PESTS AND THEIR TREATMENT 145 



extermination of species, we believe that dangerous 

 and destructive predatory animals must be shot 

 down to a point sufficiently low so that they are no 

 longer a nuisance that stalks abroad at noonday. 

 One grizzly on every one hundred square miles of 

 Rocky Mountain territory is sufficient to impart a 

 distinctly ursine flavor to the wilderness and main- 

 tain the charm that is best expressed by the term 

 "wild country." 



In the Yellowstone Park, the grizzly bears have 

 become so numerous and aggressive it has been 

 necessary, for the safety of the public, to reduce the 

 number. This has been done, not by shooting the 

 surplus, but by capturing the most offensive ani- 

 mals alive and unhurt, in steel cages, and shipping 

 them to zoological gardens and parks. We are 

 unalterably opposed to the capture of the American 

 king of beasts in steel traps, and subjecting him to 

 a sordid and ignominious death. For him, any 

 other death than by a sportsman's rifle, after a fair 

 stalk, is unacceptable. Trapping bears, either to 

 destroy them as pests or to kill them for their fur, 

 never should be tolerated in any civilized country. 

 If wild bears become so numerous as to constitute 

 a menace to public safety, a scourge to private 

 property and a genuine pest, then let that fact be 

 made known in the press, and let sportsmen be 

 invited to come in and reduce the ursine population. 

 Of course there is no objection to a forest ranger 

 hunting down and shooting an objectionable bear, 



