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The tiacks of a walking ot trotting red fox are 

 almost in line. Those of a domestic dog are more 

 obviously staggered. 



Bounty payments have been collected regularly 

 on foxes that have been shot or trapped for fur, for 

 sport, or for local control. Most of these foxes 

 would have been killed anyway, and payment of the 

 bounty has constituted a kind of deficit spending 

 because it has meant payment on something for 

 which value had already been received. Experience 

 in Pennsylvania (Latham 1951:64) indicated "that 

 probably 50 per cent or more of the mammalian 

 predators (red fox, gray fox, and weasel) would... 

 have been killed regardless of the bounty." 



The bounty system cannot be directed effi- 

 ciently toward the reduction of specific, excessive 

 fox populations because the administrative areas 

 in which funds are approved for bounties seldom 

 conform with the areas needing attention. Any con- 

 trol technique must be considered wasteful of time 

 and money if it cannot be directed against specific 

 trouble spots. 



Fraud takes many forms in a bounty system, 

 and, undoubtedly, there are some techniques that 





The tracks of a galloping red fox are in groups of 

 four. Double trails, like these, may indicate the 

 breeding season. 



are as yet not generally appreciated. The extent 

 of fraudulent claims varies with provisions of the 

 bounty law. For example, in Michigan the number 

 of foxes bountied declined sharply when a law 

 which designated township clerks as certifying 

 agents for bounty payments was changed in the 

 fall of 1951 to assign this responsibility to conser- 

 vation officers (Arnold 1952a: 3-4). Fraud as it 

 relates to bounties may be largely a paper transac- 

 tion involving the connivance of certifying agents, 

 or it may result solely from the methods of the in- 

 dividuals seeking to collect bounties. The collec- 

 tion of bounties on foxes taken outside the area in 

 which a bounty law applies is not an uncommon 

 practice. Also, it is evident that bounties may be 

 repeatedly paid on the same animal where evidence 

 of the dead fox is not collected or marked in some 

 effective manner. It is not unusual for some hunt- 

 ers or trappers who find the bounty profitable to 

 release pregnant females in order to make certain 

 that seed stock remains on the range. 



