PESTS AND THEIR TREATMENT 141 



may be destroyed in the spring before they leave 

 the den. 



Ever since the range steer took the place of the 

 American bison, a relentless warfare has been 

 waged against the gray wolf. The hordes of gray 

 marauders that once battened and fattened on the 

 millions of wasted buffalo carcasses have been 

 reduced to scattered fragments. On the plains 

 there is to-day perhaps one gray wolf to every 

 hundred that were there prior to 1885. The cow- 

 boy and the professional wolfer have enormously 

 reduced the wolf population; but for all that, it 

 seems impossible to exterminate the species, or even 

 to prevent the continuous slaughter of stock. The 

 doubled values of cattle and sheep have led to 

 increased activities in the destruction of wolves, but 

 at the same time it has intensified the keen ability 

 of the wolf to preserve his own life under most 

 adverse circumstances. 



The intelligence of the gray wolf in securing his 

 prey, and in avoiding traps, poison, dogs and fire- 

 arms, is unsurpassed in anything of flesh and blood. 

 The disappearance of the wild game throws the 

 subsistence of the wolf-pack upon the ranchman 

 and stock-owner. Thanks to the bounty system, 

 the total number of wolves now alive in the United 

 States is small. In 1912, the rangers of the United 

 States Forestry Bureau killed 241 gray wolves, and 

 during a similar period the Province of British 

 Columbia alone accounted for 518 wolves. 



