44 ECONOMIC MAMMALOGY 



they feed largely upon melons, figs, prunes, grapes and other fruits at 

 certain times of the year. 44 Hewitt says he has seen orchards bordering 

 woods in Canada "assiduously robbed by bears." 45 



Those familiar with monkeys, baboons and their allies only as 

 caged animals are usually surprised to learn that in their native haunts 

 they are sometimes very destructive, many instances of which are in- 

 cidentally mentioned in the literature concerning them. The leaf -eat- 

 ing monkeys of India are abundant in some localities and become a 

 nuisance, "raiding gardens and orchards, pilfering from shops and 

 stores," and African baboons and grivet monkeys "do a vast amount 

 of havoc among young lambs and kids," and are very harmful to 

 plantations in some localities. 46 



A herd of elephants, visiting gardens and fields in their vicinity, can 

 do about as much damage to the local food supply in a short time as 

 any animals, and one can imagine what would have happened to fields 

 by the migratory movements of the great herds of bison that once 

 roamed the plains of western United States, had there been any fields 

 there at the time. Deer and elk, where not molested, sometimes be- 

 come very tame and do some damage to gardens. Indeed, any of the 

 large herbivorous mammals, especially those of gregarious habit, if 

 they can gain access to gardens and fields, are likely to do great dam- 

 age to crops. 



This brief summary gives some idea of the enormous influence of 

 various kinds of mammals in limiting our human food supply and the 

 immense aggregate monetary loss therefrom. To all this loss must be 

 added a very large sum to represent the time and money expended 

 in the effort to combat destructive mammals and prevent damage by 

 them, by methods more fully described in another chapter, including 

 trapping, poisoning, building coyote-proof and rabbit-proof fences, 

 rat-proof buildings and so on. 



44 Poole, Coyotes not strictly carnivorous, California Fish and Game, xiv, 151, 1928. 



45 Hewitt, The conservation of the wild life of Canada, pp. 108-110, 1921. 



46 Ingersoll, The life of animals, pp. 24-34, 1907. Roosevelt, African game trails, 

 pp. 218-219, 1910. Drake-Brockman, Mammals of Somaliland, p. 3, 1910. 



