The Arizona white-tails are slight and graceful animals, like pigmy
Virginia deer, so small that hunters often ride into camp with a
full-grown buck tied back of the saddle. They have two seasonal
pelages--gray in winter and more rusty brown in summer. The antlers,
very small, but in form similar to those of the Virginia deer, are shed
in winter and renewed before the end of summer.
These handsome little deer, the smallest of our white-tails, are
common in many of the wooded mountains of middle and southern Arizona,
southern New Mexico, western Texas, and in the Sierra Madre of
Chihuahua and Sonora, Mexico. By a curious coincidence this area was
the ancient home of the Apache Indians and has had one of the most
tragic histories of our western frontier.
During summer and early fall in the higher ranges small bands of
Arizona white-tails occupy the lower parts of the yellow-pine forests,
between 6,000 and 9,000 feet altitude, where they frequent thickets
of small deciduous growth about the heads of canyons and gulches. As
winter approaches and heavy snowstorms begin, they descend to warm
canyon slopes to pass the season among an abundant growth of pinyons,
junipers, oaks, and a variety of brushwood.
In the White Mountains of Arizona, between the years 1883 and 1890,
when wild life was more abundant than at present, I often saw, on their
wintering grounds, large herds of these graceful deer, numbering from
20 to more than 100 individuals. Such gatherings presented the most
interesting and exciting sight, whether the animals were feeding in
unconscious security or streaming in full flight along the numberless
little trails that lined the steep slopes. Where these deer live on the
more barren and brush-grown tops of some of the desert mountains in
southwestern Arizona and Sonora, the snowfall is so light that their
summer and winter range is practically the same.
Although far more gregarious than our other white-tails, the herds of
Arizona deer break up in early spring. At this time one or two fawns
are born, amid early flowers in the charming vistas of the open forest.
Very young fawns are hidden in rank vegetation and sometimes left
temporarily by their mothers. If a horseman chances by the fawns may
rise and follow innocently at the horse’s heels. On such occasions I
have had difficulty in driving them back to prevent their becoming lost.
In the Sierra Madre of Chihuahua one summer I found these little
white-tails occupying “forms,” like rabbits, located in the sheltering
matted tops of fallen pine trees which had been overthrown by spring
storms. In these shelters they rested during the middle of the day,
secure from the wolves and mountain lions which prowled about the
canyon slopes in search of prey.
With the growing occupation of their territory by cattle and sheep and
the increase in the number of hunters, these once abundant deer are
rapidly diminishing. It is high time more careful measures be taken for
their conservation, else extermination awaits them throughout most of
their original haunts.
[Illustration: VIRGINIA, OR WHITE-TAILED, DEER]
[Illustration: ARIZONA WHITE-TAILED DEER]
[Illustration: WOODLAND CARIBOU]
=WOODLAND CARIBOU= (=Rangifer caribou= and its subspecies)
The caribou lacks the symmetry and grace of the true deer. Its large
head topped with irregular antlers, heavy body, and thick, sturdy legs,
ending in large, broad-spreading hoofs, produce a distinctly ungainly
animal. It is the only member of the deer family in which both sexes
have antlers, those of the female being smaller and slenderer than
those of the male. It varies in size in different parts of its range,
but large old bulls usually weigh from 300 to 400 pounds. A single calf
is the rule, but occasionally there are two.
The woodland caribou, the southern representative of the barren ground
caribou, inhabits almost the same northern forest of spruce, tamarack,
birch, and alder as those sheltering the moose. It ranges from the
northern border of the forests in Alaska and Canada south to Maine,
northern Minnesota, northern Idaho, and British Columbia. It is far
less gregarious than the barren ground caribou, during summer only
small parties of cows, calves, and partly grown young keeping together,
while the bulls are solitary or in still smaller separate parties. In
winter all unite in larger herds.
The curiously ungraceful appearance of the caribou, so different from
other deer, gives it a strong individuality, which seems to belong
with its remote haunts in the wilderness. This great animal has an
added appeal to our interest, owing to its close relationship to that
other woodland caribou which was such an important resource to the
cave-men of France and other parts of Europe, as shown by bone and horn
implements, carvings, and other records discovered in their homes.
During summer and fall in eastern Canada, where this caribou is
distributed through much of the wilder forests, it has a habit of
coming out of the woods to sun itself and bathe on the borders of
shallow lakes. Here the old bulls wallow in the water, and on rising
shake themselves like a dog, filling the air with a halo of sparkling
water drops. In such places the bulls frequently stand basking in the
sun for hours. To a canoeman gliding silently around a jutting point,
this rugged habitant of the wilds, discovered across the shining
waters, standing outlined against the dark green forest, represents a
wonderfully picturesque sight. When alarmed at such times the caribou
dashes shoreward through the water amid clouds of flying spray struck
up by its broad feet and vanishes in the sheltering forest, accompanied
by a loud crashing of dry branches.
The woodland caribou is neither so swift nor so astute in avoiding
danger as the Virginia deer or the moose. It falls an easy prey to
hunters and to wolves, and when not properly safeguarded is readily
exterminated. This is shown by its complete disappearance from the
Adirondacks, in northern New York, and by its threatened disappearance
from the forests of Maine, Minnesota, and Idaho; in fact, the woodland
caribou is in more imminent danger of complete and early extermination
within the United States than any other game animal and can be saved
only by stringent laws and careful guardianship.
=BARREN GROUND CARIBOU= (=Rangifer arcticus= and its
subspecies) (see illustration, page 422).
The typical barren ground caribou is smaller and paler colored than the
woodland species. Several geographic races have been distinguished,
among which the most notable is the Peary caribou, the palest of all
and the subject of the accompanying drawing. Like other members of the
group, this species is a heavily built animal, with thick legs and
large feet.
The barren ground caribou is characteristic of the desolate Arctic
barrens and tundras beyond the limit of trees, ranging to the
northernmost limit of land beyond 83 degrees of latitude. When
explorers first visited these northern wilds, including the treeless
coastal belt from the Peninsula of Alaska to Bering Straits, they
found these animals almost everywhere in extraordinary abundance. Over
great areas of this territory straggling herds of caribou, sometimes
numbering hundreds of thousands, drifted with the season from one
feeding ground to another.
The advent of white men with guns has resulted in their rapid decrease
everywhere and in their extermination over great areas. In many of
their old haunts the only trace of their former abundance is in
well-marked trails winding by easy grades to the bare tops of the low
mountains. They are still numerous on the Peninsula of Alaska and in
much greater numbers in parts of the barren grounds of Canada. There,
on the shores of Artillery Lake, during the summer of 1907 a small
migrating herd of about 2,000 was seen.
When alarmed these caribou often break into a clumsy gallop, which
soon changes to a steady shambling trot, their characteristic gait,
carrying them rapidly across country. In winter their tracks in the
snow show that their feet, instead of being raised high at each step,
like those of a Virginia or mule deer, drag through the snow like those
of domestic cattle. Their large, broad-spreading hoofs, with sharp,
cup-shaped edges, are admirably adapted to secure a firm footing in the
yielding and hummocky surface of their haunts in summer and on the snow
and ice in winter.
The barren ground caribou, living under severe climatic conditions,
has developed an extraordinary method of storing up fat to carry it
through winter stresses. Early in fall a layer of pure tallow, called
“backfat,” is formed over the entire top of the back from between the
shoulders to the rump. This is a solid slab of tallow lying between the
superficial muscles and the skin. It is almost as thin as a knife-blade
at the shoulders, but thickens gradually to a depth of from 4 to 6
inches at the rump. This slab of tallow is gradually absorbed during
the winter and has totally disappeared by spring. In early winter the
“backfat” is easily removed and transported in its original form. It
is highly prized for food and as an article of trade among the Eskimo
and Indian hunters, and figures as one of the chief delicacies at their
winter feasts.
The Peary caribou lives in Ellesmere, Grinnell, and other of the
northernmost Arctic lands to beyond 83 degrees of north latitude, where
in places it is common. It appears to thrive on moss, lichens, and
other dwarf and scanty Arctic vegetation, and holds its own against the
depredations of packs of the white Arctic wolves. In these northern
wilds, amid the most intense cold, the caribou passes from three to
five months of continuous night, its wanderings lighted only by the
moon, stars, and the marvelous displays of waving northern lights.
Tame reindeer, which are kept by the people of the Arctic border of the
Old World from Lapland to Bering Straits, are domesticated descendants
of the barren ground caribou of that region. They are used by their
owners to pack burdens and haul sledges as well as to supply them with
food and clothing. These animals have been successfully introduced in
Alaska, and both natives and white men are developing this new and
promising stock industry. The herds of tame reindeer are extremely
gentle and easily handled. Their progenitors were like other wild
caribou--of a dull and nearly uniform color--but domestication has
resulted, as with cattle, in producing endless color variations, from
white to black, with every imaginable piebald variation.
The changed conditions of life in Alaska, due to the recent development
of that territory, have seriously affected the welfare of the natives.
Fortunately the introduction of reindeer herds appears to open a
promising future for both Eskimos and Indians.
=MOOSE= (=Alces americanus= and its subspecies)
The American moose is a large cousin of the elk of the northern forests
of Europe and Siberia. The Old World animal is characterized not only
by its smaller size, but also by smaller antlers. The moose is a large,
grotesquely formed animal, with the most impressive individuality of
any of our large game. Its great head, with oddly formed nose, huge
palmated antlers, pendulous bell under the neck, short body, and
disproportionately long legs unite to lend the impression that it may
be a strange survivor from some remote geologic period.
The moose inhabits our northern forests, where it wanders among
thickets of spruce, tamarack, birch, aspen, and alder, from the mouth
of the Yukon and the lower Mackenzie southward to Maine, northern
Minnesota, and down the Rocky Mountains to Wyoming. It varies in size
in different parts of its range. The bulls of the Kenai Peninsula and
adjacent region in Alaska are the largest of their kind in the world,
sometimes weighing more than 1,400 pounds. The enormous antlers of
these great northern beasts attain a spread of more than six feet
and make the most impressive trophy the big-game hunter can secure in
America.
Although taller than an ordinary horse, weighing more than half a ton,
and adorned with wide-spreading antlers, the bull moose stalks with
ghostly silence through thickset forests, where man can scarcely move
without being betrayed by the loud crackling of dry twigs. In summer
it loves low-lying, swampy forests interspersed with shallow lakes and
sluggish streams. In such places it often wades up to its neck in a
lake to feed on succulent water plants, and when reaching to the bottom
becomes entirely submerged. These visits to the water are sometimes by
day, but usually by night, especially during the season when the calves
are young and the horns of the bulls are but partly grown.
Late in the fall, with full-grown antlers, the bulls wander through the
forest looking for their mates, at times uttering far-reaching calls of
defiance to all rivals, and occasionally clashing their horns against
the saplings in exuberance of masterful vigor. Other bulls at times
accept the challenge and hasten to meet the rival for a battle royal.
At this season the call of the cow moose also brings the nearest bulls
quickly to her side. Hunters take advantage of this, and by imitating
the call through a birch-bark trumpet bring the most aggressive bulls
to their doom.
Ordinarily moose are extremely shy, but during the mating season the
males become so bold that when encountered at close range they have
been known furiously to charge a hunter. They strike vicious blows
with their front feet, as well as with their heavy antlers, and make
dangerous foes for man or beast.
Moose have disappeared from the Adirondacks and have become scarce
in many districts where once plentiful. Through wise protection they
are still numerous about the head of Yellowstone Lake, and are still
among the available game animals of Maine and the eastern provinces of
Canada. Indeed, during the last few years they have steadily extended
their range in northern Ontario and British Columbia. They occupy great
areas of little-visited wilderness, which are becoming more and more
accessible; as a result the future existence of these superb animals
depends upon their receiving proper protection.
=AMERICAN BISON= (=Bison bison= and its subspecies)
The American bison, or buffalo, is a close relative of the larger bison
which once inhabited Europe and survives in limited numbers in certain
game preserves of Poland and the Caucasus. The size, dark shaggy coat,
great head, and high arched shoulders of our bison give them a unique
individuality among American big game. They once roamed in vast numbers
over a broad territory, extending from Great Slave Lake, Canada, south
to southern New Mexico, and from Pennsylvania and eastern Georgia to
Arizona and northern Nevada. It is thus evident that they were at
home in the forested country east of the Mississippi River, as well as
on the treeless plains of the West. In the northern part of their range
they are larger and darker than elsewhere and form a local geographic
race called the wood buffalo.
[Illustration: MOOSE]
[Illustration: AMERICAN BISON, OR BUFFALO]
Originally buffalo were enormously abundant in America, and it has been
variously estimated that when the continent was first discovered their
numbers were from 30,000,000 to 60,000,000. With the settlement of
eastern America, they gradually retreated across the Mississippi River,
but continued to exist in great but rapidly diminishing numbers on the
Great Plains up to within the last fifty years.
The crossing of their range by the first transcontinental railroad
quickly brought the remaining herds to an end. In 1870 there were
still about 5,500,000 head on the plains, but these were so wastefully
slaughtered for their hides that in 1895 only about 800 remained. The
depletion of the herds was so startling that sportsmen and nature
lovers awoke to the danger of the immediate extermination of these
splendid animals; the American Bison Society was organized and the
surviving buffalo were saved.
Although the bison usually has but a single calf a year, these are
so hardy and do so well in fenced preserves, and even in the closer
confinement of small parks, that their number has now increased to
approximately 4,000, about equally divided between the United States
and Canada. In the district south of Artillery Lake, northern Canada,
a few hundred individuals, remnants of the wild stock of that region,
survive and are increasing under the wise protection of the Canadian
Government. The only other herd still existing on its original ground
is that in Yellowstone National Park.
Experiments have been made in crossing buffalo with certain breeds
of domestic cattle for the purpose of establishing a new and hardier
variety of stock for the Western ranges. These have not proved
successful, largely owing to the lack of fertility in the hybrid, which
has been called the “cattalo.”
Under primitive conditions, buffalo herds numbering millions of animals
regularly migrated in spring and fall from one feeding ground to
another, often traveling hundreds of miles for this purpose. The herds
followed the same routes year after year and made lasting trails, often
from two to three feet in depth. Investigation has shown that many of
our highways, and even some of our main railway lines, seeking the most
convenient grades, follow trails laid down by these early pathfinders.
When a great migrating herd was stampeded, the thunder of its countless
hoofs shook the earth, and in its flight it rushed like a huge black
torrent over the landscape.
The buffalo was the most important game animal to the Indians over a
great area. Several tribes were mainly dependent upon these animals for
food and clothing and the entire tribal economy was built about them.
The mode of life, customs, and folk-lore of the Indians all centered
about these animals. Their clothing and tepee covers were made of the
skins. The tanned skins also served as individual and tribal records of
the warrior-hunters, the chronicles being drawn in picture-writing on
the smooth surfaces. The passing of the buffalo on the free sweep of
the western plains ended forever one of the most picturesque phases of
aboriginal life in America.
=MUSK-OX= (=Ovibos moschatus= and its subspecies)
The musk-ox is one of the unique and most interesting of American
game animals. In general appearance it suggests a small, odd kind of
buffalo, and is, in fact, related to both cattle and sheep. It is a
heavily built, round-bodied animal, with short, strong legs and long
fringelike hair which hangs so low on the sides that it sometimes
trails on the snow. The horns--broad, flat, and massive at the
base--curve down and out to a sharp point on each side of the head and
form very effective weapons for defense.
Fossil remains prove that musk-oxen lived in northern Europe and Asia
during Pleistocene times, but they have long been confined to Arctic
America. Up to within a century they have occupied nearly all of the
cheerless wilds north of the limit of trees, from the coast of northern
Alaska to that of east Greenland. They appear to have become extinct in
northern Alaska within the last 75 years, and their present range east
of the Mackenzie River is becoming more and more restricted.
They are now limited to that part of the barren grounds of Canada lying
north and northwest of Hudson Bay and from the Arctic islands northward
and eastward to the northern coast of Greenland. Their range extends to
beyond 83 degrees of latitude and covers some of the bleakest and most
inhospitable lands of the globe. There a short summer, with weeks of
continuous sunshine, permits the growth of a dwarfed and scanty Arctic
vegetation; but winter brings a long period of night, continuous, in
the northernmost parts, through several months.
Under such rigorous conditions musk-oxen thrive unless hunted by
civilized man. They are strongly gregarious, usually traveling in
herds of from six to twenty, but herds containing about 100 have been
recorded. Their eyesight is not strong, but their sense of smell is
good, and when danger is suspected they dash away with great celerity
for such heavily formed animals. If rocky ground is near, they seek
refuge in it and ascend steep, broken slopes with astonishing agility.
When brought to bay, the herd forms a circle about the calves and, with
heads out, presents to the enemy an unbroken front of sharp horns.
So long as the circle remains unbroken such a defense is extremely
effective against both dogs and wolves. The only natural enemies of
musk-oxen are wolves, and against these and the primitive weapons of
the Eskimos they hold their own very well.
When the Greely Expedition landed at Lady Franklin Bay in 1881,
musk-oxen were encountered and killed practically on the site where
winter quarters were established. Since then several exploring and
hunting parties have taken heavy toll from the herds of that region.
Some accounts of the wholesale killings do not make pleasant reading
for one who desires the perpetuation of our native species. Fortunately
for the musk-oxen, the adventurers of these northern quests are few and
far between, so that on departing they leave the game animals in their
vast solitudes to recuperate from these onslaughts.
Musk-oxen have but a single young, so that between depredations of
wolves and overkilling by white and native hunters these animals face
the very real danger of extermination threatening so many other game
animals in the far North. For this reason, it is hoped that sportsmen
who visit these remote game fields will restrain a desire for making
large bags.