Preserving the Beasts of Waste and Desolation: Theodore Roosevelt and Predator Control in Yellowstone By Jeremy Johnston measure and weigh the seal. The early history of wildlife man- Eventually, he obtained the seal’s agement in places like Yellowstone skull, and began a natural history is often assumed to have been collection that would continue to based on a consensus that preda- grow throughout his life. In 1872, tors such as wolves, coyotes, and shortly after the creation of mountain lions should be killed. Yellowstone National Park, Although President Theodore Theodore Roosevelt received a Roosevelt sought to curtail the rifle and taxidermy lessons from slaughter of predators in Yel- his father for his birthday. These lowstone in the early 1900s, his gifts would further his studies in role in park policy is often misin- natural history as well as intro- terpreted, and he has been por- duce the young man to the sport of trayed as both a hero and a villain. hunting. Roosevelt continued to This confusion is the result of not pursue his natural history studies only a divergence of opinions on into his college years, when he ini- predator control, but Roosevelt’s tially sought a degree in natural his- own writings and changing views. In tory before deciding on law as a field his book The Wilderness Hunter, which of study. Despite this change in career detailed his experiences in the Dakota goals, Roosevelt continued to study Badlands during the 1880s, Roosevelt wildlife throughout his life. referred to wolves as “the beasts of Hunting would also play in important waste and desolation.”1 In this same ator population was influenced by sev- role in Theodore Roosevelt’s life, not book, Roosevelt depicted cougars as eral factors, including his goal of estab- just for the collecting of natural speci- “bloodthirsty” and “cowardly” preda- lishing a wildlife reserve in Yellow- mens for study, but for recreational tors with a “desire for bloodshed which stone, his personal interest in hunting, enjoyment as well. Roosevelt best they lack the courage to realize.”2 Yet and his increased understanding of the summed up his feelings towards the despite his depiction of predators as role of predators in an ecosystem. sport of hunting in the preface to The destroyers of cattle and wildlife, Wilderness Hunter: Roosevelt was a careful student of pre- Roosevelt’s Defense of Yellowstone as dators and their natural behavior. As he a Wildlife Sanctuary In hunting, the finding and killing of spent more time studying predators in the game is after all but a part of the their natural setting, his attitudes toward Theodore Roosevelt’s interest in nat- whole. The free, self-reliant, adven- their role in nature began to change, so ural history began at a very early age. At turous life, with its rugged and stal- much so that by 1908 he ordered preda- eight, young Roosevelt viewed a dead wart democracy; the wild surround- tor control of Yellowstone’s cougars be seal in a New York marketplace. “That ings, the grand beauty of the scenery, stopped in order to allow these predator seal filled me with every possible feel- the chance to study the ways and populations to curtail growing elk ing of romance and adventure,” habits of the woodland creatures—all populations. This change in Roosevelt’s Roosevelt later reminisced.3 The young these unite to give the career of the perspective toward Yellowstone’s pred- Roosevelt returned to the market to wilderness hunter its peculiar charm. 14 Yellowstone Science The chase is among the best of all in 1875. Roosevelt wanted Grinnell to to decrease the park’s boundaries, pub- national pastimes; it cultivates that explain some negative remarks he print- licity generated by the Boone and vigorous manliness for the lack of ed in a review of Hunting Trips of a Crockett club created a public outcry to which in a nation, as in an individual, Ranchman, Roosevelt’s first book “save Yellowstone.”6 the possession of no other qualities describing his western adventures. Through his efforts with Grinnell, can possibly atone.4 Grinnell had given the book an overall Roosevelt began to envision the park as favorable review, but noted that a sanctuary and breeding ground for This great interest in hunting and natu- Roosevelt tended to generalize his wildlife. Roosevelt hoped that if the ral history would eventually lead observations of wildlife and had relied park’s wildlife were protected, their Roosevelt into the American West. on some tenuous sources for informa- populations would dramatically Roosevelt first visited the West in tion. During the meeting, Grinnell increase and spread to the surrounding 1883, when he arrived for a bison hunt defended his remarks pertaining to regions. This would ensure the continu- in the Dakota Badlands. After success- Roosevelt’s book, and Roosevelt real- ation of hunting, his favorite pastime, fully completing his hunt, Roosevelt ized the validity of Grinnell’s argu- outside the park’s boundaries. It would invested in a cattle ranch, marking the ments. Along the way, the two men real- also alleviate his fear that as settlement beginning of his close connection with ized their shared interests in hunting increased, the West would become a the West. Roosevelt returned the next and the West and became good friends. series of private game reserves creating year to investigate his ranching opera- Soon after, they founded the Boone and a situation where only the rich could tions and escape the grief and hardship Crockett Club, an organization that, hunt. As his political career progressed caused by the deaths of both his first among other goals, worked to defend to the presidency of the United States, wife, Alice, and his mother. Roosevelt Yellowstone and its wildlife. Using Roosevelt found himself in a position spent several of the following years Forest and Stream as its mouthpiece, where he could achieve these goals by herding cattle and having a number of the Boone and Crockett club criticized micro-managing Yellowstone’s wildlife adventures which included fighting poaching and proposals for railroad policies. drunken assailants and capturing developments within Yellowstone. This thieves who stole his boat. Hunting also publicity helped result in the passage of Roosevelt and Yellowstone’s occupied a great amount of his time the Lacey Act of 1894, which estab- Predators during these years. Roosevelt hunted a lished Yellowstone’s first efficient judi- variety of animals throughout the cial system, making it possible to pun- Although the hunting of many ungu- Badlands and into Wyoming and ish poachers for their illegal activities. late species ended in 1883 by a directive Montana, and continued to spend much The Boone and Crockett club also of the Secretary of the Interior, park of his time at his ranch until the winter stopped efforts to complete a railroad officials continued killing predators of 1886–1887 wiped out most of his through the northern section of Yellow- throughout the end of the 19th century cattle herd. In later years he occasional- stone. When railroad developers wanted and into the early 20th century. Many ly returned to the ranch, using it as a base for hunting excursions and other sightseeing trips. From there, Roosevelt embarked on two trips into Yellowstone National Park in the 1890s. His experi- ences and observations from these trips formed the basis for many of his wildlife management policies in Yel- lowstone National Park.5 Roosevelt’s interest in the American West soon focused on Yellowstone and the threats to its wildlife posed by rail- road development proposals and poach- ing. He became aware of these prob- lems in 1885 when he met with George Bird Grinnell, editor of Forest and Stream, then the leading natural history magazine in North America, and a founder of the Audubon Society. Grinnell had led a campaign to protect Yellowstone’s ungulates from market hunting and commercial development An editorial cartoon’s depiction of Roosevelt’s 1903 Yellowstone visit. Note the ever since his first visit to Yellowstone mountain lion perched outside the window. From the Anaconda Standard. Spring 2002 15 conservationists of the day, including agreed with Roosevelt. After receiving had accompanied Roosevelt on the Roosevelt, believed limiting predation cougar skulls from the hunt, he wrote 1901 cougar hunt, took on the task of would increase ungulate populations, Roosevelt that “your series of skulls organizing the hunt, but one obstacle allowing them to recover from the from Colorado is incomparably the after another confounded his plans. results of the intensive market hunting largest, most complete, and most valu- First, Goff was wounded by an over- that occurred in the park before the ban able series ever brought together from eager tourist he was guiding on a hunt. on hunting.7 any single locality, and will be of ines- Roosevelt expressed his frustration to Roosevelt’s support of predator con- timable value in determining the Stewart in a letter, “I hope he beat the trol was not just the result of an altruis- amount of individual variation.”11 The ‘tourist’ who inflicted the wound tic conservationist urge. His own desire 1901 hunt not only provided specimens severely.”13 Goff recovered rapidly, and to hunt cougars in Yellowstone was also for classification; Roosevelt gained a promised enough cougar to keep a factor. On December 17, 1901, better understanding of the predation Roosevelt satisfied, but on January 22, Roosevelt wrote to Yellowstone’s acting habits of cougars, learned about their 1903, Roosevelt wrote Stewart to cancel superintendent, Major John Pitcher, diet by examining stomach contents, the hunt. “Many things are conspiring asking “what is the practice about and dispelled the myth of cougars being to make it unlikely that I can go,” he killing mountain lions? If I get into the man-killers.