The only variation in the pure white coat of the Dall sheep is a
mixture of a few black hairs on the rump, sometimes becoming plentiful
enough to form a blackish spot on the tail and a light brownish stain
over the entire body, due to the slight discoloration at the tips of
the hairs from contact with the earth in their bedding-down places.
Their horns are usually dull amber yellow and are notable for their
slender proportions and the grace of their sweeping coils, which
sometimes curve close to the head and again spread in a wide, open
spiral.
As their white coats indicate, the Dall sheep are the northernmost
of their kind in America. Their home lies mainly in Alaska, where
they were formerly abundant in many mountain ranges, from those
bordering the Arctic coast south through the interior to the cliffs
on Kenai Peninsula, but are now scarce or gone from some mountains.
To the eastward they are numerous across the border in much of Yukon
territory, nearly to the Mackenzie River. Their haunts lie amid a
wilderness of peaks and ridges, marked in summer with scattered
glaciers and banks of perpetual snow and in winter exposed to all the
rigors of a severe Arctic climate. They are extraordinarily numerous in
some districts, as among the outlying ranges about the base of Mount
McKinley.
In their high, bleak homes these sheep have little to fear from natural
enemies, although the great Canada lynx, the wolf, the wolverine, and
the golden eagle, as overlords of the range, take occasional toll
from their numbers. Their one devastating enemy is man, with his
modern high-power rifle. Even so long ago as the summer of 1881, I saw
hundreds of their skins among the Eskimos at Point Barrow, taken that
spring with the use of Winchester rifles among the mountains lying
inland from the Arctic coast. Of late years the advent of miners and
the establishment of mining camps and towns have greatly increased the
demand for meat, and this has resulted in the killing of thousands of
these sheep. Large numbers of these splendid animals have also been
killed to serve as winter dog food.
The advent of thousands of men engaged in the construction of the
government railroad which, when completed, will pass through the Mount
McKinley region, makes imminent the danger of extermination that
threatens the mountain sheep, as well as the moose and caribou, in a
great area of the finest big-game country left under our control.
[Illustration: STONE’S, FANNIN’S, AND DALL’S MOUNTAIN SHEEP]
Properly conserved, the game animals of Alaska will continue
indefinitely as one of its richest resources, but heedless wastefulness
may destroy them forever. All sportsmen and other lovers of wild
life should interest themselves in an effort to safeguard the future
of Alaskan game animals before it is too late; for, under the severe
climatic conditions prevailing, the restocking of exhausted game
fields in that region will be extremely difficult, if not practically
impossible.
[Illustration: PRONG-HORN ANTELOPE]
[Illustration: ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT]
=ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT= (=Oreamnos montanus= and its subspecies)
The numerous wild goats of the Himalayas and other mountains of Asia
are represented in America solely by the Rocky Mountain goat. This
is one of the most characteristic, but least graceful in form and
action, of our big-game animals. It is distinguished by a long ungainly
head, ornamented with small black horns; a heavy body, humped at the
shoulders like a buffalo, and a coat of long shaggy white hair.
The range of these habitants of the cliffs extends from the head of
Cook Inlet, Alaska, easterly and southerly through the mountains to
Montana and Washington. Unlike mountain sheep, the goats do not appear
to dislike the fogs and saline winds from the sea, and at various
points along the coast of British Columbia and Alaska they range down
precipitous slopes nearly to the shore.
They are much more closely confined to rugged slopes and rocky ledges
than the mountain sheep, which in winter commonly descend through the
foothills to the border of the plains. Through summer and winter, goats
find sufficient food in the scanty vegetation growing among the rocks,
and their heavy coats of hair protect them from the fiercest winter
storms.
Owing to their small horns and unpalatable flesh they are less sought
after by hunters than mountain sheep, and thus continue to exist in
many accessible places where otherwise they would long since have
become exterminated. They are frequently visible on the high ledges
of a mountain across the bay from the city of Vancouver and are not
difficult to find in many other coastal localities.
Although marvelously surefooted and fearless in traversing the faces of
high precipitous slopes, goats lack the springy grace and vivacity of
mountain sheep and move with comparative deliberation. They are reputed
to show at times a stupid obstinacy when encountered on a narrow ledge,
even to the point of disputing the right of way with the hunter.
Their presence lends interest to many otherwise grim and forbidding
ranges where, amid a wilderness of glacier-carved escarpments, they
endure the winter gales which for days at a time roar about their
cliffs and send snow banners streaming from the jagged summits overhead.
Owing to the character of their haunts, mountain goats have few natural
enemies. The golden and bald eagles now and then take toll among
their kids, but the lynx and mountain lion, their four-footed foes,
are not known to prey upon them to any considerable extent. Through
overhunting they have vanished from some of their former haunts, but
still hold their own in many places, and with effective protection will
long continue to occupy their peculiar place in our fauna.
=PRONG-HORN ANTELOPE= (=Antilocapra americana= and its
geographic races)
Unique among the antelope of the world, among which it has no near
relatives, the prong-horn, because of its beauty of coloration, its
grace, and fleetness, claims the attention of sportsmen and nature
lovers alike. It is a smaller and slenderer animal than the larger
forms of the Virginia deer. Its hair is coarse and brittle, and the
spongy skin lacks the tough fiber needed to make good buckskin. Both
sexes have horns, those of the doe being smaller and slenderer. One
of the extraordinary peculiarities of this antelope is its habit of
shedding the horns every fall and the developing new horns over the
remaining bony core.
The rump patch of the prong-horn is formed of long pure white hairs,
which in moments of excitement or alarm are raised on end to form two
great chrysanthemum-like white rosettes that produce an astonishingly
conspicuous directive color mark. The power to raise these hairs is
exercised by the fawns when only a few days old. Even when the hairs
are not erected the rump patch is conspicuous as a flashing white
signal to a distance of from one to two miles as the antelope gallops
away. When the animal whose rump signal has been plainly visible at a
distance suddenly halts and faces about to look back, as is a common
custom, its general color blends with that of the background and it
vanishes from sight as by magic.
Early explorers discovered antelope in great abundance over a vast
territory extending from near the present location of Edmonton,
Alberta, south to near the Valley of Mexico, and from central Iowa west
to the Pacific coast in California. They were specially numerous on the
limitless plains of the “Great American Desert,” where our pioneers
found them in great bands, containing thousands, among the vast herds
of buffalo. So abundant were they that it has been estimated that on
the Great Plains they equaled the buffalo in numbers. Now reduced to
a pitiful remnant of their former numbers, they exist only in widely
scattered areas, where they are constantly decreasing. Fortunately they
are strictly protected by law in most of their remaining territory.
The great herds containing thousands of antelope were usually formed
late in fall and remained together throughout the winter, separating
into numerous smaller parties during the summer. For years following
the completion of the transcontinental railroads they were commonly
seen from the car windows as trains crossed the Great Plains. At such
times their bright colors and graceful evolutions, as they swept here
and there in erratic flight or wheeled in curiosity to gaze at the
passing train, never failed to excite the deepest interest.
In early days prong-horns were noted for their curiosity and were
frequently lured within gun-shot by waving a red flag or by other
devices. I have repeatedly seen them circle or race a team, or a
horseman, crossing their range. In racing a horseman traveling along
an open road or trail they gradually draw nearer until finally every
member of the band dashes madly by only a few yards in front and then
straight away across the plains in full flight.
The prong-horns appear to possess a highly nervous temperament, which
requires for their welfare the wide free sweep of the open plains. They
do not thrive and increase in inclosures, even in large game preserves,
as do deer, elk, and buffalo. For this reason, it will require the
greatest care to protect and foster these attractive members of our
fauna to save them from soon being numbered among the many wild species
which have been destroyed by the coming of civilized man.
=WAPITI, OR AMERICAN ELK= (=Cervus canadensis= and its
relatives)
By a curious transposition of names the early settlers applied to
the American wapiti the term elk, which belongs to the European
representative of our moose. Our elk is a close relative of the
European stag. It is the handsomest and, next to the moose, the largest
member of the deer family in America. The old bulls, weighing more than
800 pounds, bear superb widely branched antlers, which give them a
picturesque and noble mien. This is the only American deer which has a
well-marked light rump-patch. The young, numbering from one to three,
are white spotted, like the fawns of other deer.
Originally the elk was the most wide ranging of our hoofed game
animals. It occupied all the continent from north of Peace River,
Canada, south to southern New Mexico, and from central Massachusetts
and North Carolina to the Pacific coast of California. Like the
buffalo, it appeared to be equally at home in the forested region east
of the Mississippi River and on the open plains flanking the Rocky
Mountains. Its range also extended from sea-level to above timberline
on lofty mountain ranges.
Exterminated throughout most of their original range, elk still occupy
some of their early haunts in western Canada, Montana, Wyoming,
Colorado, and the Pacific Coast States. The last elk was killed in
Pennsylvania about 60 years ago, and in Michigan and Minnesota some 20
years later. The main body of the survivors are now in the Yellowstone
Park region. Their size and the readiness with which they thrive
in captivity has led to serious consideration of elk farming as an
industry.
In the West, before the settlement of their range crowded the elk back,
large numbers lived throughout the year on the plains and among the
foothills. They have now become mountain animals, spending the spring
and summer largely in the timberline forests and alpine meadows, where
many bands linger until the heavy snows of early winter force them down
to the foothills and valleys. During the last days of their abundance
in the Rocky Mountains winter herds numbering thousands gathered in
Estes Park and other foothill valleys.
Elk are the most polygamous of all our deer, each bull gathering a
small herd of cows during the fall. At the beginning of the mating
season the bulls wander widely through the high forest glades, their
musical bugling piercing the silence with some of the most stirring
notes of the wilderness. Amid the wild grandeur of these remote
mountain fastnesses the appearance of a full-antlered buck on the
skyline of some bare ridge presents a noble picture of wild life.
There are probably over 40,000 elk still left in the United States, and
of these more than 30,000 are located in Wyoming, mainly in and about
Yellowstone National Park.
During the last few years great interest has been shown in the
reintroduction of elk in parts of their former range, where they had
been exterminated and where conditions are still suitable for their
perpetuation. Such efforts are meeting with much success. Not only
do the animals thrive and increase rapidly, but local sentiment is
almost unanimous in their favor. This is well shown by the active
interest taken by both cattle and sheep owners in northern Arizona in
regard to a band of elk introduced a few years ago on their mountain
stock ranges. The stockmen exercise a virtual wardenship over these
animals that insures them against molestation, and the herd is rapidly
increasing.
As against this, we have the despicable work of poachers, who are
shooting elk for their two canine teeth and leaving the body to the
coyotes. Information has been received that more than 500 elk were
ruthlessly slaughtered for this purpose about the border of Yellowstone
National Park during the winter of 1915-1916.
=MULE DEER= (=Odocoileus hemionus= and its subspecies)
Mule deer are larger than the common white-tails, with a heavier,
stockier form. Their strongest characteristics lie in the large doubly
branching antlers, large broad ears, and rounded whitish tail with a
brushlike black tip. Their common name in this country and the name
“venado burro” in Mexico are derived from the great, donkeylike ears.
Their antlers vary much in size, but in some examples are almost
intermediate between those of the white-tail and of the elk. Antlers
of the mule deer and of the black-tail agree in having the tines all
pronged, in contrast with the single spikes of the white-tails. In
summer these deer have a rich, rusty red coat which is exchanged in
winter for one of grayish brown.
[Illustration: WAPITI, OR AMERICAN ELK]
The range of mule deer extends from northern Alberta, Manitoba, and
western Iowa to the State of San Luis Potosi, on the Mexican
table-land, and west to Lower California and the coast of California.
Within these limits they inhabit different types of country, from the
deciduous forests along streams on the eastern border of the Great
Plains to the open pine forests of the high western mountains, the
chaparral-covered hillsides of southern California, and the thickets of
mesquites, acacias, and cactuses on the hot and arid plains of Sonora.
Several geographic races of this deer have resulted from these varied
conditions.
[Illustration: MULE DEER]
[Illustration: BLACK-TAILED DEER]
In spring in the Rocky Mountains the does leave the bands with which
they have passed the winter and seek undisturbed retreats among forest
glades or along scantily wooded slopes of canyons, where they have
two or three handsomely spotted fawns with which they remain apart
throughout the summer.
The bucks usually keep by themselves during the summer, in parties
rarely exceeding ten. As their horns lose the velvet and the mating
season draws near, the old bucks gather in bands of from six to ten.
At this time they are in perfect physical condition, and a band of
them in the open forest, their antlers held proudly aloft and their
glossy coats shining in the sun, presents a superb picture. They have
little of the protective caution so characteristic of the white-tails,
and when a shot is fired at a band they often begin a series of
extraordinary “buck jumps,” bounding high in the air, facing this way
and that, sometimes not taking fight until after several additional
shots have been fired. These high, bounding leaps are characteristic of
mule deer and are commonly made when the animals are suddenly alarmed
and often when they are in full flight through brushy thickets.
After the mating season, bucks and does join in bands, sometimes of
fifteen or twenty, and descend to the foothills and sometimes even to
the adjacent plains. Their preference, however, is for rough and broken
country, such as that of canyon-cut mountains or the deeply scored
badlands of the upper Missouri River.
These deer are not good runners in the open. On several occasions, on
level country in Arizona, I have ridden after and readily overtaken
parties of them within a mile, their heaving flanks and open mouths
showing their distress. The moment rough country was reached, however,
with amazing celerity a series of mighty leaps carried them away from
me over declivities impossible for a horse.
The sight of a party of these splendid deer bounding away through the
aisles of a mountain forest always quickens one’s pulse and gives the
finishing touch of wildness to the scene. Mule deer are characteristic
animals of the beautiful open forests and forest parks of the Rocky
Mountains and the high Sierras, where they may be perpetuated if given
reasonable protection.
=BLACK-TAILED DEER= (=Odocoileus columbianus= and its
subspecies)
In general appearance the black-tails have a close resemblance to
the mule deer, but average smaller. They have the same large ears,
forked tines to the antlers, and rather “stocky” body; but the brushy
all-black tail distinguishes them from any other American deer. In
color they have much the same shade of brown as the Virginia deer.
They have the usual cycle of annual changes common to most American
deer--assuming a dull coat in fall and losing their horns in winter,
followed by the resumption of a brighter coat in spring and the renewal
of their horns in summer.
The black-tails have one of the most restricted ranges among our deer.
They are limited to the humid heavily forested belt along the Pacific
coast from Juneau, Alaska, southward to the Coast range in central
California. This coastal belt is characterized by superb growths of
cedars, spruces, and firs in the north and by redwoods and firs in the
south, uniting to make one of the most magnificent forest areas in the
world. Here the deer live in the midst of rank undergrowths of gigantic
ferns and other vegetation, as luxuriant in many places as that of the
humid tropics.
Their home on the abruptly rising slopes of the islands in the Alaskan
Archipelago is so restricted that both in summer and winter they fall
an easy prey to native and white hunters. It has been reported that
there has been much wasteful killing of the deer on these islands for
commercial purposes. When the heavy snows of winter on the islands
force the deer down to the shore, great numbers of them are also killed
by wolves.
Black-tails commonly have two or three young, and this fecundity,
combined with the effective protection given by the dense forest where
many of them live, will aid in their perpetuation. At the same time
they have not developed the mental alertness of the Virginia deer, and
there is imminent need for prompt and effective action in safeguarding
the deer in the Alaskan part of their range if their extermination on
some of the islands is to be prevented. In this northern region the
black-tails share their range with strange tribes of coastal Indians,
whose huge sea-going canoes, totem poles, and artistic carvings are
unique among native Americans.
=VIRGINIA, OR WHITE-TAILED, DEER= (=Odocoileus virginianus=
and its subspecies)
The aptness of the name “white-tail” for the Virginia deer is obvious
to any one who has startled one in the forest and seen it dash away
with the tail upright and flashing vivid white signals at every leap.
The adults have two strongly contrasted coats each year: brownish gray
in winter and rusty red in summer. The fawns, usually two in number,
are dull rusty brown, marked with a series of large white spots, which
remain until the gray winter coat is assumed in the fall. Large bucks
sometimes attain a weight of more than 300 pounds.
The white-tail is the well-known deer of all the forest areas in
eastern North America. With its close relatives, it ranges from
northern Ontario to Florida and from the Atlantic coast to the Great
Plains; also in the Rocky Mountains south to New Mexico, and in the
Cascades and Sierra Nevada to northern California.
The supreme importance of this deer to the early settlers of the
Eastern States is made plain in all the literature covering the
occupation of that region. Its flesh was one of the most reliable
staples in the food supply, and not infrequently was the only resource
against starvation. In addition, the tanned skins served for clothing
and the sinews for thread. Many of the most striking and romantic
characters in our early history appear clad in buckskin, from fringed
hunting shirt to beaded moccasins.
As no other American game animal equaled the white-tail in economic
value to the settlers, so even to-day it remains the greatest game
asset in many of the Eastern States. Partly through protective laws and
partly through its acute intelligence and adaptability, the Virginia
deer continues to hold its own in suitable woodland areas throughout
most of its former range, and in recent years has pushed hundreds of
miles northward into new territory in Ontario and Quebec.
Even in the oldest and most densely populated States, as New York and
Massachusetts, white-tails still exist in surprising numbers. Over
7,000 were killed during the hunting season of 1915 in Maine, and
an average of about 2,800 are killed yearly in Vermont. The great
recreational value of the white-tail to a host of sportsmen is obvious.
To the growing multitude of nature lovers the knowledge that a forest
is inhabited by deer immediately endows it with a delightful and
mysterious charm.
In summer white-tails are usually solitary or wander through the forest
in parties of two or three. In winter, where the snowfall is heavy,
they gather in parties, sometimes of considerable size, in dense
deciduous growth, where food is plentiful. There they remain throughout
the season, forming a “yard” by keeping a network of hard-beaten paths
open through the snow in order to reach the browse afforded by the
bushes and trees.
Ordinarily Virginia deer are shy and elusive habitants of dense
forests, where they evade the unpracticed intruder like noiseless
shadows. Where they are strictly protected for a period of years under
State laws, they become surprisingly confident and often damage young
orchards and crops on farms near their haunts. Several States pay for
the damage thus done. Happily this attractive species thrives so well
under protective laws that its continued future in our forests appears
to be assured.