The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-09-08
SOON BECOME PESTS.
Tame Animals That Quickly Degenerat
Into Wild Beasts

| luto via beRSts.
| The notion that ordinary domesti,
animals, such as horses, cats, dogs, etc.
may multiply so numerously as to be
! come serious pests--nay, that in Ger
tain parts of the world they have al
| ready done so-is sufficiently strikins
to lend exceptional interest to a bulle
tin on the subject that will be included
In the forthcoming year book of the de
| partment of agriculture.
1t appears that in some of the West
| ern states wild horses have become 6
| positive nuisance, and in 1897 Nevads
passed law permitting them to bt
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 cats have run wild on isolated
islands their work can be more accu-
rately appreciated. For example, or
Sable island, off the coast of Nova
Scotia, they were introduced about 1880
and rapidly exterminated the rabbits
which had been in possession for at
least half a century. In one of the har-
bors of Kerguelen land, a barren and
desolate bit of antarctic terra firma
to the southeast of the Cape of Good
Hope, cats, escaped from the 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 de-
veloped such extraordinary ferocity
that it is almost impossible to tame
them even when captured young.
Pigs have run wild in some of the
Southern states on certain islands,
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 remark
able degree. A century later wild pigs
were so abundant in the fax thickets
of the province of Taranaki, on the
North island. that a hunter could
shoot 90 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
StfuCtlFer example or the damage done
by goats is afforded by ST. Helena,
which is mountainous island scarcely
80 square miles in extent it's highest
submits reaching an elevation of 200
feet. At the time of its discovery, about
the beginning of the 10th century ii is
said to have been covered by dense for
est; 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 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 be-
gan the washing of the soil by tropical
rains and the destruction of the forest.
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 legisla-