228 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



The wolf of the southern Rocky Mountain region is described 

 as a rather light-colored race of medium size, resembling the 

 Plains wolf, C. I. nubilus, but larger, its upper side more black- 

 ish and suffused with buff and its frontal region rising less 

 steeply. It is larger and paler than C. I. baileyi of Chihuahua, 

 with a broader, less depressed rostrum. 



This wolf takes the place of C. I. nubilus, the Plains wolf, 

 west of the prairie region of Nebraska and Kansas and was 

 formerly found over "southeastern Idaho, southwestern Wyo- 

 ming, northeastern Nevada, Utah, western and central Colo- 

 rado, northwestern Arizona (north of Grand Canyon), and 

 northwestern New Mexico. " Over most of this range it has 

 been exterminated within recent decades by persecution of 

 hunters and of ranchers with whose cattle interests it interfered. 

 Bailey (1931) writes that through such efforts wolves were 

 practically eliminated from New Mexico by 1927. Goldman 

 (1937) states that at the present time it is mainly restricted to 

 northwestern Colorado. Warren (1910), in his account of the 

 mammals of the latter State, tells of one wolf, whose track was 

 identifiable through its having lost two toes in a trap, that be- 

 came so bold that special measures had to be taken for its 

 destruction. Its tracks with those of others were in a short 

 period found about the carcasses of 75 head of cattle and horses. 

 He quotes the figures of wolves killed in 1907 (from U. S. 

 Biological Survey Circular no. 63) as follows: In Colorado, 69; 

 in Wyoming, 1,009; in Idaho, 14. In 1910, Warren believed 

 there was not a county in the State of Colorado that did not 

 harbor some wolves. Cary (1911) wrote at about the same 

 time that wolves were still found in considerable numbers in 

 North Park and in Routt and Rio Blanco Counties, where they 

 kill a great many range cattle, and they were similarly destruc- 

 tive in Baca and eastern Las Animas Counties, in spite of much 

 trapping. Cary was told by professional trappers that so per- 

 sistently have wolves been hunted, trapped, and poisoned that 

 they would rarely come to a scent of any kind and seldom to a 

 baited trap, while poisoning was no longer successful. Traps 

 set blind in trails or near water holes were most successful. In 

 the Lily Park region on the lower Bear River wolves were 

 numerous until 1902, but in the two years following a trapper 

 killed 61, which nearly put a stop to their local depredations. 

 By 1907 they had become uncommon over most of southern 



