The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1922-10-20
WAR ON WILDLIFE
SAVES VAST HERDS
MUSEUM DIRECTOR SETS $1,000
600 A YEAR ON BIOLOGICAL
SURVEY HUNTERS WORK
Famous Custer Wolf Killed by Gov
eminent Hunters in Wyoming
Alone Destroyed Cattle Valued at
$4,000; Mountain Lion VIII Kill
One Deer a Week.

Three million dollars a year il
saved TO the country in live stock
value by the hunters and trappers
Of the biological survey who are wag.
ing war in the west on wolves, coy
otes, lynxes and mountain lions, ac-
cordlng to DR.. Barton Warren Ever
mann, director of the Museum of the
California Academy of Sciences.
These animals were destroying live
stock at the rate of $20,OOO,000 a
year when the survey began its war
on them, DR.. Evermann told the
American Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science in his presiden-
tial address. Hunters and trappers
for the survey killed more than 50,-
600 predatory animals in one year.
The greatest killer of livestock in
the country was accounted for by the
hunters of the survey. This was the
notorious Custer wolf of Wyoming
which has been credited with the
slaughter of $4,000 worth of cattle
in seven, years. A bounty of $500
had been on his head for several
years, but the old cattle scourge was
too clever for ordinary hunters and
eluded scores who sought the reward.
AS another illustration, contin-
ued DR.. Eyermann, "a pack of eight
wolves that had inflicted losses total
ing $4,000 ON calves, pigs and sheep
about the Arkansas National forest
were all destroyed by a single bureau
hunter in period of three weeks
Still another old renegade wolf re-
ported to have destroyed $4,000
worth of cattle on single ranch,
besides making heavy inroads on
other ranches, including nine head of
yearling cattle in the last six weeks
OF his life, fell a victim to a skill
fully placed trap of bureau hun
ter.
1.-THE California Fish and Game
Commission estimates that noun
tain lion will kill on an average of
one deer a week throughout the year
and that there are 600 lions in the
state. At fifty-two deer each they
would kill about 10000 deer annual
", which is about twice the number
killed by all the hunters in the state |
From this it appears that the noun
ain lion should receive no protec-
ion.
Fortunately, the great majority of |
our important game mammals are
lot predacious at all, or only in a |
light degree. Fortunately, also, some |
If the species are being preserved |
airly well in some part of their
ange. This is especially true of the
Ieer.
1.-THE federal and state govern
nents have established number of
,ame preserves, some of them under
ence. The principal game animals
n these reservations are buffalo, elk
nd antelope. All are showing a sat
5factory increase each year and there
5 every reason to believe that these
erds will continue to thrive. The
utlook for wild elk, antelope, noun
ain sheep and mountain goats is not
D encouraging.
Excepting perhaps Africa, no
Their country in the world ever
qualed North America in the rich
ess of its game mammals, marvel
usly rich not only in species and sus-
ecies, but also in numbers of in
ividuals. OF the more than 800 spe-
es that might be mentioned, it must
AAA1OO W opCdh OhlJ VI q LOW lOI Luc i
DRY of former marvellous abund-
nee, wasteful killing without regard
'r the future and inevitable exter-
ination or serious depletion applies :
all.
THE three species of grizzly bears
at occupied such a picturesque
ace in the early history of Cali
rnia are all extinct, and it is be-
eved that not a single individual
mains alive at any place today. :
any of the others, while not actual
extinct as species, have been act /
lily exterminated over large por-
IN of the country over which they
iginally ranged. Among these are
veral species of deer, the buffalo, j
pose, elk, antelope, various bears,
xes and gray squirrels"