Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-01
WOLF DETERMINATION
Vernon BaiIey's Report Recent
Iy Published.
STUDIED THEM CLOSELY
On the Ground Where They Operated
In the West.
NOT PRODUCT OF RESERVES
Breed Exclusively in the Foot Hills
Damage Done Lessened by at
Least One-HaH.
NOT PRODUCT OF RESERVES

1t seems little remarkable that Congress
should have decided to wipe out the bio
logical survey from among the bureaus of
the Agricultural Department just at the
moment that the survey had issued one OF
the most valuable reports recently put out
from the department The report is that
of Vernon Bailey wolf determination in
the west. This is a live subject with stock
raisers of all sorts. but especially with the
cattlemen. There has been a good deal Of
discussion in the past two years over the
enormous damage done by the wolves and
their constant increase on the cattle ranges.
This increase was laid largely by many OBJ
servers to the institution of the forest re-
serves. which are supposed to furnish
cover and breeding place for the wolves
and a retreat for them after their raids on
the herds. Whether this was true might
be open to argument, but there was no
question about the damage the wolves were
doing. The best estimates that could be
made placed the damage to cattlemen alone
In the four or five states and territories
along. the eastern slope of the Rocky
mountains at 100000 year.
Mr.. Vernon Bailey's Work.
The biological survey of the Department
Of Agriculture took up the problem about
year ago, and sent Mr.. Bailey to study
wolves on the ground where they operated.
He succeeded In one season in doing what
the ranchmen. the state bounties and the
professional trappers had failed to do in
generation. He worked out a simple
method of reducing the wolf population,
and the letters Of the cattlemen to the
Department of Agriculture say that the
losses have easily been reduced 81 OOO,O a
year. Some Of them say the reduction is
four
figure is the more conserva tive. This does
not count the incidental saving in sheep,
horses and hogs and in game animals.
The wolf zone. according to the report
covers the whole of the west of the center
of Kansas and Nebraska, the most of the
Florida. This is the range of the
gray wolf, the most destructive of
the several species Within it the losses
Of the cattiemen from wolves average about
10 per cent annually. The several states
pay from $4,000 to $4,000 each per year
In state bounties, and in some of the states
there are as many as three bounties pay
able on each VOLTA state bounty, q county
bounty and bounty offered by the ranch
mems association. Seeing that wolf pelt
in frst-class condition Is worth from 81 to
S6, and the bounty sometimes runs as high
as $40, wolf harvesting carried on judfcious-
ly Is a rather lucrative profession There
are many frauds in connection with it. and
the floating class of hunters and trappers
who migrate to the points where the boun-
ties are highest make a good thing out of
it. Some of them, in fact. boast Of know
ing where certain wolf families congre-
gate, but refrain from killing the wolf
pups, preferring to let them grow up for
the higher bounty. The ranchmen them
selves say that their trappers are not will
ing to clear out a wo1f-ridden territory
even when they can, as they have no de-
sire to work themselves out of job"
Mr.. Bailey did not start on the work with
any such financial considerations to gov
ern him, and worked out a very simple
method for clearing wolf-rdden ranches.
He studied the habits of the animals and
found that it was easy to trail them to the
breeding dens. They hunt mostly at night,
and consequently trails in the morning can
be followed direct to the dens and at night
by following the back trail. The wolves
breed mostly from March to May. and in
this season it is comparatively easy mat
ter to locate the breeding dens and kill off
the pups In addition to this, shooting,
trapping and poisoning easily keeps down
the adults.
The wolves discovered in the course of
the seasons work had families of from two
to eleven pups, and, as the average eSti-
mate of damage was 81 eco per wolf per
year, it was easy to see that a wolf family
on ranch was an expensive luxury. Gov.
Brooks of Wyoming said that in one season
he paid bounties of $40 each on fifty wolves
on his ranch and considered it a good in
vestment.
Another interesting fact developed by the
investigation was that the wolves were
not a product of the forest reserves. They
seemed to breed exclusively in the foot
hills, and of the breeding dens located by
Mr.. Bailey in western Wyoming not one
was within the area Of the forest reserves
The report on the wolves covers the cost
and protective value of wolf-proof fences,
methods of poisoning and trapping and
formulas for scents" valuable in batting
and trailing the traps. The rather curious
fact was developed that, while a we'll
developed wolf can easily clear six or seven
feet, they will not jump a fve-foot fence,
seeming to have a suspicion of it as a sort
of trap The same thing has been dscov-
cred in regard to coyotes and jack rabbits,
and many of the vineyard men on the Pa
cific coast have found that an eighteen
inch fence is ample protection against a
jack rabbit that can clear six feet without
any trouble.
Mr.. Bailey has sent in number of wolves
and wolf pups to the Washington Zoo and
Is on very friendly terms with number of
the big fellows who have grown up from
puppies, but this is particular form of in
tmacy that is not initiated by any of the
other officials of the department who visit
his pets out there.