258 



WOLVES IN RELATION TO STOCK, GAME, AND THE 

 NATIONAL FOREST RESERVES. 



By Verm AN Bailey, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. 



Bulletin 72. 



The above publication, although touching a condition of agriculture 

 from which these islands are most fortunately exempt, is of great interest 

 to the general reader and we therefore refer briefly to some of its chief 

 data : 



The enormous losses suffered by stockmen on the western cattle ranges 

 and the destruction of game on forest reserves, game preserves, and in 

 national parks through the depredations of wolves have led to special in- 

 vestigations by the Biological Survey in cooperation with the Forest Ser- 

 vice, to ascertain the best methods for destroying these pests. The resuUs 

 appear in the present report, which includes also field notes on the dis- 

 tribution, abundance, and breeding habits of wolves. 



The chief object of the report is to put in the hands of every hunter, 

 trapper, forest ranger, and ranchman directions for trapping, poisoning, 

 and hunting wolves and finding the dens of young. If these directions arc 

 followed it is believed that the wolves can be so reduced in number th'it 

 their depredations will cease to be a serious menace to stock raising. 

 Prime wolf skins are worth from $4 to $6 each, enough to induce trappers 

 and enterprising ranch boys to make an effort to secure them if a reason- 

 able degree of success is assured. Stock ov/ners need little encouragement 

 to catch or kill wolves on their own ranges, and it is believed that the 

 forest rangers will be able to keep them down on the forest reserve'^. 

 I^heir complete extermination on the western range is not, however, to be 

 expected in the near future, and it is only by constant and concerted efTort 

 that their numbers can be kept down sufificiently to prevent serious depre- 

 dations. 



The wolves of North America are divided into two groups — the smaller 

 coyotes, or prairie wolves, of the western United States, Alexico, and south- 

 western Canada, comprising several species and subspecies ; and the larger 

 gray, black, or timber wolves, distributed practically throughout the \\hole 

 of North America from Florida and the table-land of Mexico to the Arctic 

 Ocean. 



The stock killed by wolves is mainly cattle. Calves and yearlings are 

 generally selected, but if these are not available, cows, and even fu.ll-grown 

 steers, are killed. They are usually attacked from behind and literally 

 eaten alive. Occasionally an animal will escape the wolf with a great piece 

 torn out of its ham, while the wolf goes on to catch and kill another. 

 The ranchmen in the wolf country maintain that a "critter" even slightly 

 bitten by a wolf will die of blood poisoning, and manv detailed instances 

 seem fully to substantiate this. More cattle are therefore killed than are 

 eaten. Evidently the wolves prefer freshly killed beef. In summer they 

 rarely return for even a second meal from the same animal ; but in winter, 

 when in the snowy north the cattle are gathered into pastures or stables, 

 they often return to a carcass until its bones are picked. The actual num- 

 ber of cattle killed by wolves can not be determined. 



A considerable mmiber of colts and a few grown horses are killed by 

 wolves, but the number is insignificant compared with that of cattle. Evi- 

 dently this is not a matter of choice of food, for trappers generally agree 

 that wolves prefer horseflesh to beef. 



Herded sheep are rarely troubled by wolves, which' are kept at a dis- 

 tance by the presence of herders and dogs. Occasionally, however, an 

 unguarded herd is raided and a large number of sheep are killed, but so 

 rarely that in open country sheep men have little fear of wolves in com- 

 parison with coyotes and wild-cats. Goats and hogs are. however, fre- 

 quent victims of wolves, which in some States kill great numbers of the.se 



