8 AA^OLVES IIv^ RELATION TO STOCK^ GAME^ AND FOEEST RESERVES. 



Farther south, in New Mexico and Arizona, on some of the reserves 

 at lower altitudes, the wolves are common throughout the A^ear and 

 breed on the reserA'^es, where cattle furnish them abundant food at all 

 times. Woh^es dej)end on cattle for food far more than on game, and, 

 like all wild animals, their distribution depends largely on food 

 supply. 



PRESENT ABUNDANCE OF WOLVES. 



The abundance of aa^oIvcs in a giA^en area can not, of course, be 

 determined with any great accuracy, but a fair estimate can be made 

 from recent field work and the reports of field naturalists and ranch- 

 men. The field reports, howcA^er, coA^er only a part of the wolf 

 country; some, moreover, elate back several years, and the conditions 

 may have changed since they were Avritten. Records of bounties paid 

 by States, counties, and local stockmen's associations are a partial 

 index to the abundance of the animals, but they record dead wolves 

 and not those remaining alive; and it must also be borne in mind 

 that many wolves are killed on which no bounty is collected. 



AVYOMING. 



In the upper Green River Valley of Wyoming (fig. 2 and PL I, 

 fig. 1), between the Salt RiA^er and Wind RiA^er mountains, Avolves 

 were apparenth^ just as numerous in March, 1906, as on a prcAdous 

 trap that I made through the valley thirteen years before. Fresh 

 tracks were seen on the snow almost every day, usually of ayoIvcs 

 in pairs, but in one case of a band of nine. Between March 24 and 

 April 21, 1906, four dens, containing 32 wolf pups, AA^ere found, Avith 

 2 old AA^olves at each den; and evidently there AA^ere two or three 

 other dens in the valley. Forty old wolves, or approximately one to 

 a township, would seem a fair estimate of the number in this valley, 

 while, as far as could be learned, the number that had been killed 

 over the same area during the previous fall, winter, and spring was 

 but 16. Along the east base of the Wind River Mountains (PL III, 

 fig. 2), from Miners Delight to Union, at least 19 wolves were killed 

 during the year of 1905, and 5 pups were taken from one den near 

 Lander on May 1, 1906. The reports of Avolves killed, though com- 

 ing from only a fcAV ranchmen and trappers, included a number on 

 which no bounty had been collected. 



In Fremont County, including most of the Wind River and Sweet 

 Water valleys and a large part of the Green River Valley, bounties 

 were paid on 69 aa^oIa^cs in 1905 and on 45 Avolves from January 1 

 to May 1 in 1906. Reports from different sections of AVyoming 

 shoAv that in 1893 aa^oIa^cs AA^ere common in the Green RiA^er Valley, 

 on the head of La Barge Greek, and in the Pumpkin Butte country ; 



