The Nome nugget., 1929-08-03
ALASKA PROVIDES FUNDS FOR
 ( CONTROL OF PREDATORY ANIMALS

ture because of the increasing numbers and depredations of coy otes and wolves there. The meas ure also authorizes the employ ment of two expert leaders of the work, these men to be trained and recognized by the United States Department of Agriculture as ex- perts in the suppression of pred atory animals, and, to carry on control operations under the dir ection of these leaders. four hunt CTS and trappers.
 A cooperative investigation made by officials of the Territory and of the Bureau of Biological Survey. animal situation in Alaska is rap idly becoming acute. particularly because of the phenomenal in crease and spread of the coyote. The first coyotes were taken about d uOLCu sCdI dSp uCoi iaC iitti national boundary, having drifted into Alaska from the Yukon Ter ritory. Coyotes now are found in large numbers throughout the eastern portion from the Porcu- pine River on the north to the kennicott and Mccarthy region on the south. They have drift ed westward to the kenai Penin- sula. to the headquarters of the Kuskokwim. and to the reindeer grazing areas near Norton Bay. Wolves also are steadily increas- ing although somewhat more slow ly than coyotes.
 Investigations have shown that coyotes are preying heavily on the fur bearers and on the caribou of Alaska and have entered the ranges of the mountain sheep, where they are killing great num- bers of these big-game animals Coyotes are found also preying heavily on migratory birds on their lesser breeding grounds of the Up per Tanana and Yukon Rivers. The coyote is now within a few hundred miles of the breeding grounds of the Yukon delta, and depredations on migratory birds will undoubtedly be considerably greater if it continues drifting westward.
 In many cases a family or en- tire colony of foxes are run out of their dens and killed by coy otes. which then use the dens themselves. It has been possible to trace the advance of coyotes by the marked decrease in the number of foxes, and local trap pers have noted this with consid erable dismay. for they are thus deprived of a valuable source of livelihood.
 Unless checked, the spread of coy otes in interior Alaska may well be expected to continue until these predators occur over practically all the Territory. The Biological Sur vey states that at present their numbers are still less per unit of area than in the more heavily in fested of the western range States. Investigations made of the extent of damage reliably attributable to coyotes in Alaska, however, make it appalling to conjecture what their depredations might be in a few years if the present rate of increase and spread should be al lowed to continue.
 In the Mount Mckinley Park it was found that wolves had rec ently commenced to kill game ami mas, with the result that the lat ter are becoming wilder and not so easily approached by park visitors. During the past winter five wolves killed more than 500 reindeer near Unalakleet. The owner of a herd of several thousand reindeer that ranged on the tundra on the main land near St. Michael reported that during the winter of 1927-2S two wolves killed approximately 200 reindeer and that 40 of these were killed within a period of a