CONTROL OF RODENTS AND PREDATORY ANIMALS 7 
_ Stations where poison is placed should be posted to warn owners 
ef stock or valuable dogs of the danger. Conspicuous warning 
signs such as those furnished by the Bureau of Biological Survey 
in its cooperative work should be used for the purpose. 
In dispensing poisons for the use of cooperators in predatory- 
animal control, Biological Survey field leaders are instructed to 
exercise the greatest care to make sure of the integrity, honesty, and 
cooperative spirit of those requesting supphes. When the leader has 
satisfied himself as to the intent of the cooperator, he should keep 
in close touch with him and observe his methods, to make sure that 
the poison is being properly used and that no supplies are left in 
his possession after cooperative work has been terminated. 
Studded stations, or those in which the poison is placed in parts 
of the carcass instead of about it, are to be used only under espe- 
cially favorable conditions. Their use is sometimes justified along 
the known runways of predatory animals on high barren mountain 
ridges, high benches, or stock driveways that can not be visited by 
the hunter after the first heavy snowfall. Such stations should be 
at some distance from timber, to make remote the danger of poison- 
ing fur bearers. As soon as trails are open in spring, the hunter is 
directed to revisit such stations and bury or burn all the baits. 
All predatory-animal hunters must visit their poison stations as 
frequently as possible, and except under extraordinary conditions 
should avoid making long poison lines. Baits that have become 
rancid should be destroyed, and on completion of the poisoning 
work a general clean-up must be made, and all baits possible de- 
stroyed. The use of perishable fat baits is particularly recommended 
for the reason that they are readily disposed of naturally, for those 
that can not be located usually disintegrate in warm weather and 
become harmless after they have melted and soaked into the 
ground. 
Bears are ordinarily classed as game animals and are protected as 
such. Only when they are doing material damage should they be 
taken, and then by traps or by aid of dogs, and not by poison. 
State laws on the subject must be observed. Field men and cooper- 
ators must exercise the greatest possible care to kill only those indi- 
viduals responsible for damage, and must remove no more bears 
from a locality than it is absolutely necessary to take in order to 
stop the destruction of livestock. 
In placing traps for the capture of injurious wild animals every 
possible precaution is to be taken to avoid the accidental capture 
of valuable game and fur-bearing animals and other harmless or 
beneficial forms of wild life. Hunters working under the supervi- 
sion of the Biological Survey are instructed to visit their trap lines 
