The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-03-27
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
FREDERIC J. HASKIN, Director.
Washington, D. c.
WOLVES AND WAR.

Washington, D. c., March 24.-"If
| the coyotes should no longer sing to
! the moon on the western prairies, II
! the other predatory animals should
disappear God knows what Gala nifty
i would overtake those who are sup
! posed to destroy them"
In these words a senator (Thomas
| of Colorado), attacked the appropria-
| ton which the Biological Survey is
| asking for its work of destroy1n? the
| wolves, coyotes and mountain lions OF
/ the western stock ranges. The SEN
| ators point was that in order to keep
their jobs the hunters will be careful
| not to kill all of the coyotes, and so
| destroy their source of revenue.
rhe scientists of the Biological
Survey offer a mass of facts in ref
utation of this statement Among
other things, they point out the start
ling fact that predatory animals in
this country are destroying not only
actually, but relatively more livestock
| today than forty years ago. While
the elk and buffalo and redskin have
gone down before the smooth advance
/ of civilization, the wolf and coyote
and mountain lion have multiplied,
fattening on the herds of the white
men. The total damage annually in
! flicted by these animals is estimated
at about $40. 100000. This amount OF
/ meat would go long way toward
making up the war time shortages.
| DIR. A. K. Fisher, who has charge
| of the work for the Biological Survey,
| has built up an organization contain
! ing three hundred hunters operating
! in fifteen states. He claims that ne
| has saved many dollars for every dol
lar spent; that in five years, If his
| appropriations are adequate, he Will
! practically exterminate the wolves
| and reduce the coyotes to the point
where they are not a serious menace
to industry. The most convincing
proof of his claims consist of the Of
/ fers of cooperation, requests for as
| sistance and expressions OF gratitude
| which are coming to the Biological
| Survey from stockmen of the west.
The sheep men of the San Luis Valley
in Colorado, for example, lose every
| year about ten per cent of their lambs
to wolves and coyotes. They earnest
" request that the Biological Survey
come to their rescue. and raised five
| thousand dollars to help in the work,
which is already showing its effect in
reduced losses
In one region of northwest Colorado
the stock raisers have practically sur
rendered the range to one band of f1f-
teen wolves The wolf is the wild ami
NAL that comes nearest to defying civ
Utilization. He not only survives, but
| survives at the expense of man. The
| stockmen estimate that each wolf
alive in the west costs a thousand dol
lars a year in livestock. One wolf in
New MeXicoJ "Old Invoices, kliieo
three thousand dollars worth of live
stock before he was taken by a gov
eminent trapper- Another wolf killed
one hundred and twenty-five head of
| livestock between January 1 and Oc-
tober 81 of last year.
| few wears ago there were esti-
mated to be five hundred wolves in
the state of New Mexico. This was
no vague estimate, by count, for the
ranchmen know only too well every
hair
not less than half a million dollars to
support this wolf population. Today,
as result of the government meth
DDS of determination, there are less
! than fifty wolves left in the state.
When the government began its work
in New Mexico, there was a percepd-
BILE chill in the air toward the federal
men. To day the whole state is COM
ing forward with offers of co-opera-
ton and with funds.
The attitude of the stockmen toward
the federal work is typified in resoiu-
lions adopted by the American Live
stock association at its convention at
Salt Lake City last January, in which
it called upon congress to appropriate
five hundred thousand dollars for the
work, and the states to put up an
equal amount.
In many of the wilder sections of
| the West the coyotes are fairly get
ting the best of the sheep men, and
are cutting down profits just at a time
Wn6n the price OIL WOOL WOu1Q OIHeF-
wise make profits high. For example
a letter to the Biological Survey from
the Western Slope Wool Growers as
ISOLATION in Colorado states that in a
part of one country the coyotes are
taking an average of twenty-five head
of sheep a day from the herds. The
sheep herders are all armed and vigil
liant, but the coyotes, hanging on the
TANKS of the herds. cannot be pre-
vented from taking about much
mutton as they want The secretary
of the Utah Wool Growers associa-
ton, the embership of which covers
that state and adjacent portions of
Colorado, Wyoming and Nevada, eSti-
mated that the stockmen of his or
ganization lose annually 100000 sheep
and 100000 pounds of wool thru the
wolves and coyotes. Another estimate
made by representative of the stock
men gave the Biological Survey credit
for saving million dollars worth of
livestock by one year of work in one
state.
These facts are given in the belief
that the average citizen has little
conception of the amount of damage
done in the west by wild animals. He
thinks of the dangerous carnivora as
extinct or nearly So AS a matter of
fact, they have increased, while the
gam animals upon which they for
me-ly fed have reduced in numbers,
SO that the wolves. coyotes and noun
tain lions are now just as much para
sites Upon our ClNilAZdtlO1f DIS are the
rats and mice which raid our grana-
ries anC pantries to the tune of fifty
million dollars year.
1t is the numbers of the coyote
tina. make him dangerous His aver
age toll is only about fifty dollars
year. But he exists in hundreds of
thousands where the wolf exists in
hundreds.
The mountain lion is less of a pest
| only because he sticks to the noun
tains He kills both cattle and horses,
ana is especially fond of colts. A
government hunter following the
track of a mountain lion in the snow.