42 ECONOMIC MAMMALOGY 



mountain lions and other predators. The annual damage to domestic 

 stock in the United States has been estimated at from $20,000,000 to 

 $30,000,000 (in Nevada alone, 34,350 cattle, 165,000 sheep and 850 

 horses). 27 



Black bears sometimes kill stock, deer or young elk, 28 though, as they 

 also eat the "kills'* of mountain lions and other animals, they are often 

 wrongly accused when their tracks are seen about carcasses of cattle, 

 sheep or deer. 29 Anthony says he has often investigated allegations of 

 black bears killing sheep and has "never yet found a clear case of kill- 

 ing by the bear," 30 but Lorenzen tells of actually witnessing such a case, 

 though he thinks it is exceptional. 31 Grizzlies, though not so common, 

 are individually much more destructive to stock, one having been ac- 

 cused of killing 1 200 cattle in fifteen years. 32 



Wolves are very destructive to deer in some localities, as well as to 

 domestic stock. One is supposed to have killed 125 cattle, worth $5,000, 

 in ten months, and another is believed to have killed $25,000 worth in 

 seven years. 33 Coyotes cause an annual loss to sheep raisers of several 

 hundred thousand dollars 34 and sometimes kill young deer, 35 though 

 they feed more extensively upon rabbits and various rodents. Foxes 

 take some poultry and game birds, but feed largely upon rodents. 36 One 

 lair contained remains of many short-eared owls and a number of 

 grouse, ducks, shorebirds, rats, voles and lambs. 37 



An occasional dog develops the sheep-killing habit. The damage 

 caused thereby is frequently mentioned in various reports published 

 by the United States Department of Agriculture, at least as far back 

 as 1862, and laws relating thereto are in force in many of the states, 

 some of them enacted more than sixty years ago. In 1891 it was es- 

 timated that the loss of sheep through depredations of sheep-killing 



27 Bell, Hunting down stock killers, Yearbook U. S. Dept. Agric. for 1920, pp. 

 289-301. 



2S Howell, The black bear as a destroyer of game, Journ. Mammalogy, n, 36, 

 1921 ; N. Amer. Fauna, No. 45, 1921. 



29 Bruce, The black bear in relation to stock, California Fish and Game, ix, 16-18, 

 1923. 



30 Anthony, quoted in California Fish and Game, ix, 59, 1923. 



31 Lorenzen, A sheep-killing bear, California Fish and Game, ix, 151-152, 1923. 



32 Bailey, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 49, p. 193, 1926. 



33 Bailey, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 49, p. 150, 1926. 



34 Bailey, Farmers' Bull. No. 335, 1008 ; U. S. Forest Service Bull. No. 20, 1907. 

 Lantz, U. S. Biol. Bull. No. 20, 190.=;; Farmers' Bull. No. 226, 1905. 



85 Jotter, The coyote as a deer killer, California Fish and Game, I, 26-27, 1914. 



36 Bailey, Farmers' Bull. No. 335, 1908. 



37 Fisher, Yearbook U. S. Dept. Agric. for 1894, p. 225. 



