Wolves 



145 



of the people exceeds considerably the 

 sum of one thousand million dollars. But 

 this vast domain is withheld from serving 

 the nation as freely and fully as it might 

 by the lack of capital to develop it. The 

 3''early running expenses are met by the 

 annual appropriation and the proceeds of 

 the forests. Under the care of the For- 

 est Service the latter are increasing at 

 the rate of more than half a million dol- 

 lars a year. The estimate of the appro- 

 priation for the present year is less than 

 that for last year, and it is confidently 

 expected that by igio the Forest Service 

 zi'ill be entirely self-supporting. In the 

 meantiiue there is the most urgent need 

 for trails, fences, cabins for the rangers, 

 bridges, telephone lines, and the other 

 items of equipment without which the 

 reserves cannot be protected properly 



and cannot contribute as they should to 

 the general welfare. Expenditures for 

 such permanent improvements are prop- 

 erly chargeable to capital account. The 

 lack of reasonable working equipment 

 weakens the protection of the national 

 forests and greatly limits their produc- 

 tion. This want cannot be supplied from 

 the appropriation for running expenses. 

 The need is urgent. Accordingly I rec- 

 ommend that the Secretary of the Treas- 

 ury be authorized to advance to the 

 Forest Service, upon the security of the 

 standing timber, an amount, say 

 $5,000,000, sufficient to provide a reason- 

 able working capital for the national for- 

 ests, to bear interest and to be repaid in 

 annual installments beginning in ten 

 years. 



WOLVES 



THE enormous losses suffered by 

 stockmen on the western cattle 

 ranges and the destruction of 

 game on forest reserves, game reserves, 

 and in the national parks through the 

 depredations of wolves have led to special 

 investigations by the Biological Survey, 

 in cooperation with the Forest Service, 

 to ascertain the best methods for destroy- 

 ing these pests. The results appear in 

 a report by Mr Vernon Bailey, of the 

 Biological Survey, which includes also 

 field notes on the distribution, abundance, 

 and breeding habits of wolves. (Forest 

 Service Bulletin 72.) 



The chief object of the report is to put 

 into the hands of every hunter, trapper, 

 forest ranger, and ranchman directions 

 for trapping, poisoning, and hunting 

 wolves and finding the dens of young. 



The wolves of North America are 

 divided into two groups — the smaller 

 co)'Otes, or prairie wolves, of the western 

 United States, Mexico, and southwestern 

 Canada, comprising several species and 

 subspecies ; and the larger gray, black, 

 or timber wolves, distributed practically 



throughout the whole of North America 

 from Florida and the table-land of Mex- 

 ico to the Arctic Ocean. These large 

 wolves — commonly called "loafers" or 

 "lobos" — include at least half a dozen 

 species or geographic races, comprising 

 the small dark gray or black wolf of 

 Florida and the southeastern United 

 States, the red wolf of southern Texas, 

 the brindled wolf of Mexico, the light- 

 gray wolf of the Central Plains region, 

 the dark-gray wolf of eastern Canada, the 

 almost white wolf of northern Canada 

 and Alaska, and the large black or 

 dusky wolf of the Northwest Coast re- 

 gion. Their habits differ mainly in 

 adaptation to the varied conditions of 

 their environment — timber, plains, moun- 

 tains, deserts, or northern barren grounds 

 — and in the methods of pursuit and cap- 

 ture of different kinds of animals for 

 food. 



Wolves still occupy most of their origi- 

 nal range, except where crowded out of 

 the more thickly settled regions. The 

 large gray wolf of the plains and middle 

 west is at present the most abundant 



