ARIZONA WHITE-TAILED DEER (Odocoileus couesi)
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.
VIRGINIA, OR WHITE-TAILED, DEER
ARIZONA WHITE-TAILED DEER
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.
MOOSE
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.