422 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



During the year an average force of 250 hunters, trappers, and 

 poisoners was employed under bureau supervision, in addition to 

 the thousands of stockmen ^Yho personally took part in the work. 

 Part of the men employed were paid from Federal funds and part 

 by the States and other cooperating agencies. During the year 

 hunters took the skins or scalps of more than 29,300 predatory 

 animals, of which 599 were wolves, 447 of these being the large gray 

 wolves; 25,622 coyotes; 2,822 bobcats and Canada lynxes; 158 moun- 

 tain lions ; and 101 bears. Bears are regarded as game animals and 

 no effort is made to take them, except individuals known to be de- 

 structive to livestock. 



In view of the substitution of poisoning campaigns for other 

 methods of field operations in most of the districts during six to 

 nine months of the year, the number of skins and scalps taken is no 

 longer a satisfactory gauge of the number of animals killed. Men 

 spend practically their entire time in establishing poison stations 

 and distributing baits, and relatively little time in searching for 

 animals killed, as the value of the skin commonly does not pay for 

 the time lost. One man in the Lemhi National Forest, Idaho, by use 

 of an automobile maintained a poison line 700 miles in extent, which 

 served to cover an area of about 5,000 square miles. This method 

 of procedure has been strongly urged by stockmen, who, convinced 

 of the effectiveness of the poisoning operations, are more concerned 

 to have the poison distributed carefully on a large scale than to have 

 hunters spend time searching for animals killed. The carcasses are 

 usually found later by the stockmen. 



From 5 to 15 dead coyotes are commonly found near a single 

 poison station, and one stockman reported having seen 22. In one 

 day one of the demonstrators put out a poison line 35 miles long, 

 and, returning along it the following morning, saw from his auto- 

 mobile 14 dead coyotes. Another hunter, who put out 400 baits in 

 the vicinity of several reservoirs, later found 57 dead coyotes, and a 

 stockman reported finding 60 more coyotes that had been killed but 

 had not been found and scalped by the hunter. The manager of a 

 large ranch in Texas, on which about 12,400 baits were used, reported 

 that at least 1,000 coyotes were killed. Previous to poisoning, a 

 trapper on this range was able to take from 60 to 70 coyotes per 

 month, but after poisoning the best a skilled trapper could do was to 

 take 10 to 12 per month. 



Complete returns of predatory animals killed in the United States 

 in poisoning campaigns can not be obtained, but the sudden marked 

 reduction in the numbers of coyotes over great areas and the number 

 of carcasses subsequently found by stockmen on their ranges and by 

 hunters about poison stations where it has been possible to make 

 careful observation, indicate the strong probability that not less than 

 75,000 coyotes were killed b}' the poisoning operations; the carcasses 

 of these were not found, however, in time to be recorded. Many 

 wolves, bobcats, and a few mountain lions also were poisoned. On 

 the generally accepted basis of calculation the killing of these preda- 

 tory animals with those of which the skins and scalps were secured 

 represents an annual saving in livestock and game of more than 

 $5,979,000. Skins sold during this year yielded $34,839 to the Fed- 

 eral Government and $39,668 to cooperating States and stockmen's 

 associations. 



