Pumas and lynxes attack and kill mountain sheep; and the golden eagle is
very partial to mountain sheep lambs and mountain goat kids. It will not
answer to permit birds of that bold and predatory species to become too
numerous in mountains inhabited by goats and sheep; and the fewer the
mountain lions the better, for they, like the lynx and eagle, have
nothing to live upon save the game.

The wolves and coyotes have learned to seek the ranges of cattle,
horses and sheep, where they still do immense damage, chiefly in
killing young stock. In spite of the great sums that have been paid out
by western states in bounties for the destruction of wolves, in many,
many places the gray wolf still persists, and can not be exterminated.
To the stockmen of the west the wolf question is a serious matter. The
stockmen of Montana say that a government expert once told them how to
get rid of the gray wolves. His instructions were: "Locate the dens, and
kill the young in the dens, soon after they are born!" "All very easy to
_say_, but a trifle difficult to _do_!" said my informant; and the
ranchman seem to think they are yet a long way from a solution of the
wolf question.

During the past year the destruction of noxious predatory animals in the
national forest reserves has seriously occupied the attention of the
United States Bureau of Forestry. By the foresters of that bureau the
following animals were destroyed in fifteen western states:

6,487 Coyotes
870 Wild-Cats
72 Lynxes
213 Bears