The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-27
PETS SOON BECOME PESTS |
Tame Animals Quickly Degen-
crate Into Wild Beasts.
THE HORSE A NUISANCE
Pigs, Sheep, Dogs, Cats and Goats Also Do
Damage-For Twenty Years the
Rabbit Has Been Scourge
in Australia

The notion that ordinary domestic an
| imals, such as horses, cats. dogs, etc,
may multiply SO numerously as to be-
come serious pests-nay, that in certain
| parts of the world they have already
done so--is sufficiently striking to lend
exceptional interest to bulletin on the
subject that will be included in the
forthcoming year book of the depart
ment of agriculture.
1t appears that in some of the West
ern states wild horses have become a
positive nuisance, and in 1897 Nevada
passed a law permitting them to be
shot. Recent reports from Washington
likewise are to the effect that "cayuses"
in that region are considered of SO lit
tie value that they are killed and used
as bait for poisoning wolves and coy
otes. In this connection it is worth
mentioning that in some portions of
Australia wild horses have multiplied
to such an extent as to consume the
grass needed for sheep and other ami
mails and hunters have been employed
to shoot them.
where Us nave run W1lu OH 1SOlaleu
Islands their work can be more accu-
rately appreciated. For example, on
Sable island. off the coast of Nova SEQ
tia, they We're introduced about 1880
and rapidly exterminated the rabbits
which had been in possession for at
least a century. In one of the harbors
of Kerguelen land a barren and desc
late bit of antarctic terra firma to the
southeast of the Cape of Good Hope
cats, escaped from ships have made
themselves at home on a little island
known as Cat island, which has been
long used as wintering place for seal
ers. Here they live in holes in the
ground, preying upon sea birds and
their young, and are said to have de-
veloped such extraordinary ferocity
that it is almost impossible to tame
them even when captured young.
Forests Destroyed by Goats.
Pigs have run wild in some of the
Southern states and also on certain ISL
lands, where, as on the Galapagos, they
were originally introduced to furnish
food for crews of vessels in need of
fresh meat. They were imported into
New Zealand by Captain Cook about
ITO and, soon becoming wild, increased
to a remarkable degree. A century
later wild pigs were so abundant in the
flax thickets of the province of Taran-
ak, on the North island, that hunter
could shoot so in a single day. In one
case $4,000 wild pigs are said to have
been killed there by three hunters in
| less than two years.
Sheep and goats when numerous are
| liable to cause widespread injury, par
| ticularly in forested regions An in
| structive example of the damage done
| by goats is afforded by st. Helena,
| which is mountainous island scarcely
| SO square miles in extent, its highest
I 1,
| feet. At the time of its discovery, about
| the beginning of the 10th century, it is
| said to have been covered by dense
| forest; to-day it is described as rocky
| desert. This change has been largely
| brought about by goats. first introduced
| by the Portuguese in 1913, and which
multiplied so fast that in IS years they
| existed by thousands. Browsing on the
young trees and shrubs they rapidly
| brought about the destruction of the
vegetation which protected the steep
slopes. With the disappearance of the
| underground began the washing of the
| soil by tropical rains and the destruc-
| ton of the forest.
| Rabbit Scourge in Australia.
The common rabbits of Europe were
originally introduced into Australia for
| purposes of sport. They spread over
the country like a scourge. So rapidly
did they multiply that in 1879 legislative
| action for their destruction was begun
in South Australia and the example
| was soon followed by New South Wales,
| New Zealand, Queensland and Tas-
mania. At the present time their range
| in Australia is probably equal in area
to that of our three largest states-TeX-
as California and Montana. Millions
of dollars have been spent for bounties,
| for poisons and in various other meth
DDS of destruction; thousands of miles
of rabbit-proof fences have been built
and hundreds of schemes for destroying
the animals have been suggested but
nothing has yet been found that will
effectually exterminate the pest.
Other Four-Footed Plaques,
Sable island, off the coast of Nova
Scotia, has suffered from several
plaques of rats, and it is said that the
first superintendent of the light sta
ton and his men were at one time
threatened with starvation owing to the
inroads made on their stores by rats
The common brown rat, otherwise
known as the wharf rat or Norway rat
is of Asiatic origin and until 200 years
ago was unknown in Europe or Amer
lea. In the autumn of 1927 large num-
bers of this species entered Europe by
swimming across the Volga and. gain.
ing a foothold in the province of AS
trakhan, in Eastern Russia, spread
westward over central Europe. Five
years later they reached England by
vessels from Western India. They ar
rived on the eastern shores of the Unit.
ed States about 1775 and by 1855 were
abundant at several points on the Pa
cific coast. The black rat was the com
mon house rat of Europe in the middle
ages and was introduced into the new
world about 1874 or more than 20t
years earlier than the brown rat. In
Porto Rico and some other islands the
| black rat has taken to living in the
crowns of cocoanut trees, to which lat.
ter it does great damage by biting off
| the unripe nuts. upon which it feeds
Similarly. the rats in Jamaica are
said to have been driven to the trees
| by the mongoose, which was introduced
in 1872 for the purpose of destroying
| these pests of the sugar cane. Nine
were imported. four males and five fe-
males, and they increased with such
rapidity that soon they had spread tc
all parts of the island. even to the tops
of the highest mountains. AS rat kill,
ers they surpassed expectations, but, as