The Portland daily press., 1897-07-13
MANS ANIMAL FOES.
About Twenty Varieties Supposed to BE
Hostile to Human Beings,
{ From the Washington Post

From the Washington Post.
In the forthcoming year book, to be
published three months hence, the De-
partment of Agriculture will offer novel
contribution to natural history. The
topic will be: "Animals Supposed to
Be Foes to Mankind" and it will tell
about the mammals and birds native to
this country which are supposed to be
| hostile to human beings and their indus
| tries.
| 1t cannot be said that in the United
| States bounties have brought about tho
determination of d single species of ami
mails in any state The rarity of wolves
east of the Mississippi River is rather due
to the settlement of the country than to
| the number killed for rewards. On the
great plains, where civilization has not
| encroached upon natures domain to any
| great extent, the wolves have not de-
creased perceptibly, Notwithstanding high
premiums paid for scalps. Almost I'M
| doubtedly coyotes, which are small
| breed of wolves, have increased in Cali
fornia during the last three years since
| the bounty on them was withdrawn, SO
| that there are now as many of them in
that state as ever. California, Montana,
and Texas offered S. apiece for coyote
scalps for some time, the outlay aggregat-
ing hundreds of thousands of dollars; but
the results We're unimportant. Iowa and
Minnesota are the only Western States
which now pay more than So per wolf
scalp, and in Iowa the rate for young
wolves is 80.
| Meanwhile in some parts of the country
wolves and coyotes are very destructive.
In New Mexico they kill from S150,OOO to
$500, 900 worth of sheep annually, and in
Nebraska the damage done to sheep is
reckoned at 500, 900 a year. One difficulty
| in the wolf problem lies in the fact that
it is impossible to secure the cooperation
of all the states. This lack of agreement
on the subject of bounties in general opens
| a wide door to fraud. Scalps are taken
| in localities where rewards are low and
| shipped to places where premiums are
high, and thus it often happens that
county is compelled to pay for animals
that did not belong to it. At the present
time the bounty on wolves and coyotes
varies from 81. so to So, the latter price
| being paid in the Black Hill regions of
South Dakota. In North Dakota it is 81;
it is So in Montana and Wyoming, and in
Iowa it is So, except for young animals.
| Thus rewards may be claimed profitably
in Iowa for coyotes killed in North Da-
kota.
| The wolf bounty in Nevada was so cents
when California was offering IS for
scalps. Consequently, thousands of scalps
were shipped from Nevada to California,
and large numbers of them were actually
imported from Mexico, sc that California
found herself getting poorer at distress
ing rate, and the bounty law was re-
pealed. Owing to ignorance of natural
history on the part of local authorities,
heads of domestic fowls, cartridges,
pheasants, cuckoos, butcher birds, etc,
were accepted and paid for as those of
hawks and owls under the "scalp act"
in Pennsylvania. The skins of dogs and
other domestic animals are frequently
turned in for those of wolves and coyotes.
In the case of small animals the heads
are sometimes accepted in one county
and the tails in another county, SO that
| the premiums are collected twice. One
county in North Dakota, waging war on
ground squirrels, first required the head, ?
then the TAIL and a year or two later all
| four feet. 10
One interesting effect of the bounty
| system is to encourage the breeding of
the animals outlawed. 1t is said that in
India many natives are regularly engaged
in the business of propagating snakes for
| the sake of the premiums offered by the
government for venomouS serpents. There
| is no doubt that the same thing has been
done in this country with various ami
mails for which bounties were granted.
| For example, the eggs of hawks and owls
| have been taken from the nests and
Matched under hens. In Iowa few years
ago it was said to be more profitable to
for hQ t.v 70 ico
sheep, and Kentucky aud New Mexico
have recognized the possibility of breeding
| wolves by requiring affidavits showing
! that the animals had not been raised for
| the sake of rewards. British Columbia,
| by the way, pays bounties for wolves,
coyotes, and panthers, but requires that
| theEskulls shall be presented to the curator
of the provincial museum for scientific
| Identification.
| The pocket gopher is one of the worst.
enemies man has to encounter in the ami
NAL kingdom 1t does all its work under
ground, the lines of it's tunnels being
marked by dead and dying plants. Its
burrow runs foot or less below the sur
face, and is dug for the purpose of getting
at the roots on which it feeds. One may
travel for weeks in a region infested by
gophers and yet not see one of them ;
they labor and destroy unobserved. The
buffalo in their past abundance were not
one IenIn So numerous. UOpnerS 90 not
disappear before man, but remain in the
cultivated fields, making havoc among
the crops and killing the orchards. The
little beast is very brave, not hesitating
| to attack man on slight provocation.
When young it looks strikingly like a
baby, being hairless and pink, with a
round head and fat hands. 1t runs back
ward as rapidly as forward through its
tunnels, and its equipment of teeth is so
admirable that it is able to make Is, 200
cuts a minute.