12 WOLVES IJN^ KELATIOi^ TO STOCK^ GAME^ AND FOREST EESERVES. 



NEW MEXICO. 



Writing from the Bell Kanch, San Miguel County, N. Mex., Arthur 

 J. Tisdall, in a letter to the Biological Survey, dated December 26, 



1897, said: 



I would call your attention to the excessive damage done by wolves all over 

 the Western States and Territories, especially where cattie and horses run on 

 the range. It is my belief from figures I have made that they destroy not less 

 than 500,000 animals annually, principally calves and yearling cattle. I have 

 been fighting this pest for years, and keep them down fairly well in whatever 

 locality my interests lie at the time. The State and county bounties result in 

 very little good. 



Additional field reports from I^ew Mexico gave the wolves as 

 numerous in 1899 at Portales and Koswell ; in 1901 in the Pecos Val- 

 ley about Carlsbad; in 1902 along the east slope of the Guadalupe, 

 Sacramento, and White mountains, and at Corona and Carrizozo; 

 and in 1903 near Montoya, and as common about Santa Rosa, in the 

 Capitan Mountains, on the Mesa Jumanes, and in the Pecos Eiver 

 Mountains, and as less common in the Taos, Manzano, and San An- 

 dreas mountains. In 1905 they were found near Laguna, and were 

 fairly common and doing great damage to stock in the Bear Spring, 

 Gallina, and Datil mountains. In September, 1906, they were found 

 in considerable numbers just north of the Gila Forest Reserve, where 

 they were killing cattle at an alarming rate. A Mexican owning 

 a small ranch north of Luna said that they had killed IT head of 

 his cattle, mainly calves, during the summer. 



On the Gila Forest Reserve in May, 1906, wolves were fairly 

 common in the upper Mimbres, Sappello Creek, Rocky Creek, and 

 Diamond Creek valleys. At least 4 crossed the North Star Mesa be- 

 tween Sapello Creek and the Mimbres every few nights, apparently 

 killing stock on every round. Judging from my own observations 

 and from what I could learn from the ranchmen, a moderate estimate 

 of the stock killed by each of these 4 wolves would be a calf or a 

 yearling or a cow every three days, or approximately a hundred 

 head of cattle a year to a wolf. Counting all as calves, at the very 

 low rate of $10 a head, each wolf would at this rate cost the ranch- 

 men $1,000 a year. This estimate of $4,000 for the 4 wolves leaves 

 out of consideration the 5 to 10 hungry offspring of each pair, which 

 would begin to kill stock for themselves in the fall and would con- 

 tinue to do so as long as they lived. 



From the same section of the Gila Reserve, on Sapello Creek, 

 Mr. Victor Culberson, president and manager of the G O S Cattle 

 Company, w^rites under date of June 3, 1906 : 



We estimate the losses on our ranch by wolves to be at least 10 per cent. 

 Three years ago, while gathering steers to be turned off and holding them in 

 a small pasture, we found one morning 8 yearlings that had been killed during 



