424 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



of six weeks 20 head of cattle were killed and the tails were bitten 

 off a number of small calves. The hunter succeeded in trapping an 

 old male wolf, with the result that depredations were entirely- 

 stopped in the vicinity, and evidence showed that only a lone she 

 wolf still remained in that area. This female mated with a collie 

 dog, and in efforts to get her, the collie was killed by poison and 

 later she was taken in a trap. The stockman, on whose ranch the 

 wolf was killed, writes as follows : 



Old Three-Toes, as this particular wolf was called, was caught in one of 

 the Government traps especially constructed for wolves, and the hunter has 

 caught two of her pups. With her capture ends the pack of which she was 

 leader. Thousands of dollars worth of calves and sheep have been killed by 

 this wolf and her pack. Just a few days prior to her capture. Old Three-Toes 

 killed six calves here on our ranch, 11 miles west of Thatclier. We hold a 

 private grudge against this old gray wolf, as she mated with our pet collie 

 dog, even going so far as to dig him out of a pen. He heard the " call of 

 the wild " and answered it, going off for days at a time, sometimes coming 

 home for a few days. At last he went away for weeks and was finally 

 poisoned by one of your men. This was a good thing, as a collie, hearing the 

 " call of the wild," "kills for his young, too. We extend our thanks for staying 

 on the job and getting Old Three-Toes and her pack. Other stockmen join 

 us in our praise of you and your men, as the loss from predatory animals 

 has been reduced to almost nothing. 



A stockman in Arkansas makes the following statement regarding 

 work accomplished in his locality : 



Your hunter accomplished here what all others failed to do. These wolves 

 have been hunted persistently for years, consequently had become very 

 shrewd and cunning. I am one of the hunters of this locality myself, so 

 realize what skill was required to capture such cunning animals. We have 

 used every method we could think of against these wolves, but failed to do 

 more than reduce them to some of the most cunning and destructive ones. 

 We have used poison and traps and resorted to wolf drives, but still they 

 stayed with us, taking an annual toll of thousands of dollars worth of calves, 

 pigs, sheep, and goats. The second wolf your hunter captured was a notorious 

 old male. I have known this wolf for the past five or six years and am quite 

 positive that he participated in the killing of two lai'ge calves for me the past 

 spring, as well as hundreds of pigs. It has been next to impossible for us to 

 raise any hogs at all in this section. This particular wolf was an excep- 

 tionally large, cunning old fellow, having killed thousands of dollars worth 

 of livestock for the stockmen of this county. 



Another stockman reports that he missed a pig one morning and 

 when the hunter ran his trap line that day he brought in a wolf 

 with parts of the pig in her stomach. 



PEEDATOKY ANIMAL WORK IN MICHIGAN. 



Depredations of wolves on deer in northern Michigan became so 

 serious in 1921 that at the request of the conservation commission of 

 that State one of the most experienced and competent wolf hunters of 

 the bureau was detailed to Michigan for the purpose of training war- 

 dens to destroy these pests. Bounties on wolves, coyotes, weasels, 

 woodchucks, crows, hawks, and owls, amounting to more than $312,- 

 000, were paid during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1921. All 

 bounty payments have now been discontinued. The present plan of 

 conducting systematic trapping and poisoning campaigns through 

 warden-hunters, trained by our experienced man, as mentioned 

 above, is costing the State $35,000 annually, the expense being borne 

 by funds derived from hunting licenses. The work has been so 

 effective that in some sections wolves have entirely disappeared and 

 elsewhere are being rapidly reduced in numbers. 



