WOLVES ON THE STOCK RANGE. 



A. WHITEHEAD. 



That wolves are steadily increasing and 

 extending their range, in spite of every 

 effort to exterminate or limit them, is be- 

 coming every year more apparent. In a 

 short time the entire Western country, 

 except the more thickly settled agricul- 

 tural sections, will be overrun by them. 

 They are not yet numerous in the country 

 South of our latitude, but they are pour- 

 ing down into Colorado from the North 

 like the Goths and Vandals on ancient 

 Rome. 



Wolves do not so much frequent the open 

 plains as the hilly or broken country, 

 where they can better hide. Many may 

 be found within 50 or 75 miles of Denver. 

 In some sections every cow camp has one 

 or more men called "wolfers" employed 

 the year round, solely to keep down the 

 wolves. 



Whether due to natural ferocity or a 

 discriminating taste, I am unable to say, 

 but, where given a chance for a choice, 

 they seem to prefer beef or horse meat to 

 mutton. A full grown wolf will weigh 

 100 pounds or more, and it can be un- 

 derstood that a pack of them have no 

 difficulty in pulling down a steer or a horse. 

 Although tireless and bloodthirsty, they 

 are by no means foolhardy, and seldom 

 risk an attack unless the odds are in their 

 favor. While they hunt mostly at night, 

 they are not infrequently found abroad 

 on their raids in daylight. They are iden- 

 tical with the Russian, or Siberian, wolf, 

 with the blood-curdling stories of whose 

 ferocity every schoolboy is familiar. 



Although difficult to trap, they are some- 

 times caught by means of certain scents. 

 They have that strange habit of paying 

 their respects to any object projecting 

 abovethe surface of the earth, so familiar 

 to us in the case of the dog. Accordingly, 

 if a trap is carefully concealed near a rock, 

 root or other natural object which has 

 been smeared with some favorite scent, 

 they are likely to "put their foot in it." 



At the meeting of the National Stock 

 Growers' Association, recently held in 

 Denver, and representing the large stock 

 growing interests West of the Mississippi 

 river, action was taken looking to the en- 

 actment of an uniform bounty law in the 

 States and Territories seriously afflicted 

 with wolves. Bills have been introduced 

 in the various legislatures and commit- 

 tees have been appointed by the associa- 

 tion to push them, but with what success 

 remains to be seen. 



An interesting and practical paper on 

 this subject was read before the associa- 



tion by Mr. A. J. Bothwell. I append some 

 extracts: 



"My experience with these pests covers 

 a comparatively limited period, my ranch- 

 es being in Central Wyoming, a section 

 practically free from wolves until within 

 a few years. They seem to have been 

 heard of first in the more Northern sec- 

 tion of the range country within the last 

 decade, and their advance Southward has 

 been gradual but certain, until now the 

 ranges in Central Wyoming have nearly 

 as many wolves as cattle occupying them. 

 That this proportion of wolves to cattle 

 has suddenly become so enormous is 

 owing to the fact that within the past 2 

 years the greater part of the cattle belong- 

 ing to the large range companies have 

 been shipped from the State, the wolves 

 remaining to prey on the smaller herds. 

 They now pretty well cover Eastern Mon- 

 tana, the Dakotas, all of Eastern Wyo- 

 ming as far South as the Colorado line, 

 while they are beginning to appear in 

 Northwest Colorado. I have not heard 

 of any in Utah, nor have any appeared as 

 yet on the ranges in the State of Nevada. 

 For the information of members of this 

 convention who reside South of the sec- 

 tion of the country infested by these pests, 

 we exhibit here a number of gray wolf 

 pelts taken from animals killed within the 

 past 60 days by employees on my ranches 

 in Wyoming. 



"In Central Wyoming my experience 

 has been that these wolves kill from 10 to 

 20 per cent of the annual increase of the 

 herds. The class of stock preyed on by them 

 is generally calves, colts and yearlings, 

 though occasionally a band attacks and 

 devours older animals, and sometimes 

 even kills full grown cattle. Wolves are gen- 

 erally most destructive during the spring, 

 summer and fall months, during which 

 period, too, they are more easily trapped, 

 poisoned, shot or captured with the lariat. 

 Their characteristic manner of attack is 

 to cut off an animal from the herd, catch 

 him by the hamstrings, and, after throw- 

 ing him to the ground, proceed to devour 

 him alive. Owing to their passion for 

 warm, live flesh, it is difficult to kill them 

 with poison. Caring but little for cold, 

 dead meat, the trapper's bait is uninviting 

 and of little use, as the wolves prefer kill- 

 ing their own meat. 



"Yearling cattle have been observed 

 crawling on their knees, bellowing pit- 

 eously, with a wolf hanging to each 

 hamstring. Within the past week one of 

 my thoroughbred calves was surrounded 



