PROTECTIVE MEASURES. 19 



and probabh^ destroy many of the young, but wolves apparently do 

 not share this habit. It seems probable, however, that in summer the 

 young of both elk and deer suifer to some extent while the wolves are 

 among them in the mountains. 



Man}^ deer aue killed by wolves in the timbered regions of northern 

 Michigan, AVisconsin, and Minnesota, and in parts of Canada, espe- 

 cially during the winter, when snow is deep and domestic animals are 

 housed. On Grand Island, in Lake Superior, a gray wolf appeared 

 on the game jDreserA^e of the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company in Janu- 

 ary, 1906, when the snow was 2 feet deep. Within the next thirty 

 days it killed 13 deer and 1 caribou, the carcasses of which were 

 found by the party organized to hunt the wolf.« 



Wherever wolves inhabit timbered country they are destructive to 

 game in proportion to their abundance, to the abundance of game, and 

 to the scarcity of domestic cattle. In the far north caribou, moose, 

 and musk ox are their principal prey, while in some parts of the 

 United States and Canada they kill many deer every year. Over the 

 Central Plains region of the United States wolves in great numbers 

 originally preyed on the buffalo herds, but the buffalo wolf has now 

 become preeminently the cattle wolf. 



PROTECTIVE MEASURES. 



WOLF-PROOF FEXCES. 



The fences tested by the Biological Surrey for protecting sheep 

 from the ravages of coyotes^ will doubtless, with slight modifica- 

 tions, prove effective in protecting stock from wolves. In sections 

 where cattle are fed during winter months wolves often kill them on 

 the open feeding grounds. These, as well as small home pastures, 

 could be inclosed by wolf-proof fence at relatively slight cost, often 

 less than the value of the stock killed during one season. Until 

 more thorough tests can be made, the following fence is recommended 

 as affording protection against both wolves and coyotes. 



On posts 7 feet long (or longer for fences to be higher than 5 feet), 

 set a- rod or a rod and a half apart, should be stretched one barbed 

 wire along the surface of the ground. Three inches above this should 

 be set a 36-inch strip of woven-wire fence of not over 5-inch mesh, 

 and aboA^e this two barbed wires 6 inches apart. Another wire, 8 

 inches above these ma}^ be added to provide for a moderate depth of 

 snow, making a close fence practically 5 feet high. To prevent the 



a Through the courtesy of the officials of the Clevehind-Cliffs Iron Company 

 the skin of this wolf is now in the Biological Survey collection in the National 

 Museum. An account of the hunt was also sent to the Biological Survey by 

 Mr. A. O. Jopling, superintendent of the company. 



i Farmers' Bulletin No. 226, The Relation of Coyotes to Stock Raising in the 

 West, by David E. Lantz. 



