The Western News

Federal Bureau To Send Coyote Hunters Here

By Paul May

WASHINGTON, D. C., August 24.

Coyotes of Lincoln County, Montana had better do some tall skulking, an official of the United States bureau of biological survey said today. for field representatives of the bureau under the auspices of the WPA, will send skilled hunters and trappers to the county to help stock men rid their lands of these pests, and to protect the wild game from these killers.

Just when the WPA trappers will reach Lincoln county is not known here. The project in Montana has just started. and the county is not included among those which will be trapped first. It is pointed out that good healthy cries for aid from harrassed ranchers will speed the arrival of WPA trappers.

Not for many years has the need of coyote eradication in Montana been as necessary as it is now, biological survey officials state. Due to the decrease in price paid for pelts, and curtailment of federal and state help in coyote-hunting. the animals have increased tremendously in the past six years.

Several years ago, it was said, a federal trapper considered the capture and killing of a hundred coyotes a good year's work. Today federal hunters trap and kill four or five hundred coyotes annually.

Coyotes are banding together because of the drought, in the vicinity of water where the cattle are also herding. and more than usual damage is resulting to the herds. it was said.

Thirty men are now working in Montana, and. 45 will be employed when the project is fully underway.