CHAPTER XX. 

 PREDATORY ANIMALS IN THE WEST. 



\<> book on the western stock business would be com- 

 plete without some mention of the various kinds of 

 animals which prey on the stockman's herd. While each 

 class of stock suffers to a greater or less degree, the 

 sheepman is probably the heaviest loser. It is impossible 

 of course to accurately estimate the losses caused by 

 such animals, but it is scarcely stating it too broadly to 

 say that each year the stockraisers of the United States 

 suffer a financial loss of more than $5,000,000 from this 

 source. These figures were obtained by taking an aver- 

 age of the known losses from such animals in specific 

 cases and thus securing definite information as to the 

 damage done by the various animals. For example, a 

 conservative estimate made by well-posted stockmen 

 places the damage done by each full-grown wolf at $1,000 

 per year; for a coyote, $100. 



Coyotes. In 1911, 6,487 coyotes and 241 wolves, as 

 well as hundreds of bear, bob cats and the like, were 

 killed by forest officers within the boundaries of the 

 various National Forests in the United States, whose 

 area covers perhaps about one-third of the grazing lands 

 in the AVest. Probably three times this number were 

 killed by private parties during the same time. 



The predatory animals of the United States are 

 coyotes, wolves, bear, wild cats or bob cats, mountain 

 lions (cougars), and lynxes. Of these the coyote is far 



