Stanley Paul Young

“ On gaining entry into a flock of sheep at lambing time, commonly under cover of darkness, the bobcat carries on its depredations in such manner as to cause little commotion there. The lamb is usually killed by a characteristic bite on the back of the neck or head, and then it is pulled down to be eaten. If its lust for killing is not satisfied, the bobcat may kill other lambs by the same method, continuing its work quietly until a large number have been destroyed. A single bobcat has been known to kill 38 lambs in this manner in one night. ”

“ Travel ways of coyotes and wolves are confined to open and more or less broken country. In foraging for food over these runways the animals may use trails of cattle or sheep, canyons, old wood roads, dry washes, low saddles on watershed divides, or even highways in thinly settled areas. Any one of these places, or any combination of them, may be a wolf or coyote runway. Wolves have been known to cover a circuitous route of more than a hundred miles in an established runway. It is in such country that their scent posts should be looked for. ”

“ At scratch hills it is well to place a trap on either side, the springs at right angles to the known direction of approach. In a trail the traps should be in line, the springs at right angles to the direction of travel. Experiments have proved that most of the larger predators, and particularly the mountain-lion, tend to avoid stepping directly on any hard object in a path. ”

“ Common soil is a good deodorizer, but it acts slowly. Simply burying the traps for a few days in a manure pile (the odor from which does not arouse the predator's suspicion) will often remove all other odors. It is better, however, before using traps to clean them by boiling, as mentioned. Never attempt to burn off an odor over a fire, as this may destroy the temper of the springs and make the trap worthless. ”

“ The Forest Service is endeavoring to carry on a reforestation program throughout much of the cut-over area in the Lake States and the Pacific Northwest. One of the chief problems to successful reforestation is the control of rodents, particularly the snowshoe hare. In the Olympic Forest in Washington, the snowshoe hare has destroyed as much as 40 percent and damaged 70 percent of the Douglas fir seedlings. In Michigan and Wisconsin, it was necessary to carry on extensive rodent-control operations to permit the seedlings to survive. ”

“ Much of the country inhabited by coyotes and wolves is purely agricultural and contains vast grazing areas, and a large percentage of the food of the animals of those areas consists of the mutton, beef, pork, and poultry produced by the stockman and farmer, and the wild game that needs to be conserved. It is a matter of great importance, therefore, to the Nation’s livestock-producing sections, as well as to the conservationist’s plan of game protection or game propagation, that coyotes and wolves be controlled in areas where they are destructive. ”

“ For the protection of domestic livestock and of large game in certain areas it is necessary to keep mountain-lions well under control. In spite of control measures, however, these predators will probably long continue to exist in the United States. There are many areas where normal hunting and the vicissitudes of the wild can be depended upon to keep their numbers within reasonable limits. There are also great stretches of wilderness areas that probably will never be touched by any mountain-lion-control campaigns. ”

“ When the trail of a bobcat has been found, by track or sign, along, or leading from its rocky lair, traps may be placed in either double or single sets. If the trail is not frequently used by livestock also, or by such big-game animals as deer, the so-called "blind" trap set may be employed. This set is called a blind because no lure or scent need be used around it when completed. ”

“ Every wild animal possesses some form of defense against danger or harm to itself. With wolves and coyotes this is shown in their acute sense of smell, alert hearing, and keen eyesight. To trap these animals successfully, one must work to defeat these highly developed senses when placing traps, and success in doing so will come only with a full knowledge of the habits of the two predators and after repeated experiments with trap sets. ”

“ The most concrete proof of the necessity of rodent control is found in the amount of money expended by private individuals throughout the West for this purpose. The Federal Government, while owning as much as 60 percent of the land in many of the Western States, contributes only about 25 percent of the total cost of rodent-control operations. During the fiscal year 1936, States, counties, and private individuals expended $665,785 for the purpose, while the Biological Survey was able to expend only $226,623 from regular appropriations. ”

“ After the trap has been firmly bedded near an undisturbed scratch hill, scent station, or carcass, or in a trail, it should be covered with earth and the surroundings left in a condition as nearly natural as possible. Dry horse or cow manure, finely pulverized, may be used to cover the inside of the trap jaws. Extreme care should be taken to keep all dirt from under the trap pan and to see that the open space there is at least one-fourth inch deep. ”

“ On its wild ranges the bobcat feeds to a large extent upon rabbits and other injurious rodents, but it preys also upon such valuable forms of wild life as antelope, deer, and other game animals, especially the fawns, and on wild turkeys, quail, and other ground-nesting birds. With human occupation of its former haunts, it finds in the young of domestic livestock very satisfactory substitutes for its ordinary fare in the wild. ”

“ Some persons uninformed as to the need for rodent control and the methods followed by the Biological Survey in carrying on the work have stated that control by use of poison and C.C.C. workers endangers the existence of other forms of wildlife. ”

“ Instead of using digging tools, some hunters bed the trap where the ground is loose, as in sandy loam, by holding it at its base and with a circular motion working it slowly into the ground even with the surface and then removing the dirt from under the pan before placing the trap pad to be described later. An important advantage of this method is that there is less disturbance of the ground around the scent post than when tools are used, for the secret of setting a trap successfully is to leave the ground as natural as it was before the trap was concealed. ”

“ When traps are set near carcasses additional care should be undertaken to underpin the trap pan so that it will not spring under the weight of a magpie, buzzard, or other carnivorous bird that may be attracted to the carcass.
In forested areas a mountain-lion hunter may find his traps sprung by small animals, for squirrels and other rodents (and sometimes small birds) may dig or scratch around and between the jaws of the trap. Unless the trap pan is properly supported, these animals are unnecessarily endangered, and in addition the trap is frequently sprung. ”

“ Rust on traps.—Rust is often the cause of the failure of traps to spring properly, particularly when the trap pan rusts on its post. Most steel traps are so constructed that when the trap pan is moved back and forth it will spread the joint and thus permit the pan to work freely. Putting a few drops of fine oil on the post, as well as in the slots that hold the jaws at the base of the trap, will overcome such difficulties. ”

“ In order to employ proper methods and place all possible safeguards around poisoning operations for the protection of beneficial and harmless species, the Biological Survey has insisted upon approving the appointments of all men employed on the supervision of rodent-control work for its various cooperating agencies. ”

“ Where the control of mountain-lions is essential, the principal means employed is the use of trained hounds. Kentucky fox hounds and a cross between the Walker hound and the bloodhound have been found most satisfactory for trailing mountain-lions, though any good dog may tree one. The hunter must keep up with the pack, however, for a mountain-lion that fights at bay instead of treeing, may kill all the dogs. When it chooses to fight, it uses teeth and claws, backed by powerful neck and shoulder muscles, in a telling way.
The use of poisons in mountain-lion control is not recommended. ”

“ Frozen ground.—When the ground is frozen it is difficult to keep the traps in working order. Some hunters overcome this difficulty by lining the bottom of the hole in which the trap is to be bedded with clean coarse cotton or wool, and by packing more of this material around the pan, springs, and jaws after the trap is placed. When the ground is frozen, the dirt cover for the set can be made of such debris as is found on ant hills, or by using dead leaves or the fine earth obtained under spruce, fir, hemlock, or aspen trees. ”

“ Rodent control is nothing new. Records indicate that as early as 1808, strychnine was shipped by boat around Cape Horn to the Santa Barbara Mission, Calif., in order that the early settlers might kill off the ground squirrels. A constant fight has been waged ever, since, but unfortunately, while the landowners were willing to finance the killing of squirrels on their own holdings, the Federal Government provided inadequate funds to take care of the vast areas of public domain, national forests, Indian reservations, and other Federal holdings. ”

“ Traps set along a trail and near an obstruction meant to divert the mountain-lion close to a scratch hill, are only partly successful. The trapper may, however, take advantage of the mountain-lion's « 5 » keen sense of smell by dropping a few drops of oil of catnip in the center of the undisturbed scratch hill, as a lure.
Why catnip is so attractive to members of the feline family is not yet fully known. Experiments have indicated that it produces sexual excitation and also that it has a soothing effect on the nervous system, similar to that of opiates on man. ”

“ If a stake pin is used, it should be driven full length into the ground near the right-hand spring of the trap, with the trigger and pan directly toward the operator. Anchoring the trap is the preferred method, because animals caught are obtained without loss of time and because other animals are not driven out of their course by one of their kind dragging about a dangling, clanking trap, often the case where drag hooks are used. ”

“ On many national forest areas the control of porcupines is imperative from the standpoint of timber reproduction. This is especially true on cut-over areas and where fires have destroyed all seedlings. Porcupines will often destroy up to 90 percent of the seedlings and, through continued girdling of young trees 15 to 25 years of age, will destroy all chance for commercial timber for many years to come. ”

“ After making a kill and taking one meal, the mountain-lion will sometimes, though not always, bury the remainder of a carcass under leaves, litter, or other trash, to return for a later feast. Whether it will thus return depends to some extent upon weather conditions and on its ability to find prey elsewhere. Its killing and feeding habits vary in other ways also. In one instance, a lone lion attacked a herd of ewes and killed 192 in one night. Frequently more than one mountain-lion may feed on a single carcass. ”

“ Human scent on the canvas may be avoided by previously burying the cloth in an old manure pile. The dirt removed from the place where the trap is bedded may be piled on the setting cloth. Surplus dirt not needed for covering the trap should be scattered evenly on the ground at [Pg 6] some distance from the set. It is well also to wear gloves while setting traps, and to use them for no other purpose, though the precautions against arousing the suspicion of bobcats are less necessary than those in trapping wolves and coyotes. ”

“ Often the fresh tracks of shod horses along wolf and coyote runways are sufficient to cause the predators to leave the trail for some distance. A lone wolf is much more cautious than a pack of wolves running together. ”

“ When its food is less easily obtained in nature than among the flocks and herds of the range country, it may become exceedingly destructive to domestic livestock, especially to sheep during the lambing season, to pigs, goats, and calves, and to poultry. ”

“ In approaching a scratch hill, a scent station, or a carcass where sets have been made, or in passing over a blind set in the trail, the predator is usually caught by one of the forefeet, though it may step into a bedded trap with a hind foot. No scent is used at carcass or blind sets. ”

“ Coyotes and wolves make serious inroads on the stocks of sheep and lambs, cattle, pigs, and poultry, as well as on the wild game mammals and the ground-nesting and insectivorous birds of the country. Wherever these predatory animals occur in large numbers, they are a source of worry and loss to stockmen, farmers, and sportsmen because of their destructiveness to wild and domestic animals. ”

“ In the open area, jack rabbits have become a serious pest. The Biological Survey, in 1934, received a petition bearing the signatures of more than 8,000 individuals of eastern Colorado, requesting Government aid in killing jack rabbits, which were ravaging the meager stocks of forage left after drought and wind had taken their toll. ”

“ A few concrete examples will illustrate the great good that has resulted from the E.C.W. rodent-control program. A group of farmers living at Springfield, Idaho, suggested to the camp superintendent there that the jack rabbit control work done by the E.C.W. crew during the summer of 1935 might pay the cost of the camp. It is estimated that not less than 600,000 rabbits were - 5 - killed by this crew on public lands adjacent to farming areas between American Falls and Moreland, Idaho. ”

“ In placing the trap pad over the pan and onto the shoulders of the dirt built up for carrying it, the utmost care must be taken to see that no rock, pebble, or dirt slips under the pan, which would prevent the trap from springing. ”