PROTECTIVE MEASURES. 25 



The young pups are nearly black, but as they mature the color 

 fades to a dull yellowish, and when about 3 months old the puppy 

 coat is shed and a new, light-gray coat acquired. " Black wolves " 

 in the bounty records are in most cases pups. 



No ranchman can afford to let a litter of wolf j^ups grow up on 

 his place, as is often done, when an hour's ride would serve to locate 

 the den. 



POISONING. 



Many wolves are killed by poisoning, and more would be so killed 

 if the methods followed were less crude. Strychnine is generally 

 used with nothing to disguise its intense bitterness, the powder being 

 either inserted in bits of meat or fat or merely spread on a fresh 

 carcass. In most cases the wolf gets a taste of the bitter drug and 

 rejects it, and if the dose is swallowed it may be too small to be fatal 

 or so large as to act as an emetic. An old and experienced wolf 

 will rarely touch bait poisoned in the ordinary way, but sometimes 

 a whole family of young may be killed at a carcass. Usually when 

 wolves are poisoned the}^ go so far before they die that if found 

 at all it is not until their skins are spoiled. To encourage poisoning, 

 it must be possible to secure the skins in good condition, or, at least, 

 to find the animals after they are killed, so that the ranchman may 

 have the satisfaction of knowing that he has accomplished something 

 toward the protection of his stock. 



In the use of poison it is of first importance to determine the 

 amount that will kill with certainty in the shortest possible time. 

 According to German ^ and French authorities on toxicology, the 

 smallest close of strychnine that will kill a 25-pound dog is approxi- 

 mately one-fourth of a grain. Quadruple this for a 100-pound wolf 

 and we have 2 grains. Mr. B. E. Ross,^ of the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany, found that this quantity would kill a wolf quickly. Experi- 

 ments by Prof. David E. Lantz, of the Biological Surve}^, Avould 

 indicate the best results from a still larger dose. One grain killed a 

 21 -pound dog in seventy-five minutes, while 2 grains killed a 40- 

 pound dog in twenty-seven minutes, without acting as an emetic. 

 For a wolf, therefore, 4 grains of pure sulphate of strychnine Avould 

 seem to be a proper dose. 



Tests on 40-pound dogs with 1 and 2 grains of cyanide of potas- 

 sium in capsules caused the dogs to vomit in about fourteen minutes, 

 after which they fully recovered. Other more deadly poisons can not 

 be safely handled, and strychnine is the only practicable poison that 

 can be recommended. 



a Lehrbuch cler Intoxikationen, p. G64, Rudolph Robert. 

 y Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, vol. 6, p. 12, 1861. 



