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<br />., <br /> <br />Fauna & flora <br /> <br />The canyon walls are important nesting areas for golden eagles <br />and other birds of prey. Bald eagles and turkey vultures also <br />occupy this habitat and are seen frequently by boaters. <br /> <br />Mammalian predators native to the proposed wilderness include <br />coyote, bobcat, fox and, rarely, the ringtail. The mountain <br />lion is the largest predator and pl~bably is far less common <br />now than in the past. Lion hunting for sport and for purposes <br />of predator control occurs up to the boundaries of the monu- <br />ment and possibly on private lands within the monument. Be- <br />cause the monument occupies a relatively narrow corridor <br />along the rivers, the proposed wilderness is not sufficient <br />to maintain an integral mountain lion population. The same <br />would be true for most other mammalian and avian predators. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />In recent years ranchers have alleged that predation by 1IIOuntain <br />lions and coyotes within the monument is costly enough to ask <br />for National Park Service assistance or sanction for predator <br />control. Until recently, poison stations (cyanide guns) were <br />used just outside of the IIIOnument boundary and sodium fluoro- <br />acetate (10-80) bait stations were located beyond a three-mile <br />buffer zone. <br /> <br />~ <br /> <br />The black bear is native to Dinosaur, but the population of <br />permanent residents has been reduced to zero. Migrating <br />individuals are seen about once a year. Gray wolf and grizzly <br />bear have been extirpated. <br /> <br />Bighorn sheep were common throughout Dinosaur when John Wesley <br />Powell floated through in lA69, but their numbers decreased <br />over the years. A sudden die-off in about 1933 was caused <br />directly by diseases and/or parasites, but was aggravated by <br />deteriorated range conditions and both intra and interspec1es <br />forage competition. By the late 1940's bighorn sheep were <br />actually extirpated from the monument. <br /> <br />Thirty-two bighorn sheep were reintroduced in the Lodore Canyon <br />nea in 1952 by the Colorado Game, Fish and Parks Coounission. <br />There was an estimated minimum herd size of 127 to 140 <br />bighorn sheep in the monument in 1959. The sheep ranged <br />alonA the Green River from the Gates of Lodore to Harpers <br />Corner, and about two miles on either side of the river. <br />The range along the Yampa River extended from the confluence <br />with the Green River about three miles upstream, and a mile <br />to two miles ei ther side of the ri vel'. <br /> <br />16 <br />