BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY. 277 



otherwise be the case. The vast majority of bears are inoffensive so 

 far as injury to stock is concerned, but occasional individuals in all 

 parts of the range country become stock killers, some of them being 

 notoriously cunning and destructive in their activities. Naturally 

 such animals must be eliminated, and the more promptly this is done 

 the less prejudice there is likely to be created among the stock grow- 

 ers against all bears. 



From much expert study and experimentation, great improvements 

 in methods of poisoning predatory animals have resulted. Larger and 

 more thoroughly organized poisoning campaigns than ever before 

 attempted were conducted during the year. Their success was such 

 that in many areas stock growers are urging the extension of this 

 jnethod as being the most practicable one for the control of coyotes. 

 Extended poisoning operations were conducted in the great sheep- 

 growing sections in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, 

 and Wyoming. This was followed by a marked decrease in the num- 

 ber of coyotes in the sections poisoned, with a corresponding decrease 

 in the losses of sheep, cattle, pigs, colts, and poultry. Reports have 

 been received from stockmen stating that on many important ranges 

 and lambing grounds the former heavy annual losses have become 

 negligible or have been entirely eliminated. 



For a number of years rabies has been prevalent among predatory 

 animals in California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and 

 Utah. A part of the money available for predatory-animal control 

 has been appropriated for the specific purpose of destroying the 

 wild animals affected with this disease in the States named. Al- 

 though the disease still maintains a foothold in all of these States, 

 efforts in suppressing its carriers have been so successful that its 

 spread to other States has been prevented, and the number of do- 

 mestic animals and persons bitten by rabid wild animals has steadily 

 decreased until at present the number is very small. When an out- 

 break of the disease occurs in any district, hunters are immediately 

 cojicentrated there, so that the wild animals carrying the rabies are 

 summarily destroyed and the spread of the disease is promptly 

 stopped. 



The serious situation resulting from the outbreak of rabies before 

 it was controlled is indicated by the fact that in the fiscal year 

 1915-1 G, when the principal outbreak in Nevada occurred, it was 

 estimated that live stock in that State valued at about $500,000 

 wore lost through being bitten by rabid animals. Some ranches lost 

 from 200 to 400 head of cattle. Up to the present time approxi- 

 mately 1,500 persons are Imown to have been bitten by rabid animals 

 and treated for the disease, and at least 47 are known to have died 

 from it. Without Federal intervention for the suppression of rabies, 

 the ravages brought about by it would have been vastly increased. 

 Furthermore, it should be borne in mind that with the disease still 

 persistent in scattered localities throughout the territory where it 

 was once generally prevalent, the removal of organized preventive 

 measures would at once result in its renewal and spread throughout 

 the western range States. 



Special efforts are being made by inspectors of the bureau to 

 destroy individual predatory animals which have become notorious 

 for their stock-killing exploits in various States. Near Dubois, 



