The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-09-03
THEY SOON BECOME PESTS.
TAME ANIMALS THAT QUICKLY DE-
GENERATE INTO WILD BEASTS.

stra1ia.
From the Detroit Free Press.
The notion that ordinary domestic ami
mails, such as horses, cats, dogs, etc, may
multiply so numerously as to become Sc
rious pests-nay, that in certain parts of
the world they have already done so-is
sufficiently striking to lend exceptional in
terest to a bulletin on the subject that will
be included in the forthcoming year book
OF the department of agriculture.
II appears that in some of the Western
states wild horses have become a positive
nuisance and in 1897 Nevada passed a law
permitting them to be shot. Recent re-
ports from Washington likewise are to the
effect that "cayuses" in that region are
considered of so little value that they are
killed and used as bait for poisoning
wolves and coyotes. In this connection it
is worth mentioning that in some portions
of Australia wild horses have multiplied
10 such an extent as to consume the grass
needed for sheep and other animals and
hunters have been employed 10 shoot
them.
When cats have run wild on isolated is
lands their work can be more accurately
appreciated. For example, on Sable Is
land off the coast of Nova Scotia they
were introduced about 1880 and rapidly ex-
terminated the rabbits, which had been in
possession for a least half a century In
one of the harbors of Kerguelen land, a
barren and desolate 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 a wintering place for sealers.
Here they live in holes in the ground,
preying upon sea birds and their young.
and are said to have developed such ex-
traordinary ferocity that it is almost i'm
possible to tame them even when captured
young.
Forests Destroyed by Goats.
Pigs have run wild in some of the South
ern states on certain islands, where as on
the Galapagos, they were originally intro
duced TO furnish food for crews Of vessels
in need of fresh meat. They We're import
ed into New Zealand by Capt. Cook about
no 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 Taranaki. on
the North Island, that hunter could shoot
fifty 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 la
be TO cause widespread injury, particularly
in forested regions. An instructive exam
pie Of the damage done by goats is afford
ed by st. Helena, which is a mountainous
island scarcely fifty square miles in ex-
tent, its highest SUBMITS reaching an ele-
walton of 200 feet. At the time of its
discovery about the beginning of the six
tenth century, it is said to have been COW
cred by dense forest; to-day it is described
as a rocky desert. This change has been
largely brought about by goats, first intro
duced by the Portuguese in 1918 and
which multiplied so fast that in seventy
five 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 destruction
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
thcir destruction was begun in South Aus
tralia and the example was soon followed
by New South Wales, New Zealand,
Queensland and Tasmania. AT the present
time their range in Australia is probably
equal in area to that OF our three largest
s,Htes-TeXas, California and Montana.
Millions OF dollars have been spent for
bounties, for p0scns and in various other
methods of destruction; thousands of
miles Of rabbit-proof fences have been
built and hundreds of schemes for des-
tToy.ug the animals have been suggested,
bul nothing has yet been found that win
ehectua.fy exterminate the pest.
Natural enemies, such as cats and 9TH
er carnivorous animals, have been intro
M in fsHf artg Il NaVF- nos
land at least have become almost as much
OF pest as the rabbits they were intend
Cd TO kill. In 1887 no less than 91s2 SO
rabbits were destroyed in New South
Wales alone, but despite the efforts of the
government and private land owners the
rabbits seem TO be stin increasing. In the
meantime great industry has grown up
IN tie export of rabbit skins. For the last
1--WE years New Zealand has been shipping
an average of about 1900 900 per annun
ard since 1873 has exported more than 200
10000. Recently canning rabbit meat for
export to European markets is assuming
lafger proportions and gives promise Of
developing into an important industry.
other Four-FOOted Plaques.
Sable Island off the coast of Nova SEQ
ia has suffered from several plaques of
rats, and it is said that the first super
Inlendant of the light station and his men
We're at one time threatened with starVa-
ton owing to the inroads made on their
stores by rats The common brown rat,
otherwise known as the wharf rat or Nor
way rat, is of Asiatic origin and until 200
years ago was unknown to Europe or
America. In the autumn Of 1927 large num-
oers of this species entered Europe by
swimming across the Volga, and gain
ing a foothold in the province of Astrak-
nan in Eastern Russia, spread westward
over Central Europe. Five years later
nlaI IL.
western India. They arrived on the East
ern shores of the United States about 1775
ana by 1855 were abundant at several
points on the Pacific coast. The black rat
was the common house rat of Europe in
the middle ages and was introduced into
ohe new world about 1874, or more than
~ years earlier than the brown rat. In
torto Rico and some other islands the
uiack rat has taken to living in the crowns
OIL cocoanut trees, to which latter it
uoes great damage by biting off the unripe
nuts, upon which it feeds.