220 ECONOMIC MAMMALOGY 



North 

 Asia America Europe Africa Australia 



Silver fox 500 20,000 



Cross fox 5,ooo 20,000 



Red fox 600,000 400,000 800,000 400,000 



White fox 40,000 120,000 



Blue fox 3,ooo 30,000 



Kitt fox 300,000 10,000 



Wolf 100,000 250,000 



Jackal 10,000 20,000 



In 1923, 7939 white fox pelts, worth $297,476, and 10,787 red fox, 

 worth $215,741, were shipped from Alaska. 6 Seton 7 gives the follow- 

 ing figures on the catch of American red fox skins: 



Hudson Bay Company, 1821-1905, averaged 18,075 skins per annum; 1895- 

 1905, averaged 22,671 skins per annum; other American companies, 1821-1891, 

 averaged 53,695 skins per annum. 



The total loss in the United States because of the slaughter of do- 

 mestic stock by wolves, coyotes, bobcats and mountain lions was in 

 1920 estimated at from $20,000,000 to $30,000,000. So serious was 

 the loss that the United States Biological Survey, in cooperation with 

 western stock growers, began a systematic campaign in which, from 

 1914 to 1920 inclusive, 109,346 coyotes and 2936 wolves were killed, 

 while the total number from 1915 to 1923 inclusive is placed at 196,172 

 coyotes and 4916 wolves. 8 It was estimated that the annual damage 

 by each mountain lion is $1,000, by each bear $500, by each wolf $500, 

 by each bobcat and each coyote $50 ; but the coyote being far the most 

 abundant, it is probably on the whole the most destructive western 

 American carnivore, though also one of the most useful. These esti- 

 mates of the damage done by individual animals are but little more 

 than guesses. That they do considerable damage in some localities can- 

 not be doubted. In other localities they do little or no harm, and they 

 do some good wherever they occur. It depends upon local conditions, 

 and a reasonable number of coyotes and bobcats, except perhaps in 

 the vicinity of sheep and goat ranges, may even do much more good 

 than harm. Consequently, generalized statements concerning the dam- 

 age done are hazardous. The investigations have not been thorough 

 enough to satisfy most mammalogists, who feel that the present gov- 

 ernment efforts for the control of predators by a general poisoning 



6 California Fish and Game, x, 82, 1924. 



7 Seton, Lives of game animals, I, Pt. 2, pp. 469-552, 1929. 



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

 289-301. Adams, Roosevelt Wild Life Bull, in, 583, 1926. Science, LXIX, 378, 1929. 



