These birds and beasts of prey -- what is their status in the National Parks? Many people are suprised when they learn that our predatory species are not hounded until eliminated from these areas; and yet do they not form a part of the "natural" condition of the virgin wilderness which the National Park Service is attempting to preserve? The predator's place is a rightful one here. His actions though occasionally, they take heavy toll among the weaker and more defenseless creatures, are part of Nature's balance of the wild and in destroying them we not only eliminate an original native species that is valuable in itself but we are creating an artificial situation that tends to destroy nature's scheme. And in introducing such artificialities we affect the whole system of natural relationship of species that often results in the creation of a new manace, or pest, more potent than the one destroyed.