Mammals of Northwestern South Dakota

University of Kansas Publications Museum of Natural History Vol. 19, No. 5, pp. 361-393, 8 figs. January 18, 1971
University of Kansas Lawrence 1971 University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History Editors of this number: Frank B. Cross, Philip S. Humphrey, William E. Duellman Volume 19, No. 5, pp. 361-393, 8 figs. Published January 18, 1971 University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas PRINTED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PRINTING SERVICE LAWRENCE, KANSAS 1971

The mammalian fauna of the western Dakotas and adjacent Montana is relatively poorly known. Few published reports have dealt with mammals from this part of the Northern Great Plains, and none of these involved detailed study of a restricted area. The present report summarizes information gathered in Harding County, northwestern South Dakota, and includes material on the more than 50 species of mammals that are known to occur there.
Harding County has an area of approximately 2700 square miles (Fig. 1). The county first was organized in 1881, but the present boundaries were not fixed until 1908. Physiographically, it lies in that part of the Missouri Plateau frequently termed the Cretaceous Table Lands. The general topography is one of rolling hills and flats—mostly range land vegetated by short grasses and sage—broken by spectacular buttes and hills that rise 400 to 600 or more feet above the surrounding plains. These monadnocks are ... part of a system of Tertiary erosional remnants standing above the Late Cretaceous rocks of northwestern South Dakota..., according to Lillegraven (1970:832), who went on to point out: The butte tops are flat and grass-covered. The western sides are being actively cut away by slumping, and the topography below the western cliff walls is hummocky with sparse vegetation. The eastern flanks of the tables are, by contrast, less cliff-forming and less slumped and are generally well forested with coniferous and deciduous trees. Slim Buttes, the North and South Cave Hills, the East and West Short Pine Hills, and the Long Pine Hills, which barely enter the county north of Camp Crook, comprise the pine-clad buttes; other prominences, such as Table Mountain and Sheep Buttes, are all but nude of coniferous cover. The highest point in the county, Harding Peak, is 4019 feet above sea level.