TENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 195 



Mr. Morrissey estimates that there are probably ten or fifteen 

 wolves on the Reserve. They spend the day among the boulders 

 on the oak-timbered hills and mountains. Sometimes one can be 

 seen sunning himself on a rocky prominence, and as the hunter 

 approaches he " loafs " away to the opposite side of the hill, and 

 is soon lost to view in the timber. 



As evening draws near the wolves leave the rocks and hills 

 and seek the open countries to hunt for stock. They seem more 

 active after rain-storms. As many as four or five have been seen 

 in a bunch, but they usually hunt in pairs. Cattle at once attack 

 a wolf, and while one wolf leads the cattle away the other follows 

 in the rear and picks up any calf or " two-year-old " that has 

 been left behind. After " hamstringing " the animal, the wolf 

 then drags it to the earth by the throat. 



During one of our trips over the range I saw a wolf as it 

 sneaked out of sight over the mountain. On another occasion we 

 came upon the body of a two-year-old steer that had lately been 

 killed by wolves. Scarcely more than the skin and skeleton re- 

 mained. That wolves will kill game animals, even buffalo calves 

 several months old, there is no question. The wolf in the Okla- 

 homa buffalo range, unless he is exterminated, will take the place 

 of the cougar in the Yellowstone Park. As it now stands, the 

 Wichita Forest Reserve is a breeding ground for wolves and 

 coyotes — consequently it is a breeding ground for discontent 

 among the ranchmen and cattlemen who suffer by their depre- 

 dations. 



The Government accepts from its private citizens a fee of 

 fifty cents per head for grazing cattle on its lands, yet prohibits 

 the killing of animals that not only feed on the cattle, but depletes 

 its own treasury at the rate of fifty cents a year for each grazing 

 animal killed. There is no more reason for protecting the wolves 

 on the Reserve than there would be in allowing a band of outlaws 

 to live there in peace while they were plundering and murdering 

 the neighboring settlers. 



Coyotes. — Coyotes, too, are said to be abundant, but I saw many 

 more wolf tracks than coyote tracks. Coyotes not only kill small 

 game, but they will kill young deer as well. Some arrangement 

 should at once be made which would allow coyote and wolf hunts 

 under the leadership of Mr. Morrissey, or of some one appointed 

 by him. Otherwise these animals will become so thick that the dis- 

 contentment of the ranchmen and cattlemen on and outside of the 

 Reserve is apt to cause them to commit acts anything but friendly 

 to the interests of the animals that it is proposed to place there. 



