ACItlcrr/miAL Al'IMCnJMtlATloN HII.U H*"-*. M'2 1 



Tlir nniiimU arc so aWiiinlaMt and tlu» territory is ko vast over wliicli 

 tliov roam that if would take afi armv to roiitrol tliciij in tins wav 

 hut 1)\ (Irvrlooin^ the |)oison nietliod wr have aln'adv srfiir»'d vl\- 

 (•oui'a»;in<^ rcsnlts. Those i-esiilts indi<'ate that with a cotnnarativelv 

 small force and with the cooperation of the .stockmen and the local 

 f)eo|)le with whom we are workin"^ \vr can cover irii enormous territor\ 

 ver\' much more cheaply. The future control of the predatory ani- 

 mals will he hased largely on the increasing effectiveness of our p«»ison 

 campaigns. 



Mr. Hi< iiANAX. Do you run acntss any species of wolves out there 

 that wdl not eat poisoned meat, which are too snuirt f<»r- \ on ' 



Doctor Xki.sox. We have not found any yet. 



Mr. liiciiANAN. Do you not find those which will not eat meat ^ 



Doctor XfJ-son. I do not think we have ever run acmss one that 

 would not take «^ome h.iif. We have poisoned a numher <>f old 

 w<»lves. 



Mr. lit (MANAN. Lohoes ^ 



Doctor Xf.I.son. Yes: that liave luti for niaii\ yeais. 



Mr. BrtiiANAN. Some (»f them are so smart that they will tiof i;i( 

 dead meat: it has «;ot to he warm. 



Doctor Nelson. These little haits that we put out are li.\ed up ui 

 a temj)tin<; way. just a little hit that is drop|)(>(l. very carefully pre- 

 pared, and they will pick it up. A wolf that will not touch a (h-ad car- 

 cas.s is likely to pick up one of these baits. 



Mr. -Vndeh.so.n. Mow many men have you got employed in this 



work now in the field ( 



Doctor Xhi-son. We have HiO in our regular organizations, and 

 11 1 • 



the numher runs over 200, accordmg to season. 



Mr. BrtiiANAN. Two hundred altogether^ 



Doctor Xelso.n. About 200. 



BOU.VTY SYSTEM FOR PREDATORY ANIMALS. 



Mr. .Ir.MP. Going back to Mr. Buchaiuin's cjuestion of a few minutes 

 ago. he may want you to put in the record a statement of the obser- 

 vations of the de'partment which have demonstrated the lesser degree 

 of effectiveness of the bounty system in com{)arison with the system 

 which you are usin^ 



Doctor N^ELSON. The bounty system against predatory animals Inis 

 be<Mi in vojrue ever since the early settleiN came to the eastern United 

 States, and it has always been honeycombed with fraud. It gives 

 op})ortunity for the rankest kind of frauds and it never definitely 

 controls predatory animals, because it is for the interest of the bounty 

 huntei-s not to exterminate the animals from which thev jjet a return 

 eacji year. 



Mr. Anderso.x. Thev had to leave some breeding stock? 



Doctor Nelson. They did. Our trappers have found many 

 coyotes with a trap mark high up on one leg. showing that they have 

 been caught and freed. A mark high up on the leg of a covote indi- 

 cates that that animal has been caught and turned loose: and our men 

 have caught many female coyotes with that mark on them. Many 

 of the trappers have told us that they never killed a female, because 

 that would he cuttintr off their business. 



