AMERICA'S GREATEST PLAYGROUND 



53 



About 750 Left in Montana 



Work of Biological Survey 



[Address of President Wallis Huidekoper of the 



Montana Stockgrowers' Association 



at the 



Thirty -Fifth Annual Convention, Billings, Montana 



The work of the Biological Survey of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture in the destruction of stock-killing wild animals has been success- 

 fully carried on throughout the state. During the fiscal year ending 

 1919 the sum of $22,544 was expended by the Federal Government in 

 our state towards the maintenance of professional trappers, with a 

 total catch of 1,640 animals, divided as follows: 4 bears, 94 bobcats, 

 1,494 coyotes and 48 grey wolves. Since this department has been or- 

 ganized and operated they have done most efficient work, which is 

 shown by their report of the destruction of over 200,000 predatory wild 

 animals throughout the Western Mountain States, which includes 240 

 mountain lions and 2,00 grey wolves, of which latter 260 were killed 

 in Montana alone. The stockmen of Eastern Montana should be par- 

 ticularly pleased, as over 146 grey wolves have been cleaned up on the 

 plains country within a radius of 90 miles of Miles City. All skins 

 secured by these government trappers are turned in to the federal in- 

 spectors and sold for the benefit of the Biological Survey, $96,000 of 

 additional money being thus obtained the past year from these sources. 



