The Daily Alaska Empire

FWS Hunters Aim to Kill
Killers of Alaska Game;
Story of Operations Told
Dorr D. Green, chief of the Fish and Wildlife Service's branch of Predator and Rodent Control, and Maurice W. Kelly, district agent in charge of predator control work in Alaska, described the following scenes today in Juneau.

Scene One: A pack of gray timber wolves is chasing a mountain sheep through the snow. The sheep's head is lowered and it backs slowly away, as the wolves, with bared fangs, move slowly toward it. One of the wolves makes a pass at the sheep's hocks, and it swings around and charges through the snow. The other wolves dash in and it turns toward them, slowly backing away. When the wolves have forced the sheep into deep snow and it is floundering, they rush in and blood reddens the snow.

The sheep in this scene may be replaced by a moose or a caribou or a deer, the officials said. And there needn't be snow, if the animals are young enough.

Scene Two: A light airplane is circling the open countryside. Suddenly it dives on a running wolf. The airplane pulls around in a tight circle. A gunshot cracks out and the wolf tumbles.

A variation of this scene may be a trap, or a hunter on foot or in a canoe or boat.

It is the dying wolf which interests the two men who described these scenes. They are in charge of men who kill wolves so that useful animals may live.

Green, on his first trip through the Territory inspecting the operations of the newly-established branch of the FWS predator control, today told how the wolf-killing can benefit game.

He told of the coyote versus antelope problem in Arizona. A test was made on five herds. One herd was protected by anti-predator operations: the others were not. Fawn survival in the protected herd was over 90 per cent; in unprotected herds it was just over 20 per cent. And the antelope herd increased in number.

"This year there was a short open season on antelope in Arizona," Green said.

Commenting on the sparsity of game in some parts of the territory, Green said it might be due to the wolves. Until July, 1948, there was no official predator control in Alaska. FWS began operating with two hunters at that time. Full complement of nine hunters is now covering the Territory.

But it is a large area for the nine hunters, so they are confining their efforts to protecting concentrations of game.

Hunters are covering the Lower
Yukon and Lower Kuskokwim region where the reindeer herds are gathered; they are working out of Fairbanks, Anchorage and Palmer in aircraft and on the ground.

In Southeast Alaska, the FWS vessel Black Bear is carrying a hunter from Petersburg into the islands and inlets in search of wolves.

Green pointed out that it is difficult, without expensive investigations and surveys, to determine the amount of damage being done by the wolves.

But it is certainly considerable.

The Alaskan version of the gray timber wolf is the largest in North America.

It is difficult to determine the number of wolves destroyed by the hunters. "Official" counts include only those animals from which pelts, or at least scalps, can be taken. From the air, it is impossible to get evidence to make a killing "official."

Green will leave Wednesday for Petersburg to look into the work being done by the hunter there.

Kelly will leave for Anchorage to continue anti-wolf operations in the Territory.

And both men-along with sportsmen who would have liked to hunt mountain sheep this season-are hoping reoccurrences of Scene One will eventually be ended, and that useful animals, free from damage by wolves, will increase for the good of all.