live stock. 



In addition to the dead animals secured, it is estimated that not 

 less than 50,000 coyotes ^^ere killed in connection witli the extended 

 poisoning operations, but their carcasses Avere not found. Many 

 wolves, bobcats, and some mountain lions were also poisoned. Com- 

 plete returns of animals killed in poisoning campaigns are not obtain- 

 able, but the marked reduction in the numbers of coyotes over the 

 large areas poisoned and the number of carcasses found by stock- 

 men on their ranches and by hunters about poison stations where it 

 has been possible to make careful observation, indicate that this 

 number is conservative. 



The killing of about 80,000 predatory animals represents a saving 

 of live stock and game for the year amounting to over $4,000,000 on 

 the accepted basis of computation. Skins sold during this period 

 yielded $34,202.75, of which $22,375 was derived from skins taken 

 during this fiscal year, making a total revenue derived by the Gov- 

 ernment from this source in excess of $283,000 since 1915. 



In the poisoning operations for the year, about 1,229.000 specially 

 prepared and highly effective poisoned baits devised by bureau ex- 

 perts were used. Two methods of placing the poison are employed. 

 Small fat baits, consisting of a small piece of meat or other sub- 

 stance attractive to coyotes, are placed on the ground about a poison 

 station, or the baits are studded in carcasses of sheep, cattle, horses, 

 burros, or other animals. 



The chief poisoning operations are conducted in winter, but very 

 effective work has been done in summer in desert country, particu- 

 larly around watering places. The small fat baits distributed about 

 a poison station are especially suited to operations over plains and 

 deserts where the climate is at least moderately warm and natural 

 food for predatory animals is abundant. Carcass poisoning is suc- 

 cessful on the high summer ranges, where the weather in winter is 

 colder and the natural food supply of predatory animals is scarce. 

 The value of this method lies in its permanency, as the poison con- 

 tinues effective until spring or until no part of the animal remains; 

 and it makes possible the destruction of predatory animals over vast 

 timbered and mountainous areas where no camp accommodations 

 are available during the winter months and travel is impossible ex- 

 cept on snowshoes. The poison-studded stations are established 

 after the sheep and cattle have been removed to lower ranges and 

 when the weather is sufficiently cold, the hunters working down the 

 mountains behind the retiring herds. As the stock is again moved 

 up to the summer ranges in spring the hunters go in advance to de- 

 stroy all the stations that were established, in order to prevent acci- 

 dental poisoning of dogs or other animals and to tTap any predatory^ 

 animals which have escaped the poison. Similar systematic work 

 on winter ranges and lambing grounds has practically ended live- 

 stock losses over great areas and has much reduced them at other 

 places. 



In a period of five weeks two Utah hunters put out a poison line 

 approximately 300 miles long in a great loop and around their first 

 two stations on their return found about 40 dead coyotes. A stock- 

 man wrote that these men did good work, for, as he put it. they left 

 a strino- of dead covotes wherever thev went. In one locality, after 



