cant that although a study has boon 

 nui(U' by personnel of the San 

 Andres Kefuge of six <j;()lden ea<ile 

 nests, no further evidence of pre:la- 

 tion on bighorn sheep by eagles has 

 been encountered. 



C. C. Spencer (15)4:*)) , in his study 

 of bighorns in the Tarryall Moun- 

 (ains of Colorado, failed to observe 

 eagles attack or molest the sheep in 

 any manner. He did note that the 

 sheep were not alarmed when eagles 

 came near, although the ewes were 

 alert even when a raven came close 

 to the lambing grounds. As a re- 

 sult of his studies he felt that al- 

 though his observations were not 

 conclusive, they were at least in- 

 dicative that in the Tarryall Moun- 

 tains the eagle is a minor factor in 

 the well-being of the bighorn. 



Packard (1940), who stndied 

 eagle-bighorn relationshi})s in 

 Rocky Mountain National Park, 

 also found no evidence to indicate 

 that golden eagles preyed on big- 

 horn sheep. Supporting this con- 

 tention was the observation that 

 eagles were seen soaring low over 

 l)anks that contained lambs without 

 I)aying any noticeable attention to 

 the young animals. 



Honess and Frost (1942), study- 

 ing the factors responsible for the 

 decline of bighorns in Wyoming, 

 made observations June 1 to August 

 1, 1940, on an eagle's nest in the 

 very heart of the lambing grounds 

 but found no remains of lamb or 

 adult bighorns. They also stated 

 that no predation by eagles on big- 

 horns had been seen by any survey 

 member nor had one been reported 

 during the time of the study. 



Therefore, they concluded that 

 eagles could be exonerated of any 

 serious blame for the decline of the 

 Crystal Creek bighorn herd. 



Coney (1944) reports that in the 

 Sun River area, in ^[ontana, big- 

 horn ewes with small lambs were 

 seen in the vicinity of an eagle's 

 nest but that the sheej) were uncon- 

 cerned even when the eagles flew 

 over them in search of food. 



The Idaho mountain-sheep sur- 

 vey (Ellis 1941) also revealed no 

 reliable evidence of predation by 

 eagles on lambs or mature bighorns 

 during the year-long study. It was 

 concluded that, although the eagles 

 are capable of killing young lambs, 

 "the survival of the lambs through 

 the yearling stage would seem to 

 discredit the menace of the 

 eagle * * *.'' 



With regard to the relation of the 

 golden eagle to the Dall sheep of 

 Mount McKinley National Park, 

 Murie (1944) reported that no au- 

 thentic case of an eagle's having 

 killed a lamb came to his attention 

 although he did find pellets indicat- 

 ing that the bird had eaten lamb. 

 His statement that ''it is apparent 

 that their (golden eagles'") preda- 

 tion on sheep is negligible'' is based 

 on 3 yeai-s intensive field study. 



AVhen the overall problem is ana- 

 lyzed in the light of available data, 

 it is the writer's opinion that the 

 influence exerted by the golden 

 eagle in either decimating the for- 

 mer populations of bighorns or in- 

 hibiting their restoration has been 

 relatively minor when compared 

 with other factors controlling big- 

 horn sheep populations. 



21 



