JMAJM3VLAJLS OF NORTH AJVIERIOA.
MAMMALS
OF NORTH AMERICA
By VICTOR H. CAHALANE
WITH DRAWINGS BY FRANCIS L. JAQUES
1961
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK
OOiE-YJCXCHT, 104.7, BY THCE aCA.GACXXX~AN COBC
~A.11 rights reserved - no pa.rt of this book may be-
reproduced in any foarm without t>ermission in Avritinfir
from the publisher, except by a revie'wer who -wishes
to qixote brief pftssag-es in connection -with a. revie^w
for inclusion in inngrazine or newspaper.
TKJE UMXTKD STATES OF A
Contents
PAGE
INTRODUCTION 1
1. THE WILD PIG 10
PECCARY 10
2. THE DEER FAMILY 15
ELK 15
WHITETAIL DEER 23
MULE DEER 33
BLACKTAIL DEER 40
MOOSE 44
CARIBOU 53
3. THE HELIOGRAPHER 62
ANTELOPE 62
4. ORIGINAL AMERICAN LIVESTOCK 71
BUFFALO 71
MUSKOX 82
BIGHORN 88
MOUNTAIN GOAT 98
5. SURVIVORS OF ANCIENT ORDERS 104
OPOSSUM 104
ARMADILLO 108
6. THE INSECT HUNTERS 114
MOLE 114
SHREW 119
7. THE FLYER 126
BAT 126
8. THE BEARS 134
BLACK BEAR 134
GRIZZLY BEAR 144
POLAR BEAR 150
vii
Vlll CONTENTS
PACE
9. THE BEAR'S SMALL COUSINS 156
RACCOON 156
COATI 161
RINGTAIL 165
10. THE MUSK-CARRIERS 170
MARTEN 170
FISHER 175
WEASEL 180
MINK 188
WOLVERINE 193
THE OTTER 198
SEA OTTER 203
STRIPED SKUNK 209
HOG-NOSED SKUNK 216
SPOTTED SKUNK 218
BADGER 222
11. THE WILD DOGS 228
RED Fox 228
KIT Fox 235
GRAY Fox 237
ARCTIC Fox 241
COYOTE 245
WOLF 256
12. THE CATS 264
THE COUGAR 264
JAGUAR 273
OCELOT 278
JAGUARUNDI 282
LYNX 284
BOBCAT 290
13. THE FINFEET 298
FUR SEAL 298
SEA LION 303
THE EARLESS SEALS 308
SEA ELEPHANT 318
WALRUS 322
CONTENTS
PAGE
14. THE 'CHUCKS AND GROUND SQUIRRELS 328
WOODCHUCK 328
MARMOT 336
COLUMBIAN GROUND SQUIRREL 341
STRIPED GROUND SQUIRREL 349
ROCK SQUIRREL 355
ANTELOPE SQUIRREL 359
GOLDEN-MANTLED GROUND SQUIRREL 363
PRAIRIE Doc 368
15. THE CHIPMUNKS AND SQUIRRELS 377
EASTERN CHIPMUNK 377
WESTERN CHIPMUNK 383
RED SQUIRREL " 389
GRAY SQUIRREL 400
TASSEL-EARED SQUIRREL 406
Fox SQUIRREL 410
FLYING SQUIRREL 416
16. CHISEL-TEETH (PART 1) . 425
POCKET GOPHER 425
SPINY MOUSE 434
POCKET MOUSE 437
KANGAROO RAT 442
BEAVER 452
GRASSHOPPER MOUSE 462
HARVEST MOUSE 466
WHITE-FOOTED MOUSE 470
RICE RAT 479
COTTON RAT 483
WOOD RAT 487
17. CHISEL-TEETH (PART 2) 901
LEMMING 501
MEADOW MOUSE 508
WATER RAT 519
MUSKRAT 523
HOUSE MOUSE 538
HOUSE RAT 544
CONTEJVTS
PAGE
17. CHISEL-TEETH (PART 2) (Cont'd)
MOUNTAIN BEAVER 550
JUMPING MOUSE 556
PORCUPINE 563
18. THE HARES AND RABBITS 577
PIKA 577
VARYING HARE 583
ARCTIC HARE 594
JACK RABBIT 601
COTTONTAIL RABBIT 612
19. THE VANISHING MERMAID 626
THE MANATEE 626
20. TWO SEAFARERS 631
THE WHALE 631
DOLPHIN 642
LIST OF REFERENCES 647
GENERAL REFERENCES 647
REFERENCES TO SPECIFIC MAMMALS 652
INDEX 677
Introduction
MILLIONS OF MAMMALS
When the first colonists from Europe arrived in North America, they found
a multitude of mammals comprising many species. Deer, elk, caribou, and
moose roamed the forests. Wolverines, lynx, mountain lions, and wolves stalked
and killed them. Mountain sheep with magnificent horns, and shaggy, white-
bearded goats lived on the high western mountains, and here also were the
snowshoe hares and little rabbitlike animals called pikas.
The number of mammals found on the grasslands of central North America
surpassed anything that man had witnessed since the dawn of history. For days
explorers pushed their way through apparently endless herds of buffalo, antelope,
and elk more than a hundred million of these animals! Countless bands of deer
also lived along the water courses, and bighorns watched from the buttes of the
badlands. For thousands of years these staggering numbers of game animals had
been preyed upon by great grizzly bears (the largest carnivorous mammals on
earth), wolves, stealthy coyotes, and savage men. But the spectacle had not
diminished, nor did it, until the nineteenth century.
Less conspicuous, but amazingly numerous were the rounded earthen
mounds of prairie dogs. In places, they dotted the plains as far as eye could
see. Some of their "towns" harbored more inhabitants than any human city of
that time.
EXTERMINATION
Thirty years of slaughter, during the 1850*5, sixties and seventies, climaxed the
near-extermination of the larger animals. They were gene completely from vast
areas where they had lived in countless numbers. Only a few remnants of the
former millions managed to persist where they were secluded in wild areas of
the western mountains, or in the far-off, inhospitable northlands.
RESTORATION
By the opening of the twentieth century, an aroused and fearful public real-
ized how drastic the exterminating process had been and hastily sought to have
2 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
the damage remedied. Today, after half a century of trial and error in conserva-
tion, most of the larger land mammals are no longer in immediate danger of
becoming extinct. Many of them are perhaps as populous as they ever can be
in a man-modified continent. With some notable exceptions, as the prairie dogs,
the smaller land species have been little harmed by the activities of man. Many
of the seed-eaters may have benefited. Not as much can be said for the majority
of the great marine mammals that live in the surrounding oceans, as some of
these seem likely to disappear before we know enough about their habits to
conserve them intelligently.
HOW MAMMALS AFFECT HUMANS
Most of us have a deep interest in mammals. Sportsmen and trappers want
to know more about the "game species" (hoofed animals, bears, squirrels,
and rabbits), their predatory enemies, and the many fur-bearers. Farmers are
vitally concerned about the multitude of native rodents and practically everyone
may be troubled by those introduced foreigners, the house rat and house mouse.
The products of native mammals such as meat, hides, fats, bones, furs, perfumes,
and fertilizers are worth many millions of dollars each year. Many species are
of great aesthetic interest and are worth more alive than dead, while the activi-
ties of others help to improve soil and to control injurious plant and animal life.
Such services are priceless. Others may do immense damage to agricultural
crops and products, to forage and forests, to livestock and poultry. Some species
harbor diseases that may be transmitted to man or to his domestic animals,
SCOPE OF THIS BOOK
Because mammals are so important to mankind, much study has been given
to them and a great many volumes have been written about them* Several
popular books on the habits of North American mammals have appeared. One
of the first of these works which attempted to cover the subject, Stone and
Cram's American Animals, was published forty years ago. Seton's Lives of
Game Animals appeared more recently, in 1929. It is a very fine work originally
in four volumes which include most of the information then available concern-
ing the animals whose biographies appear. Although somewhat broader in scope
than the tide indicates, the volumes describe comparatively few of the smaller
mammals.
Information on these species as well as results of recent studies on other
mammals are scattered in many publications. Much of this literature is of a
technical or semi-technical nature, and is limited to regions, states, or smaller
INTRODUCTION 3
areas. There is a need, therefore, for a popular book which will summarize
existing information on the principal kinds of mammals of North America.
This book attempts to meet that need. It devotes a minimum of space to
morphology and taxonomy, for excellent publications are available on these
phases of mammalogy. Instead, the book is intended to reveal the intimate lives
of mammals: how they come into the world and grow to adult stature; their
daily routine; the food they eat, and how they get it; their courtships, mates, and
offspring; their enemies and how they escape them. These and many other
details of existence through the four seasons of the year are related.
As so many of the mammal species of Mexico belong to the assemblage that
has its roots in the tropics rather than in the temperate zone, they are not
described here. The region treated is that part of continental America north of
the Mexican boundary, and the islands in the Arctic Ocean between the con-
tinent and the North Pole. The mammals that live in or commonly visit the
oceanic waters immediately surrounding the American continent north of
Mexico also are included.
OPPORTUNITY FOR MORE RESEARCH
Because federal and state agencies have financed much research, knowledge-
of many economically important mammals has grown rapidly in the last two
decades. Nevertheless, a great many vital facts about a large number of species
remain to be discovered. The life histories of some of our commonest mammals
which live close to towns and cities, or even on vacant lots near factories and
skyscrapers, are not yet fully known. Some of our largest animals which are
difficult to observe still have many mysterious ways, while other small and
common species such as ground squirrels and cottontail rabbits have been
watched, measured and weighed with meticulous care. Yet undoubtedly much
still remains to be learned even about these animals whose privacy has been so
thoroughly invaded. None of the following life-history sketches, therefore,
should be regarded as complete, as many important features are lacking in some
cases because they are as yet unknown or unpublished. There is still a wide-open
field for young naturalists who would like to discover more of the secrets about
American mammals.
WHAT ARE MAMMALS?
Mammals are a predominant form of life on the earth. Of the estimated one
million species of creatures known in the entire animal kingdom, the thirty-five
hundred species of mammals are a tiny minority. Yet, because they are so highly
4 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
specialized, so efficient in their ways of life, and so capable of coping with
circumstances as they arise, the mammals have risen to the highest strata of
Nature's social order. They are so diversified and often so beautiful that, to
many humans, these fellow mammals are the most fascinating of living things.
In popular everyday language, mammals are "animals." The British call them
"beasts." "Quadrupeds" does fairly well, although bats and seals are hardly
four-footed in the ordinary sense of the word, and the hind limbs of whales,
dolphins, porpoises and manatees no longer emerge from their bodies.
Mammals are vertebrates or backboned animals, and the name "mammal"
comes from the Latin mamma, meaning breast. With the exception of two egg-
laying mammals, the Australian platypus and the echidna, all mammals bring
forth their young alive and helpless. During a period of infancy the young must
be nourished on the mother's milk until they can get food themselves. Most
backboned animals, exclusive of the mammals, hatch from eggs and are largely
able to make their own way in life. However, the young of all but a few birds
are dependent on parental help for one to several weeks after hatching.
Mammals are warm-blooded, which permits them to be notably independent
of changes in air temperature, unlike the cold-blooded fishes, lizards, and rep-
tiles which become sluggish and finally torpid when chilled. Each mammal has
a four-chambered heart which pumps blood through a double circulatory sys-
tem, consisting of arteries, capillaries, and veins. The chest, which contains the
heart and lungs, is separated from the abdomen, containing the stomach and
other organs, by a thin sheet of muscle called the diaphragm.
The typical mammal has four legs although, as mentioned, the hind pair of
the whale allies and the manatee are mere remnants buried in the body or lost
altogether. An outstanding feature of all mammals is the hairy coat, which
ranges in different species from stout bristles to very fine fur. Some adults may
be almost barren of hair, but even they are hairy at some stage of development.
Practically hairless sea mammals like the whales have furry coats but lose them
before birth. Backboned animals other than the mammals have different types
of covering: feathers (birds) ; scales (reptiles and fishes); or bare skin (amphib-
ians: toads, frogs, and salamanders).
There can be little question that, as a class, mammals are more intelligent
than other vertebrates. In some the brain is much bigger in proportion to body
weight, and is more highly developed in the "thinking" centers*
MAN AND OTHER MAMMALS
It is customary for humans to set themselves on a plane above that of their
fellow-mammals. Scientists recognize similarities of organs and development of
INTRODUCTION 5
body structure in man and in the "lesser" mammals. But many of them are
loath to acknowledge a likeness of actions and feelings, and vigorously object to
the use of human terms in describing an animal's habits.
Some adherents of the mechanical school believe that only man can have
"feelings." They assert that the mother deer cannot experience affection for her
fawn, or the woodchuck a sense of enjoyment when it suns itself on the mound
in front of its den. The dog that obeys his master's command to "sit up," accord-
ing to them, is only reacting automatically to familiar sounds much as a dummy
responds to the strings pulled by a puppeteer.
At the other extreme is the sentimentalist who "anthropomorphizes" or.
"humanizes," attributing all human characteristics to the "lower" mammals,
which may carry on prolonged conversations, expressing ideas and emotions
analogous to our own. Finally there is the "nature faker" who invents happen-
ings or actions that never occurred.
At the risk of being considered a "humanizer," the author has described
mammals and their habits in familiar terms. A portion of the burrow in which
an animal sleeps is called a bedroom, and the nest may be termed a bed. The
space that it reserves exclusively for body wastes is called a toilet. If the first
period of feeding comes soon after a diurnal mammal wakes up, the meal cor-
responds to a person's breakfast. When animals signal or call to each other by a
series of vocal sounds, I have sometimes termed it "talk" or conversation. I have
not attempted to interpret it except rarely when it was an obvious "Go away!"
or an apparently derisive snort.
I hope this effort to describe the lives of North American mammals in every-
day language will not be annoying to any scientist, and that it will not give false
impressions to laymen. The mammals that are below us in the zoological scale
are believed to be more limited than humans in their intelligence and reactions.
It is certain, however, that many of them are perceptive of matters which are
beyond our sensory range or understanding. How can we claim justifiably that
we are exclusive proprietors of such qualities as courage, cleverness, affection,
or the ability to enjoy life and to communicate with others of our own kind?
HISTORY OF MAMMALS
The mammals are an extremely ancient division of the animal kingdom.
They probably developed from reptilelike ancestors in the early Triassic period
about 200 million years ago. Ever since, to meet different and constantly vary-
ing conditions of climate, habitat, enemies, and many other factors, they have
been changing. Some mammals took to the sea; others went up to the moun-
tains or down to the plains of the early continents. Some went underground,
6 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
some to rocky cliffs, while others sought safety in trees. Each mammalian strain
"specialized" for its particular kind of environment. Those which evolved the
most efficient physical equipment lived a little longer than those that did not,
and so produced more progeny which eventually supplanted the others. The
survivors developed into many groups and kinds or species. The mammals
reached their peak of size, diversity, and abundance during the Miocene epoch,
which began some 30 million years ago and lasted for about 18 million years.
By comparison with the mammals of the world in that faraway time, the
present-day fauna is small in number of species. Speaking in terms of geologic
time, tfie big mammals of the present era appear almost to have reached the end
of the trail to extinction.
HOW ARE MAMMALS CLASSIFIED?
To describe the surviving fifteen thousand varieties of mammals and to show
their relationship to each other, zoologists have devised a classification system.
Based on physical characteristics, it begins with the most important and striking
features of the bony structure and works down to minor characters such as
shades of coat color or variations in size. Thus, first of all, the mammals are
divided into two classesthe egg-laying and the viviparous. The latter (which
includes all of the North American kinds) is split into orders. Examples of these
are the Insectivora (moles and shrews), the Rodentia (rodents, including the
squirrels and mice), the Artiodactyla (even-toed, hoofed mammals), and the
Cetacea (whales and dolphins).
Each order is divided into families. For example, in North America the order
Artiodactyla comprises the families Tayassuidae (peccaries), Cervidae (deer),
Antilocapridae (pronghorn or antelope), and Bovidae (wild cattle, sheep and
goats).
The families are divided successively into genera, species, and subspecies or
geographic races. Speaking broadly, a genus is so definitely different that one
would not confuse a member of it with an individual of a closely related genus.
Deer of the genus Alces (moose) can be distinguished easily from those of rhe
genus Rangifer (caribou). The differences in the skulls, antlers, shoulders,
length of legs, and general proportions of the bodies of moose and caribou are
so pronounced that even the black silhouettes of the animals against a distant
skyline can hardly be confused.
The several species of a genus are recognized by distinctions in size or color,
and often by comparatively minor differences in one or more parts of the body.
The value of these characteristics is often relative. For example, the woodland
INTRODUCTION 7
caribou (Rangifer caribou) is "larger and darker," the barren-ground caribou
(Rangifer arcticus) is "smaller and paler."
Differentiation between subspecies of the same species is based on more
subtle technical points of color and body measurements. While members of two
species very rarely interbreed, those of subspecies of the same species do so
wherever their ranges join. This means that in the zone where the subspecies
meet, the animals intergrade. Their characteristics are a blend of both sub-
species and their exact identification may be impossible even by an expert.
1,500 SPECIES UNDER 94 HEADINGS
At least 1,500 species and subspecies of mammals have been identified in
North America north of the Rio Grande. Some are known only from a few
museum specimens, while information on the habits of many others is only
fragmentary. Even if the life histories of all of these mammals were known, the
details in many instances would be repetitious and of interest to only a limited
number of researchers. To keep this book within the limits of one volume,
therefore, these more than 1,500 species and subspecies have been combined
under 94 headings.
An attempt has been made to treat each of the main groups of North Amer-
ican mammals. The true marine mammals, the whales, dolphins, porpoises, sea
lions, and seals, and the aerial mammals (bats) have been described rather
broadly. The terrestrial species have been given relatively more space. In gen-
eral, a chapter has been devoted to each of the genera of the land mammals.
This has been done partly because they are closer to the lives of most of us, and
partly because much more has been learned about them than about those which
live chiefly outside of our element.
Each chapter on the terrestrial mammals includes all species and subspecies.
Although, because of their similarity, many of these subgroups are not par-
ticularized. In the case of some far-ranging forms, however, it is often impossible
to generalize. Closely allied species, which dwell in radically different environ-
ments, often develop specialized habits to meet the peculiar conditions under
which they live. Whenever important distinctions of this type occur, the specific
or subspecific form of the mammal has been identified by name. Otherwise, for
simplicity, the names of specific subgroups so far as possible have been avoided.
A brief review of the genera, subgenera, or important species has been given
at the close of each chapter concerning especially diversified "kinds" of mam-
mals. For a complete systematic account, however, the reader should consult
Miller's "List of North American Recent Mammals" or Anthony's "Field Book
8 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
o North American Mammals." The latter also contains detailed descriptions of
each species and subspecies, which it is not feasible to give in this book.
MAMMALS ARE INDIVIDUALISTS
No real naturalist assumes that he knows all about any mammal species. If
he ever reaches that point, he is promptly disillusioned by acquaintance with an
individual that behaves as no other of his kind has acted before. Although
mammals have certain racial tendencies, even the least intelligent of them some-
times exhibits originality; The certainty that mammals of a given species will
react in a variety of ways is one of the things that makes their study fascinating.
It also makes it impossible to write a book about the lives of mammals that will
generalize their actions with invariable accuracy.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In writing these accounts, I have drawn on the observations of many able
naturalists as well as my own experiences. The majority of those whose writings
I have used are named in the list of references which begins on page 647. A
great many minor items have been gleaned from the writings of other biologists
who are not listed.
Others have been generous with their time in furnishing information and
references. Among these persons are Dr. W. B. Bell, formerly Chief of the Divi-
sion of Wildlife Research; Mr. Leo K. Couch, Assistant Chief of the Division
of Wildlife Research; Mr. Frank G. Ashbrook, In Charge of the Section on Fur
Resources; and Mr. W. L. McAtee, Technical Advisor, all of the Fish and
Wildlife Service; Dr. Carl P. Russell, Chief Naturalist, National Park Service;
Dr. Remington Kellogg, Curator of Mammals, U. S. National Museum; Dr.
W. H. Osgood, Curator Emeritus; Mr. Karl P. Schmidt, Chief Curator of
Zoology, and Mr. C. J. Albrecht, formerly staff preparator, all of the Chicago
Museum of Natural History; Dr. J. Eric Hill, Assistant Curator of Mammals,
American Museum of Natural History; Miss Caroline A. Heppenstall, Assistant
Curator of Mammalogy, Carnegie Museum; and Dr. E. Raymond Hall, Head
of the Department of Zoology, University of Kansas, who furnished me with
the classification of the weasels (pp. 187-188).
A number of my friends have reviewed portions of the manuscript and have
made comments and suggested improvements in it. I am grateful to them for
their criticisms. It should be understood, however, that the responsibility for
statements and for such errors as may now exist is solely mine and not theirs.
INTRODUCTION p
The following have very kindly given their time and advice for the improve-
ment of chapters on the mammal groups named: Mr. Frank G. Ashbrook (the
mustelids: weasels, skunks, etc.); Dr. Hartley H. T. Jackson, In Charge, Sec-
tion on Biological Surveys, Fish and Wildlife Service (the insectivores and
cats); Dr. Remington Kellogg (marine mammals except the sea otter); Dr.
Adolph Murie, Biologist, Fish and Wildlife Service (bears and wild dogs) ; and
Mr. Olaus J. Murie, Director, The Wilderness Society (hoofed mammals and
sea otter). Various chapters on the rodents were read by Mr. A. E. Borell,
Regional Biologist of the Soil Conservation Service; Dr. C. H. D. Clarke, Biolo-
gist, Department of Lands and Forests of the Province of Ontario; Dr. E.
Raymond Hall; and Dr. H. B. Sherman, Professor of Zoology, University of
Florida.
Finally, I am indebted to my wife for criticism and much typing on the
manuscript. Without her able and willing assistance, this book would never
have been written.
1. The Wild Pig
PECCARY PECARl ANGULATUS
Pigs is pigs. But the peccary is different. This little salt-and-pepper-colored
pig should not be confused with domestic hogs that have gone wild. It is much
smaller, more active, and nervous. It is a native American, while the barnyard
porkers are of foreign origin.
Scooting through the desert mesquite or the scrub oaks of the low southwest-
ern mountains, the peccary pops out of sight before one can get a good look at
it. It leaves behind a strong, musky odor that is disagreeable to human noses.
To other peccaries, it shouts: "Trouble! Watch out!"
On the arched back of this little pig, about eight inches in front of his ab-
surdly short tail, is a large musk gland. Buried in the coarse grizzled hair, the
opening in the skin looks like a misplaced navel. When the peccary becomes
excited, the hair rises on his back and neck. The gland opens and exudes a little
of the secretion. Very powerful, the odor of a small band of peccaries can be
noticed even by human noses at a distance of several hundred feet.
The musk is also an identification. As peccaries pass under overhang-
ing branches of trees and shrubs, they may rub against these, leaving some
of the musky odor behind. Probably all sorts of information is gleaned from
these scent posts by later-passing peccaries. The human hunter, with his dull and
limited faculties, can only tell that one or more "musk hogs" have gone by.
Peccaries are found only in the Americas. Although numerous in Central and
South America, they are comparatively scarce in the United States. Because they
occur in so few places along our southwestern border, many well-informed
Americans have never even heard of them.
Very little is recorded about the personal life of the peccary in this country.
Instead of producing six to twelve offspring at a time like the barnyard porker,
the peccary usually bears only twins. Because the climate of their habitat is so
mild, the babies may be born through at least six months of the year. In the
tropics, adults may breed during any month. The nursery is in a hollow log, or
a burrow, or even on top of the ground in a thicket.
About the size of cottontail rabbits, the babies are reddish or yellowish brown
mixed with black, and wear a black stripe running down the center of their
10
THE WILD PIG
II
backs. At the age of a few hours, they are able to stand on wobbly legs, and can
even dodge about in the underbrush fast enough to avoid a man with collecting
ideas.
When captured at an early age, the little peccary makes an interesting and
very affectionate pet, becoming attached to people that it knows, and whining
and crying when left alone. It is not afraid of the larger domestic pigs and often
runs them away from their food.
When only a day or two old, the young peccaries, with their mother, join a
band of males and females from three or four up to twenty-five, or even more
animals. Running energetically this way and that, they keep up a conversation
of grunts and soft yaps or barks. They can be heard more frequently than they
can be seen. When at peace with the world, their grunts are in monotone. If
trouble threatens, an alarm is sounded with a deep, sharp note, and the animals
immediately speed away with gruff ejaculations at every jump.
The peccary never gets as fat as the porker. It is too busy, but has the same
eating habits anything and everything edible will do. The members of the
PECCARY
12 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
band feed mostly in the morning and evening, but by no means fast the rest of
the time. Their long snouts grub up roots and tubers, insect larvae, worms,
lizards, toads and snakes. Eggs of turtles or ground-nesting birds are devoured.
They like every available fruit: juniper and manzanita berries, cactus fruits,
mesquite and catclaw beans, pine nuts and acorns.
The prickly pear seems to be the peccaries' favorite food during the summer.
They gobble down the fruit, needlelike spines and all. Their stomach linings
are stuck with spines like pincushions. In years when oak mast is abundant, the
peccary gets quite fat at the end of the summer. Only infrequently does a choice
bit of food occasion a brief quarrel. A quick bite and a sharp squeal of pain
terminate the disagreement, for they are too busy to argue.
The peccary has never learned to do without water as many desert dwellers
have. Water holes are scarce in our Southwest, and the margins are often hacked
to bits by the sharp little hoofs of thirsty peccaries. Deeply beaten trails radiate
in every direction and over all hangs the distinct odor of musk.
These little wild pigs are preyed upon by the jaguar, ocelot and wolf, and
sometimes by the coyote and bobcat. The jaguar seems to be especially fond of
peccary meat, and against this powerful cat the peccary has little chance. One
peccary is known to have put up such a fight before being killed that the jaguar
lost one of its claws. The sharp canine teeth of the peccaries are reenforced by
plenty of spunk, and a sense of teamwork. A predator like the coyote may find
a band of peccaries too dangerous to tackle. They have been known to tear to
pieces a coyote caught in a trap.
When brought to bay by dogs, the peccary backs against a large tree or rock
wall and fights gamely. Inexperienced dogs are sometimes killed, and even old,
wily hounds may be badly slashed. Unless attacked and cornered, however, the
little pig's foremost thought is to run.
Tales of peccaries attacking hunters, and even men on horseback, are
numerous but often exaggerated. Men have been treed; but in some cases their
fear was probably needless. The rush of a divided band coming together may
look like a mass attack when it is only a casual meeting. The fighting ability
of the larger white-lipped peccary is regarded with much respect in South
America, and this may have colored accounts of our own species.
A century ago, the peccary, also called javelina, ranged as far north as south-
western Arkansas. Unrestricted hunting almost exterminated the species in the
United States, but under protection the javelinas have recovered within their
present restricted range. Their numbers in this country are now estimated
roughly at about fifty thousand. Regulated hunting has been resumed, but is
regarded as a difficult sport. Javelinas are small, elusive targets and are hard to
THE WILD PIG 13
kill. It took an average of four and one-half shots apiece to kill seventy-seven
peccaries in a hunt near Tucson, Arizona, a couple of years ago.
The flesh of the peccary, when well fattened on oak mast, is fairly good, but
otherwise may be rather tough and dry. The large musk gland in the back, if
not removed shortly after the peccary's death, is supposed to ruin the meat. No
bad effects were noticed in one case when the gland was left for two hours.
As a sporting trophy, the mounted head of an old male is picturesque. The
tanned hide also makes an effective wall or table decoration.
In southwestern New Mexico, a favorite pastime of the cowboys some years
ago was to try to lasso lone peccaries as they crossed openings in the mesquite.
Peccaries are hunted with packs of dogs in Mexico and countries to the south,
and when brought to bay are killed with clubs. The hides, which are thin and
very durable, are used in making the finest "pigskin" jackets and gloves. In
the raw state the hides bring about fifty cents each.
Although domestic hogs were first brought to the New World by the
Spaniards, the peccaries belong to one of the oldest American families. Their
piglike ancestors probably migrated from Europe or Asia many millions of years
ago. Their fossilized remains have been found embedded in rocks laid down
during the middle Eocene. Through geological time, the animals slowly
increased in size until in the Pleistocene the biggest species was considerably
larger than present-day peccaries. These larger and more adventuresome beasts
seem to have wandered into South America where the greatest number of
peccaries are now found.
Zoologists point out certain technical differences between the peccaries and
domestic swine. The "dewclaws" of swine reach the ground, giving them four
toes to stand on. Peccaries, however, have very small, useless dewclaws; two
well up on each front leg and one on each hind leg.
We all know the big tusks or canine teeth of the swine, the two uppers of
which curve outward and up* well away from the jaw. The canines of the
peccary are straight and grow in a vertical direction. Although not large, they
are effective weapons.
Peccaries arc divided into two groups. Our species is called the "collared"
peccary, from the light-colored streak on the shoulder. In the Southwest, it
usually goes by the name of javelina. The "white-lipped" species, which ranges
from central Mexico southward, is larger and blacker, and has whitish patches
on the side of the head.
In the tropics, the collared peccary lives in dense forests and usually in the
valleys or on low plains. Within the United States, it selects several kinds of
habitat. It may be found in the low dense thickets of the Rio Grande, the desert
14 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
scrub farther west, or the mixed live-oak clumps and grassland of the southern
Texas coast. Because of lack of shelter, extensive open grassland is avoided.
In Arizona, although found on the flat desert, it seems to prefer the foothills
and lower mountains. In New Mexico, I have found comparatively few signs
of the peccary on the plains, but observed numerous tracks at six thousand feet
on the tops of the Peloncillo Mountains.
General description. A piglike animal with long snout, thick neck, compact
body with arched back, rather short legs, small sharp hoofs, and very short tail.
Hair long and coarse, forming an erectile mane on neck, shoulders and back,
grizzled black and gray with a grayish "collar" from throat to shoulder. Total
length, 34 to 40 inches; height at shoulder, 21 to 22 inches; weight, 40 to 65
pounds.
Distinguishing characteristics. Our only native pig. Easily distinguished from
the domestic hog "gone wild" by the peccary's small size and co-irse, grizzled
coat.
Range. Southern Texas and Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, south
through Central and South America to Patagonia.
2. The Deer Family
ELK CERVUS SP.
The sun was going down. Shadows of the Engelmann spruces reached across
the little meadow and etched queer shadows on a band of cow elk and their
calves. Restlessly one of the cows moved away, and then one could see that she
was followed closely by a bull. Tall as a saddle horse, his tawny olive body was
sleek and rounded from a summer of good living. The great branched antlers
rose slantingly four feet or more above his head. His pale buffy rump disk
looked brighter in the dusk than in the sunlight. It was late September in the
northern Rockies, and the mating season was at its height.
The elk is a sultan the greatest of them all except, perhaps, the fur seal and
the caribou. An exceptionally powerful bull may have sixty or even many more
mates. This elk was just an average master. One by one, by blandishment or
bullying, he collected merely a dozen cows. The number and membership of
the little harem varied slightly from week to week as he acquired new cows or
permitted the old ones to wander away. The latest addition, with her calf, had
been crossing the lower meadow that morning. In high excitement the bull had
charged upon her and, with a few gentle antler prods and a kick or two, had
herded her into the little company. After a summer of calf rearing and feminine
society, she was more willing than not to accept the new relationship.
As yet, she did not feel much affection for her new master; in fact, she was
bored by his repeated attempts to thrust his attentions on her. To this demon-
stration, his mates of longer standing paid not the % slightest heed. Only the calves
ceased their feeding or their brief games of tag to whine uneasily.
Suddenly, just before dark, a clear bugle note sounded from beyond the
spruces. It was a stirring, clear, loud call. Starting on a low note, it rose to high
pitch, then dropped abruptly and broke into a harsh, jarring scream followed
by a grunt. The bull, startled by this challenge, did not hustle his harem off
out of sight as some more timorous bulls do.
"Eeough!" His loud, harsh answering bark was defiant. He trotted a few
steps in the direction of the challenger, then stopped. After several moments
another bull, perhaps slightly larger than the first, stepped from the deep
shadows and walked slowly into the meadow. As they met, the manes of the two
i6
MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
bulls rose. Their swollen necks throbbed, and their antlers clashed together like
great rattling sabers. The weapons squealed as trees might, rubbing against
each other in the wind. There were a couple of shoves, a twist, a grunt, then
suddenly the defending bull broke back, wheeled and galloped heavily away.
fr-
ROCKY MOUNTAIN ELK
THE DEER FAMILY IJ
The newcomer was accepted by his easily won harem with only a curious glance
or two, then indifference.
Sometimes the struggle between bulls is more serious and spectacular. It may
end in a broken neck or a fatal horn-thrust for one contestant or locked antlers
for both. More often the smaller bulls give up without any attempt to defend
their rights.
As the autumn frosts intensified, the tender herbs shriveled, and the golden
leaves of the aspens fell in showers. This typical band of elk moved southward
across the mountain ridges toward the central canyon which ran into the wide
low valley. Migrating mostly at night, they often stopped a day or two to take
advantage of good grazing. Behind them, on the peaks, the early snow became
more compact nightly. Finally a sudden white blanket covered the lower ridges
to the depth of a foot or more, and the elk quickened their pace.
The little band merged with other bands, and the herd, now numbering a
hundred or more, moved on into the grassy valleys. Dotted about in the distance
were other herds, some larger, some smaller. Twenty thousand elk were drifting
south. Many of them would never return.
As the nights of early winter grew long, the cold increased and the snow
piled deeper. Hunters continued to shoot until five thousand elk had been
killed. The breeding bulls that survived had lost their ardor, were thin, worn,
and exhausted. No longer were they interested in the cows for which they had
battled so furiously.
While the snow remained loose and fluffy the elk could paw it readily. They
swept it back and to each side with strokes of the front feet used alternately.
Several warm days occurred, the snow settled, and then came rain, followed by
a hard freeze. The grasses were sealed under a four-inch shell of crusted snow
so hard that the deer and antelope walked on the top without breaking through.
By striking vigorously, the elk were able to break the crust to feed, but the
sharp, hard edges cut their pasterns, and their legs and sometimes noses were
soon raw and bleeding. For several weeks they were forced to depend almost
wholly on browse foods: Douglas fir, juniper, aspen, serviceberry, sage, and
bitterbrush. Under the attacks of hungry animals, the foliage of the coniferous
plants and the tender twigs of other species quickly vanished. Gradually, feed-
ing progressed to more and more indigestible woody stems and to unpalatable
kinds of browse.
The deer and antelope began to starve first, crowded out by the voracious
elk. The latter, because of their greater size, were able to reach higher for food
and thus to eke out existence a little longer. Day by day the open space between
snow and lower foliage of the firs and junipers grew wider, and even the lodge-
l8 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
poles began to lose their pitchy needles. The "elk-line" on the forest became
distinct. Straight across the trees it ran, as high as the elk could reach. They
became weaker and weaker.
Night by night the coyotes quarreled and snarled over the carcasses of the
dead. The eerie howl of the wolf preceded his nightly hunt. His chases were
short, for the elk could hardly maintain, even for a short distance, their normal
top speed of about thirty-five miles an hour. Mountain lions came down from
the rimrocks for the feast of easy kills. Many elk succumbed to hunger and
cold, the casualty list beginning with the calves and the sick and crippled adults.
Normally the elk carry numbers of wood ticks, bot fly larvae, tapeworms, and
roundworms. The weakening effects of these and other parasites made the
animals more susceptible to starvation. Continuous chewing of coarse, woody
fiber caused mouth cuts and lesions. Through these openings, the organisms
causing necrotic stomatitis gained more ready entrance. Results of this disease
were bone decay, pneumonia, arthritis, pleurisy, and "blood poisoning."
Starving elk crowded around the ranchers' haystacks. Earlier in the winter
they could have jumped fences seven or sometimes nine feet high. But now
they were too weak. One of the bulls lifted the wire of an electrified fence with
his "non-conducting" antlers ?nd let the rest of the herd walk through. Others
managed somehow to break down the fences and reach the hay and fruit trees.
Alarmed settlers appealed for state compensation or took the law and their
rifles into their own hands. Hunters shot into the bands by day, forcing them
back to the hills where the snow was even deeper. Until much disturbed, the
elk moved away from humans slowly.
By late winter the bulls began to lose their stately antlers. Except for their
larger size, they looked much like the meek cows. Male and female, big and
small, they were a hungry, weakened lot.
Spring came at last. To the elk that remained, its arrival was announced by
a shift of the wind that brought a trace of warmth to the pre-dawn blackness
of a morning in early April. By late afternoon the snow was soggy, and the air
across the valley was misty and blue with moisture. In a few days many ridges
and south-facing mountain shoulders were bare. The elk were able to dig out
some forage that had been buried during the winter. Although their ribs
remained prominent, their eyes gradually lost the glaze that had dulled them,
and the movements of many of the animals became a little more lively.
The snow was forced at last into its final stand in ravines and under the
spruces, but the earth seemed reluctant to give up its dark brown dress. Finally,
one sunny day a trace of green became evident. In a few days it was distinct,
and the creeks were outlined by the deep green of watercress and cowslip leaves*
THE DEER FAMILY 19
The elk, eager for the sharp acid juices after their winter diet, sought out the
developing sprigs of cinquefoil, mountain dandelion, sedges and grasses.
Slowly the animals moved upward in the valleys and on the mountainsides,
looking for this food and tonic. Many of the weaker elk continued to die. Their
carcasses dotted the migration routes back to the summer range, and the ragged
coyotes gorged as they followed the herds. Besides the five thousand elk shot
by hunters, fifteen hundred had perished during the winter. Another thousand
died on the way back.
The bonds of companionship between the cows and their yearling calves
were now tenuous, or, in most cases, broken completely. One by one, the remain-
ing pairs separated. Some of the cows, heavy with calf, stayed quietly in little
valleys or parks. The others, with the youngsters, the bulls, and the few non-
bearing cows, went on. Bushes along the trails were whitened with bunches of
hair as the elk rubbed off their faded, heavy coats.
Most of the births took place in open country, sometimes on grassland so
bare that the single calf had no concealment whatever. Now and then a new
mother was so satisfied with her calf and herself for having produced it, that
she burst forth into a triumphant bugle. Similar but not as powerful as the
bull's call, it may have expressed even greater emotion. In an hour or so, after
having nursed her young, she urged it to walk on wobbly legs to shelter among
clumps of grass or sagebrush or perhaps a small aspen thicket. The light tawny-
brown fawn was conspicuous while standing, but not when it dropped flat on
the ground. Then its neck and head curled along its body, and the white spots
on its back and flanks broke up the outline and looked like sunflecks on a small
stump. Very unsuspicious at first, it would have permitted a human being to
handle and fondle it, but soon learned better. If in pain or in distress at being
left alone too long, it called to the mother in a rather high-pitched bleat. She
answered reassuringly, with a deeper voice, or sometimes, if the fawn moved
away and was temporarily lost, she would call repeatedly for it.
Gray-brown coyotes, their sharp yellow eyes blank but watchful, searched
the meadow for ground squirrels, early insects and fawns. A tender elk calf,
weighing perhaps thirty-five pounds, whose bones were soft and filled with
marrow, would be a juicy windfall. The bears, both blacks and grizzlies, knew
that a lone cow here and there was not lingering about just to graze. System-
atically they crisscrossed the meadow in search of calves, eagerly shuffling on
huge flat feet. Occasionally they reared upright on their hind feet to get a
better view or wind.
The adult elk had plenty of courage when dealing with other mammals.
Last fall a bull elk, pulling back his lower jaw and grinding his teeth with
2O MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
rage, had driven three great buffalo off their own feeding ground. Another had
charged an automobile. During the rutting season, bulls had chased a man
occasionally, and at least once they had kept a pretty girl on a bridge for two
hours. Only once was a human being actually attacked. A ranger, who had
chopped a cow elk free from river ice, was kicked in the rear for his trouble
but that was only because she was maddened with fright.
When Dr. Adolph Murie gently examined a calf, he looked up to see nine
elk mothers approaching him. Advancing and retreating, they were obviously
torn between worry over the calf and fear of the man. Most of the elk mothers
took a great interest in each other's offspring. If a calf were in danger, one or
more of the cows would join the worried parent. They helped either to drive
away a coyote, to look for a lost calf, or just to offer moral support. With or
without assistance, every mother occasionallv had to charge the coyotes and
drive them off about their business.
Some elk mothers were probably more easily frightened than others. Heavy
traffic kept one cow from her calf all day until sundown. Somehow it had
managed to get on the other side of the road. Superintendent Edmund Rogers
of Yellowstone Park watched a cow elk stride into a neighborhood where two
Canada geese were building their nest. Immediately she was attacked by the
comparatively small home-makers. Furious at the intrusion, they beat at her
with their beaks and bodies. Traveling at a lumbering gallop, the big creature
fled downstream fifty feet and up the opposite bank.
When it came to attacking grizzly bears that wfere hunting her calf, the elk
mother was hard put. She had no antlers, and the grizzlies were much heavier
and considerably more powerful. Sometimes she gave a sharp bark of distress
that warned the other mothers. She did her courageous best to tantalize the
bears into chasing her, recklessly venturing within thirty feet of the mammoth
creatures before dashing away. Although they continued to search and sniff
carefully, they were handicapped by their poor sight and the slight body odor
from the calf. They generally abandoned the hunt after an hour or less of
fruitless search.
In a few days the calf was strong enough to leave the meadow and follow
the mother, and by short journeys they reached the summer range in the high
mountains. Scattered through the glades and parks were other mothers aud
their calves. The pair joined a small herd, in which were a number of yearling
cows and bulls. The calves varied in size, for some were born as early as the
middle of May, while the youngest arrived as late as June loth after their
mothers had almost or quite reached the summer range.
For the first four to six weeks they were nourished entirely by their mother's
THE DEER FAMILY 21
milk. Then, beginning about the end of June, the older calves nibbled more
and more at the leaves about them. The irregular intervals between nursings
became longer. Instead of nursing for two to three minutes, the calves, widi
loud squeals of protest, were brushed off more quickly. By the first of August
they had grown so much that they had to drop to their knees to suck. The
weaning process went on into the late autumn when practically all of the cows'
energy would be expended in developing the next year's embryos.
Many of the calves had lost their spots by August. Their bodies were now
a uniform pale tawny olive, and the rump patches were conspicuous. Tem-
porarily, their coats were quite shaggy, but this long hair would be shed in
September to reveal their first trim, neat, adult dress.
Through the summer days, the bulls quietly poked about, frequently soli-
tary, sometimes in groups of two, three or possibly more. Their antlers were
growing and, being very soft, they were easily injured if carelessly carried
through the woods. Those of last season's male calves were simple spikes, six
or eight to perhaps fifteen inches long. Older bulls grew branched antlers. These
generally were larger and had more points with increasing age, until a four- to
five-year-old animal had about six tines on each beam. There were exceptions,
of course, as a particularly vigorous elk would have seven or eight. A "freak"
head might have many "points," while a weak, sick or very old bull (aged
twelve years!) could grow only small antlers.
In spite of the attacks of mosquitoes and many other insects, the elk pros-
pered through the summer. The restless calves grazed and investigated the
vicinity. They played tag and follow-the-leader. Sparring with each other, they
bounded about like mule deer, and loved to splash and swim in the water. A
bull up the lake swam a little more than two miles in twelve minutes
one day. Young and old conversed noisily at times with squeals, bleats or
barks.
Every morning, for several hours, beginning before daylight, and again in
the later afternoon until after dark, the elk fed on herbage, mostly grasses. It
did not take them as long to harvest full meals as it had in the lean winter and
they enjoyed lying in the shade and chewing their cuds. They lie like horses,
with their heads and shoulders erect. Their front legs were drawn up while
their hind quarters were tipped to one side with the hind legs stretched out.
Sometimes they slept, with neck and head turned back along one flank or,
again, stretched ahead and lying on their extended forelegs dog-fashion.
Like other animals, the elk had short memories. In the pleasant warmth
they had forgotten the privations and misery of the winter season. Faintly, the
mating urge stirred again.
22 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
In the old days, when walking between Asia and Alaska was good, the elk
came over and helped to colonize America. The Shawnee Indians called them
"wapiti," which is still the name insisted upon by many naturalists. When the
English came to Virginia, they proclaimed them to be "elk" which is what the
Europeans call their moose. That has remained the most popular name for our
largest deer.
The history of the elk race since the coming of the whites four hundred
years ago has been as tragic as this account of a typical herd in the northern
Rockies.
Elk once ranged over much of the northern two-thirds of the United States
from the Berkshires and southern Appalachians to the Pacific Coast (except the
Great Basin) and from northern Alberta to southern New Mexico. By 1900 the
"Great Slaughter" had exterminated all the wapiti from about ninety per cent
of that vast area. Sizeable herds remained only in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and
Alberta in Canada, and in the Yellowstone Park region and Olympic Peninsula
of the United States. Since that time, elk have been restockecl in many
localities.
In spite of disastrous winters, the race has increased and become too popu-
lous for its own good in some areas. For example, whitetail deer have dis-
appeared in Yellowstone Park largely because of lack of food. If the elk were
allowed to continue to increase there, it is conceivable that they could do such
great damage to the range that the deer, buffalo, mountain sheep, antelope, and
eventually the elk themselves would follow the whitetail deer. Yellowstone Park
and other elk refuges can well afford to cut down the elk population, for tha
total number of elk in the country was estimated in 1943 to be 233,700.
Three distinct types of wapiti are recognized:
(1) The Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus canadensis canadensis) inhabits that
part of the original range between northern New Mexico and north central
Alberta, and a large area in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Most of the restocking
notably northern Michigan, the southern Appalachians, Pennsylvania,, the
Black Hills, Arizona and Nevada has been accomplished by using this type.
Sometimes this race is further subdivided.
(2) The Roosevelt or Olympic elk (C. c. occidentalis) is larger and dis-
tinctly darker than the Rocky Mountain form, with heavier but shorter antlers.
The animal is an inhabitant of the dense forests of the Pacific coastal belt from
Vancouver Island to northern California, and has been introduced into parts of
western British Columbia and southeastern Alaska. Its habits are adapted some-
what to the different conditions of the humid habitat. Plants most often eaten
THE DEER FAMILY 23
are sedges, grasses (in summer), vine maple, hemlock, salmonberry, alder,
willow, salal, huckleberry, and various ferns.
(3) The tule, dwarf, or California elk (C. nannodes) is a much smaller and
paler animal than the wapiti of the Rockies. At one time it was almost extinct.
Today dwarf elk exist in a wild state only in Owens Valley, Kern County, and
in Inyo County, California. In 1945, the total number in the two herds was
somewhat more than four hundred.
General description. Large, heavy, deerlike, with a conspicuous neck mane.
Bulls have branching antlers. Head deep brown, neck brownish black, body
brownish gray in summer and yellowish gray in winter; a large buffy or whitish
patch on rump; legs and belly deep brown to blackish. Total length, up to 115
inches, height at shoulder, up to 60 inches; weight, up to 700 or even 1000
pounds. Females are about 25 per cent smaller.
Distinguishing characteristics. Larger than the deer, and with a heavy brown
mane which the deer lack. The pale yellowish rump patch distinguishes the elk
from other hoofed mammals, except the bighorn and antelope which have
white rump patches.
Range. Chiefly the Rocky Mountains from northern New Mexico to north-
western Alberta, Manitoba and central Saskatchewan; Vancouver Island and
northwestern Washington; northwestern California and southeastern Oregon;
central California. Once present over much of the United States and southeast-
ern Canada, and has been transplanted to most states with mountainous wild
land where the animals are well established.
WHITETAIL DEER
ODOCOILEUS VIRGINIANUS AND O. COUESI
Standing straight up, the white tails of these deer flash signals of alarm as
they whisk through the woods. No other big game in North America is as
widely known and hunted as the whitetail deer. There are almost four and one-
quarter million of them in the United States.
Why does the whitetail continue to ovcrpopulate certain parts of the country?
In the first place, he needs very little range in which to make a living. Under
normal circumstances, it seems to be no more than one-half mile square. In the
second and third place, the whitetail is very polygamous, and the normal doe
continues to have twin fawns every year after her first one. With progeny
WHITETAIL DEER
THE DEER FAMILY 25
producing more progeny, each doe is theoretically responsible in ten years for
one hundred offspring.
The fawns are born in May or early June with their eyes wide opeji. I have
found them in ferns among scattered trees, but ordinarily they are hidden in a
thicket. Although twins are usual, triplets are not rare. One or two cases of
quadruplet embryos have been recorded, and I once saw what I believed were
four fawns with a doe on Drummond Island, Michigan. Occasionally a doe
adopts a fawn. An older doe in Nebraska, thin and worried, insisted on nursing
a two-year-old's fawn in addition to her own. The plump young mother pro-
tested, but in vain. Perhaps the older doc was distressed at having only one
offspring that season, or she felt that the inexperienced mother was doing a
poor job.
Weighing four or five pounds at birth, the little fawns are weak and unsteady
on their legs. They are easy to care for since they stay in or near the nursery for
the first two weeks or more. (Some deer don't travel more than thirty feet from
their birthplace for the first twenty-five days of their lives.) During her half-
dozen daily visits for nursing, the mother warns her little ones to stay quietly
flat on the ground. If they are inclined to be disobedient, she pushes them down
with her muzzle. White polka dots spatter their reddish brown coats, and
lying on the ground, the young pass easily for sun-splashed bumps on the forest
floor.
Like all children, they get restless during their mother's absence and must
amble about for at least a few feet. If anything strange occurs, they immediately
drop outstretched to the ground. Almost every meat-eater down to the red fox
in size is a potential killer. Except at nursing time the doe remains away, and
frequently is out of hearing. Concealment, therefore, is often the fawns' only
defense during the first weeks of their lives. Their protective coloring, as well as
lack of strong scent, is a great help.
The fawns that I hav$ handled have kept silent, unless an accidental bump
or rough squeeze brought forth a short bleat. However, very young twins have
been heard to "converse" in calls like the "mew" of the cat bird. Their cries of
distress are much shorter and louder. Adult deer are usually voiceless except in
extreme terror. I have heard a deer shriek with a loud, hoarse, high-pitched voice
when chased by coyotes, but ordinarily it will save its breath for running. I also
once heard a deer scolding very loudly as though in pain when he trotted by.
Now and then a doe may bleat for lost fawns. Occasionally a deer will signal by
blowing violently through the nostrils. From personal experience, I think it does
this at times to startle suspicious-looking objects into moving and so identifying
themselves.
26 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
Many mammal mothers constantly watch over their babies. The doe has
several good reasons for leaving her fawns alone. By staying away she avoids
attracting attention to the nursery. She must also get plenty to cat in order to
nourish herself and to produce enough milk for the youngsters. She cannot stock
up her larder, or have her meals brought to her by her mate as some of the
predators do. Instead, she must eat wherever the food grows.
She dines on leaves of the various maples, willows, oaks, dogwood, sassafras^
raspberry, blackberry, grape, greenbriar, witch hazel, shadbush, elderberry, blue-
berry and rose; many herbs such as goldenrod and ferns; and fungi. When
going to a pond to drink, she feeds on water lilies and other plants that grow in
shallow water or along the shore. In spring and early summer she eats consider-
able grass. At that time she frequents mineral "licks" and eats the salty mud and
drinks quantities of the flavorsome water. In fact, she patronizes these places off
and on until early fall. At times, seemingly out of curiosity, anything from
garbage to a leather belt will be eaten.
In several instances she has been known to eat fish that had been caught by
fishermen and left on the bank or hanging up at camp. Sometimes she will go
fishing for herself, continuing to strike at running black suckers or even trout
in a small stream until she disables one, perhaps fourteen inches long. Turning
the still- wriggling fish head foremost into her mouth, she will chew, swallow it,
and proceed to catch another.
Both the doe and buck have a great antipathy for snakes, especially the rattler.
Several times I have seen a whitetail circle and dance around a garter snake,
breathing heavily and snorting with excitement. Sometimes it will jump on the
snake with all four feet bunched together and mangle it.
By the time the fawns are about four weeks old, they are strong enough to
travel with the doe. They like "watering places" for several reasons. The mar-
gins of streams and ponds are open to the wind, which blows away the deer
flies, black flies and mosquitoes. Water plants, like jpondweeds and burreed,
grow there and are good to eat. The deer also enjoy lying in the water, which
they sometimes do for hours. They like to swim and for short distances can go
as fast as four miles per hour. If a litde deer gets tired, it has been known to
hang on to its mother's tail.
All summer, the buck stays by himself, or perhaps with another. They live
a quiet, rather furtive life, methodically feeding, going to the lick for minerals,
and to the stream or lake for water, food and swimming. A buck whitetail can
be found almost invariably in the same place at the same time day after day. He
even uses the same trails with little variation, a whitetail characteristic which
hunters frequently use to advantage.
THE DEER FAMILY 27
As with all male deer, the buck's principal accomplishment during the sum-
mer is the growing of a new set of antlers. These decorative weapons start in
April or May as a couple of bulbous swellings, just in front of his ears. Covered
with skin or "velvet" through which courses a multitude of blood vessels, the
antlers grow rapidly. The owner is very careful of them, for they are now soft
and sensitive. Any real injury to them at this stage results in a permanent mark
or deformity. If cut, they bleed freely like any other part.
By late August, the antlers are fully formed. The blood supply dwindles and
the skin commences to shrivel and turn brown. This is believed to cause an
annoying itching, for before the skin dies, the buck starts rubbing the antlers
against trees, beginning with the lower parts of the beams, and fraying the
velvet into bloody shreds. Finally the antler tips are draped with these streamers
that flutter crazily in the wind. The bony antlers, blunt and round until almost
the last, finally harden and come out of the velvet nearly as sharp as pitchfork
tines.
Ordinarily a buck's antlers are larger with more tines each successive year
until there are twelve. He is then five years old. From that time until he passes
maturity, three years later, his antlers grow out a little heavier each autumn, but
the number of points remains about the same. During old age the number of
points and massiveness of the antlers decrease with waning vigor until a very
old, feeble deer, aged perhaps twelve, may carry only simple spikes.
You can't be sure about a deer's age by the number of antler points. Up to
maturity, the diameter of the antler beam just above the burr or basal swelling
is a fairly reliable indicator. It must be remembered, however, that the size of
antlers really reflects the physical condition of the animal. A well-fed deer will
grow heavier horns than a poorly nourished buck of the same age. Tooth suc-
cession is probably the best index to age.
A well-developed set of antlers, with their gracefully arched beams each
carrying four to eight long tines, makes a prized trophy. The finest head on
record was taken forty years ago in British Columbia. The longest beam meas-
ured thirty and three-quarters inches in length, the set spread thirty-three and
one-half inches at its widest extent, and the total number of "points" was
twenty-six.
Sometimes things go wrong, probably a glandular disturbance, and the
horns grow into queer shapes. Occasionally they are flattened or palmated,
somewhat like those of the caribou. More often all sorts of queer spikes develop.
I have seen whitetail antlers with as many as twenty-five or thirty of these
irregular "points." A number of mule deer have been seen bearing more than
fifty. At least one had as many as sixty.
28 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
Once the antlers are clean and polished, the buck's disposition alters
markedly. No longer is he retiring, content to live on perhaps one hundred
acres of land. His neck enlarges, becoming twice its normal size. Boldly he
stalks through the woods looking for mates. The does are located and followed
by scent, sometimes by several bucks at a time. Unlike the elk and some other
deer, the whitetail does not accumulate a harem. One mate at a time is all that
he cares to manage. However, he runs with her only a few days and then
dashes of! to seek another. For the individual male, the "rut" or breeding season
lasts about a month, which gives him plenty of time to find a number of mates.
The rutting season for the entire group (in the north) may extend from early
October to the middle of December, and is at its height in November.
When two bucks meet at this time, there is likely to be a battle. The animals
dash at each other, meeting on their horns, and then engage in a shoving con-
test. Eyes rolling and muscles straining, each strives to throw the other or to
rush him backward. Sometimes a half acre of ground is ploughed up by the
sharp hoofs. Fighting deer do not make repeated charges like bighorns, but
struggle with concentrated fury. Now and then, one buck succeeds in goring
his opponent. Occasionally the tines and tips of the antlers interlock, and the
two rivals starve to death.
Most male deer do not find mates before their third autumn, when they
are about two and one-half years old. The majority of females breed a year
earlier. There seem to be many exceptions, however. In the Adirondacks it has
been found that forty per cent of the female fawns attain sexual maturity when
they are only six or seven months old, and mate in December, a month later
than normal adults.
Like most mammals, the adult whitetail changes its coat twice each year.
The summer reddish dress is a light-weight one made up of fine short hairs
that lie close to the skin. These are gradually shed over a space of several weeks
in October, and each fine summer hair is neatly replaced by a coarse hollow
bristle. Because of the much larger diameter and greater length of the winter
hairs, they form a coat sometimes two inches thick. It is gray, and the deer is
said by hunters to be "in the blue." The innumerable air spaces in the hair act
as additional insulation and help to keep the animal warm in the biting cold
of the northern winter. Deer that live farther south need and have less protec-
tion.
A whitetail doe in Pennsylvania once grew a fine silky winter coat with
hairs about one-twentieth the normal coarseness. Had she not been killed in
the fall, she probably would have perished.
Beginning in early December, the deer drop their solitary habits and band
THE DEER FAMILY 2p
together in small groups. Bucks, does and fawns are mixed promiscuously,
although each family unit of doe and fawns is still intact. The bucks are no
longer arrogant after losing their antlers.
What becomes of the millions of stately antlers that are cast off each year?
Why aren't they found more often? The heavy bone structures seem almost
indestructible. Usually they suffer the ignominious fate of being eaten by
rodents. Porcupines, squirrels, rabbits, even mice gnaw away at them to satisfy
their craving for calcium and other minerals. Pregnant mothers of these
species, especially, need these minerals to build up the tiny frames of their
developing offspring. If not eaten, the antlers slowly disintegrate under baking
heat and leaching rain. In the humid range of the blacktail deer, cast antlers
rot away much faster than those that are dropped on the arid plains and deserts.
Where the snowfall is heavy, the deer winter on low ground where the cover
is dense, in cedar swamps or in patches of pine and hardwood brush inter-
spersed with swales and marshes. Farther south, where the sun settles the
scantier snow cover, the deer take to the south-facing hillsides. From the middle
of January until March, a typical band of a couple of bucks and four or five
does and their fawns will stay within an area of about three hundred acres,
frequently not requiring over one hundred.
It is said casually that deer "yard" in the north because it is easier for a
number of deer to break trails through the snow between feeding grounds and
to keep these places accessible. Probably they gather where the snow is lighter
and where protection can be secured from cold north and northwest winds. In
winters of exceptionally little snow, the deer do not yard but instead are scat-
tered over the hills.
The hoofs of all the deer are so small that they are not of much use for
pawing. After the snow gets deep, therefore, the animals must feed entirely by
browsing, sprouts or suckers and normal growth that is soft and watery, such
as the twigs of basswood, being eaten most freely. The list of winter food items
is very long, varying, of course, with the region. The tree species that are liked
best are apple, mountain ash, maples, black, white and yellow birch, oaks, aspen,
willows, black cherry, fir, juniper, and white cedar. Among the shrubs, the deer
prefer yew, dogwood, sumac, rose, buckbrush, bearberry, chokecherry, blueberry,
serviceberry, viburnum, snowbrush, witch hazel, and American hazel. Inci-
dentally, all deer are very fond of acorns and stuff themselves with the rich
nuts in the fall and early winter as long as the supply lasts. Until buried by
snow such low-growing plants as sweet fern, horsewecd, dewberry, and winter-
green are eaten.
Food preference is largely a matter of habit, depending upon the abundance
30 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
or scarcity of various palatable plants. Sometimes a plant that is heavily eaten
by deer in one locality is scarce in another yard, and there a substitute will be
taken. Where deer are too abundant, the browse is eaten as high as the hungry
animals can reach. If the winter is prolonged, the smaller and weaker ones may
die by the score. The animals often rear on their hind legs to stretch for mouth-
fuls and this can result in horrible entanglement. I have seen the carcasses of
such deer whose front feet, or even heads, had slipped into forks of limbs or tree
trunks. Unable to extricate themselves, the victims had perished of heart failure,
nervous exhaustion, or broken necks.
Whitetails, as well as blacktails and mule deer, have much the same enemies
as other big game species. Their most common four-footed enemies coyotes,
wolves, bobcats, lynxes and cougars vary in importance with the region. Adult,
healthy deer can usually protect themselves with striking hoofs or take to flight
successfully. Probably few animals live to become senile. The deer reach their
prime at about six or seven years and are old at ten. Sometime during the
following five years the surviving animals fall prey to disease, starvation or
predators. One of the deer's numerous parasites is the nose fly. I have examined
deer that were slowly choking to death by reason of the fifty or even more
larvae that crammed the rear nasal passages and even sinuses and throats.
In early economy, deer were highly important. To the American Indian,
venison was a staple food. He used practically every part of the animal ^buck-
skin for clothing, tepee coverings and bedding; sinews for sewing, for fish
lines, for stitching bark utensils; deer brains for bleaching and tanning; bones
for awls, needles, scrapers, and ornaments. Deer were an essential support for
pioneer white culture. They were extremely abundant in places. During the
early iSoo's in central Ohio, for example, bands of twenty deer were not
unusual. A man was a poor or unlucky hunter if he could kill no more than
four or five in a day. Venison was as important to the early whites as to the
Indians and was sold in the public markets. Buckskin was a common article
of commerce for several centuries. In 1880 a firm in northern California shipped
thirty-four thousand skins of mule and blacktail deer, paying the hunters fifty
cents each. Two independent hunters in the same region were said to have
shipped three thousand deer hides in one year.
In region after region, the slaughter moved from east to west across the
country, until the deer were almost exterminated. Then the pendulum swung
to the opposite extreme of absolute protection. In the East, provided with an
abundance of food in millions of acres of sprout growth following the lumbering
period and the decline of agriculture, the deer population increased beyond the
sportsmen's wildest dreams.
THE DEER FAMILY 3!
Only in the West have the whitetails not continued to increase. On the
Great Plains and in the mountains the species lived in thickets mostly along
stream courses: As the valley bottoms were cleared for farming, the whitetails
were deprived of the first essential a place to live. They were exterminated
from wide areas, in many of which they have never become reestablished. Even
in and immediately north of Yellowstone Park, overpopulation of game animals
reduced the browse to such an extent that this was largely responsible for
extinction of the whitetail deer there.
In the East, the whitetail has become far too abundant in many places. It
loves the brushy slopes and the forest border, and since the shrubs that furnish
the bulk of the food cannot survive in heavy shade, it dislikes the deep forest
except in emergencies. Man's farming activities, if not too widespread, are
actually helpful; the unbroken forest is opened, and escaping fires are followed
by the growth of grass, sprouts and shrubs. The whitetail is quick to learn that
tender vegetables, green alfalfa and twigs and buds of apple trees are good to
eat. Even frozen apples have helped to make man's settlements attractive to
deer.
When very abundant, deer may do much damage to truck crops and
orchards. If properly constructed and maintained, electric fences may keep the
animals out of gardens and other places where they are not wanted. Scarecrows
and shotguns fired at night are sometimes successful, but are generally much
less dependable. One man effectively used bags of mothballs tied to his fence.
For several decades the famous "buck law" permitted the killing of males
only. But the surviving polygamous bucks were so active that the does pro-
duced as many offspring as ever. Finally, even the most single-minded hunters
were forced to admit the many evidences of too abundant deer depleted
ranges, starving animals, and stunted survivors. In numerous instances, state
game commissions have since been given authority to open the hunting season
on does and fawns, and to take other steps necessary to balance the deer with
their food supply.
The annual hunt has become a rather important economic factor. The
hunters spend lavishly in purchasing licenses, outdoor clothing, camping equip-
ment, meals and lodging, transportation, guns and ammunition. The total
annual kill of three hundred and seventy-five thousand whitetails probably
weighs some twenty-eight million pounds hog-dressed. The value of the meat
alone is estimated at $11,400,000.
Artificial feeding is just as unsatisfactory for wild deer as it has proven to be
for other wild hoofed mammals, as this tends to destroy their initiative and to
spread disease. An emergency ration has been developed in New York State to
32 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
tide the deer over unusually difficult periods where natural food is scarce. In
cake form, it consists of forty-five per cent cane molasses and fifty-five per cent
coarsely ground soy beans. Browse is scattered over each cake to induce the deer
to try it. A fifty-pound cake lasts fifteen deer about a week under average con-
ditions. In certain parts of the country where salt is not available, blocks of
salt have been dropped by airplane. Airplanes have also been used to count
deer and to determine the locale of overpopulations.
With a single exception, the whitetails of the United States belong to one
species. The subspecies vary considerably in size, from the big northern deer
that average two hundred pounds in weight to those of Florida that run only
half as large. Several Central American varieties scale less than forty pounds.
In the northeastern states and eastern Canada, the summer coat color is bright
chestnut, but this becomes paler and more gray in the West and South. As a
result of the varied conditions under which these deer live, they have adopted
diversified habits.
The Coues deer (Odocoileus couesi) is also called the Arizona, Sonora, or
dwarf whitetail and is distinct from its numerous relatives. It is abundant in
some mountainous places from southwestern Arizona to the Big Bend of
Texas, and south through Chihuahua and eastern Sonora into Durango. This
little deer has big ears, a pale brownish coat in summer and a grayish one in
winter. Bucks rarely exceed one hundred pounds in weight and have cor-
respondingly small antlers.
General description. A graceful deer. Antler beams of male curve forward bear-
ing unbranched tines. Color in summer reddish brown with a white band across
the nose, indistinct eye ring, and white inside of ear; belly, throat, and inside
of upper legs whitish; tail large, bushy, and white underneath. In winter the
"red" coat is replaced by grayish to grayish brown. Size variable with the
species:. total length, 60 to 75 inches; height at shoulder, 3o to 40 inches; weight,
75 to 300 pounds; rarely 400 pounds.
Distinguishing characteristics. In summer the whitetail deer is much redder
than its relatives, the blacktail and mule deer. Its tail is bushier, the same color
on top as its coat and conspicuously white and flaring on the under side, which
is often raised. (The blacktail's tail is black on top, not as bushy, and therefore
not as startling when the white under side is raised. The mule deer's tail is
rounded, all white, with a black tip. Of course, where these two latter species
intergrade, the characteristics may be combined.)
THE DEER FAMILY 33
The antler tines of the whitetail buck do not branch as do those of the
blacktail and mule deer. The beams also curve forward and turn inward more
than those of the other two deer. Another distinction is the metatarsal gland
below the hock on the outside and rear of the hind leg. The gland of the white-
tail deer is about i inch long, that of the blacktail deer is 3 inches, and of the
mule deer 5 inches.
Range. Most of the United States and southern Canada, from Nova Scotia west
to eastern British Columbia; south to the Florida Keys, west to southern Ari-
zona, eastern Utah, southwestern Washington; eastern slope of the Cascades
and lower Columbia River, Oregon; also south through Central and South
America to Peru and Bolivia.
MULE DEER
ODOCOILEUS HEMIONUS
When the mule deer raises its head to attention, the great cars twist forward.
Then the reason for the name is as plain as the ears. They spread fully twenty-
five per cent larger than the whitetaiTs. No one knows the reason, for any
hunter will tell you that the whitetaiFs comparatively modest ear trumpets can
pick up the sound of a pin dropping into a bed of moss a thousand feet away
almost!
As it plods along at a walk with head down and mule ears flapping, this
deer of western America is not nearly as shapely as the whitetail. The body
seems heavy and the legs stocky and less trim. Even the feet are larger.
But when something startles the animal, it becomes vibrant, alive, and grace-
ful. The head comes up, and it bounds away with high leaps that seem to
be powered by steel and rubber levers instead of flesh and bone legs. These
leaps carry it over the rocks and brush. In Manitoba, this gait has given it the
local name of "jumping deer."
Each running bound clears four feet vertically, and gives it a chance to look
back and see what is coming. When necessary to escape from a trap, the mule
deer has been known to jump eight feet from a running start o only a few
feet. In full flight, a mule deer has made horizontal leaps of twenty feet on
ground that was slightly uphill. It can run as fast as thirty-five miles per hour
for a fraction of a mile at least. Perhaps its jumping gait makes it short-winded,
for in a run of one-half mile in open country, it will be panting heavily.
This big-eyed, big-eared animal is not as timorous as it looks. The buck as
34
MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
MULE DEER
well as the doe must often take after hungry coyotes and drive them away. If
angry enough, it may jump on an over-rash coyote with all four feet until the
predator is dead or at least its bones broken. One mother doe was so furious
when she found that two coyotes had chased one of her offspring into the water
that she attacked both of them. While the fawn swam about and caught its
THE DEER FAMILY 35
breath, she went after the attackers with flailing hoofs and drove them off into
the woods.
Some deer are braver as well as stronger than others. I once saw a doe tem-
porarily beat off three coyotes that were successfully attacking a yearling. The
other members of the band did not offer to help. With two coyotes threatening
her in front and a third ready to leap on her flanks, she finally abandoned the
yearling which was probably fatally injured already. Apparently it is only when
the fawns arc in danger that the adult deer really get up their fighting ardor.
Even a buck has been seen to drive off coyotes that were menacing a fawn.
The mule deer buck does more bluffing and less actual fighting than the
male whitetail during rutting season. They are more restless and obstreperous
than at other times. This keeps the does and their half-grown fawns moving
about, and sometimes the youngsters get lost temporarily in the confusion. When
the fawns get underfoot, the buck that is courting at the moment will become
exasperated and lunge at them with a low, deep "baaa," but he seldom or never
does them any harm.
He does not waste any time on an unwilling female. Scent tells him when a
doe is ready and he gives chase through the densest of forests until he finds
her. She does not, of course, respond immediately, but makes a play of running
off and he usually continues after. If he is tired and gives up, she flutters back
to lure him on again. Once having succumbed to his addresses, she is quite
affectionate and nuzzles him fondly until he goes off to find a new mate.
Although easygoing in courtship matters, enterprising bucks will sometimes
acquire harems of perhaps three or four does. The does may leave or stay but
usually prefer to stay. If a rival comes about, he is quickly chased away, unless
he looks bigger and fiercer. In that case the buck in possession makes a few
perfunctory gestures and then philosophically departs to find some more mates.
There are always enough to go around.
A buck has no sense of chivalry at any age. Even a yearling with two little
spike horns can be overbearing. One of these upstarts was once seen following
a single file of docs as they made a trail through the snow. Unerringly they led
him into the open to a dry salt lick. He did not care for any himself, but neither
would he permit them to enjoy it. With his little horns he kept pushing them
away and pestering the fawns. At last the does gave up and went ahead, meekly
breaking a new path for his young lordship, so that he dined in the cedar
swamp that evening.
By the middle of December in the North, and about a month later in the
South, the deer have settled down to the quiet routine of winter. The bucks
become thin and spiritless, and a few weeks afterward lose their antlers. The
36 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
young bucks with only spikes may hold on to them a few weeks longer, but
even they must soon part with these weapons. Then in the mixed bands only
the fawns can be distinguished by their smaller size and immature, shorter
faces. The biggest animals are probably bucks, but there are small bucks and
big does. At any rate the males, without their antlers, and worn out by their
fall cavortings, are not of much account. They may strike with their forefeet,
but ordinarily the does need no longer fear any of them. More than likely, it is
a wise old doe that leads the clan to its winter home.
Instead of hanging around its birthplace all its life as the whitctail does, the
mule deer uses different ranges for the two seasons. It spends the short summer
in the mountains at seven thousand five hundred to eight thousand feet among
the aspens and pines. Under the pressure of the fall snowstorms, the bands
drift down to the sheltered valleys where food is still available and where their
movements are not hampered by too deep snow.
The annual autumn journey is a slow, leisurely one for the most part. Not
until a heavy snowstorm reminds them of the penalties of getting caught in a
thick white blanket, do they hasten. Often the summer and winter ranges are
fifty miles apart. In a few instances mule deer are known to make a round trip
of three hundred miles on their annual jaunt from one range to another and
back.
Life is not easy in their winter homes. Food may be very scarce, and slipping
on ice may result in unpleasant predicaments or even broken bones. Two
employees of the Tule Lake Wildlife Refuge in California once found twenty-
six deer that had fallen on the ice and were unable to get up because it was so
slippery. The men worked hard to drag them ashore where they could get foot-
ing and dash away. One buck was very ungrateful, or more likely badly scared.
After he had been brought ashore and had time to recover his composure and
his breath, he arose to his feet and went after one of his rescuers. Quick-think-
ing, the man fled out en the lake. The deer chased him, fell down and had to
be rescued all over again!
As if reluctant to face the long upgrade trip into the mountains, the deer
dawdle through the spring. After the dull winter fare, they enjoy lingering
over the new green grass. When they reach their summer quarters toward the
end of June, the snow has disappeared and the slopes are green. The bucks
usually arrive first, for the docs are heavy with fawn.
The fawns are born in late June or early July, soon after the does reach the
summer range. Most does have twins, and occasionally triplets, although young
mothers and those in poor condition generally have only one. The little animals
weigh six to seven pounds at birth. When about a month old they are strong
THE DEER FAMILY 37
and go running around with their mothers. At this time their home range
covers about a square mile. At top speed, the fawns have been clocked at
twenty-eight miles per hour, and have held that pace in front of an automobile
for three-tenths of a mile before veering away.
Fawns begin to nibble at forage about the time they start running with their
mothers. They are soon eating considerable amounts of green stuff and are
weaned in late September or October. A little earlier their spotted coats are
replaced by the gray winter dress. Young deer at this stage are quite shaggy
instead of being dressed in the neat close-fitting coats of their elders. Possibly
the first winter coats are extra long and heavy because this is the most critical
season of their lives.
Mule deer are found over a vast expanse of western America and in a
variety of habitats from the high mountains of the north to the plains and
deserts. Naturally their diet varies somewhat with the locality. Although grass
and herbs are preferred when new and tender, they are eaten to some extent
the year round, and considerably more than by the whitetail. The remainder
of the mule deer's food consists of a great variety of browse.
Leaves and twigs are not a monotonous diet, for they have a multitude of
delicious flavors. In summer, the food includes mountain mahogany or buck-
brush, sagebrush, dogwood, buffaloberry, elderberry, raspberry, manzanita,
Oregon grape, cliff rose, chokecherry, gooseberry, currant, serviceberry, hack-
berry, thimbleberry, and the leaves of oaks, aspens, willows, and mountain
ash. Like whitetails, mule deer are fond of mushrooms, and feed on them at
every opportunity. On some of the high mountain ranges of the Southwest,
fungi of many kinds are sufficiently abundant to be a prominent food item. In
that region, mistletoe is also an important and palatable food.
In the north, there is not nearly as much nor as great a variety of good
things to eat. Deer do not paw through snow as vigorously as elk, and must
winter on windswept slopes, or wade into drifted areas to reach tree limbs,
such as juniper and Douglas fir, that are bent down by the snow load. In the
south, grass is even less eaten, either because it is buried under the mountain
snows or, in the deserts, it may be scanty at that season.
Spring comes and goes again. The bucks, that are growing new antlers as
usual, arc living by themselves or with a few companions. They arc great pals
at this time and one would never guess that in a few months they would be
fighting and running off with each others' mates. Ticks are a nuisance through-
out the summer, and thousands of them may burrow into the skin and feast
on blood. Sometimes one buck will bite at the parasites on his companion's
throat while the other will reciprocate by chewing on the first one's shoulder.
38 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
Even the magpies and mountain jays help. They perch on the deer's back and
gently probe around in search of the pests, apparently being very careful not to
startle or hurt the deer with their sharp bills. Occasionally they will perch up
in the antlers as if to get a better view of their work.
With the coining of colder nights in late August the northern mule deer
begin to need warmer coats. The thin brownish hair is gradually pushed out by
the growing gray coat, and by the end of September the thick winter pelage is
complete. This change takes place two to four weeks later among southern deer.
It is finished, usually, before the deer arrive on their winter range and the
mating season begins again. Throughout the year the mule deer's tail remains
the same, comparatively thin, rounded, and white with a black tip.
Deer, like many other animals, may not always distinguish a stationary
strange object. The slightest movement, however, is detected at once. Their big
eyes are efficient gatherers of light, and they are effective considerably earlier
in the morning and later in the evening than the human eye.
Smell is the best of all the deer's senses. They often use their nose when
they do not trust their eyes. Numerous times I have been stalked by deer that
worked around to my lee, picked up my scent, whistled disparagingly, and
were off.
Of the two million mule deer and half a million blacktails, about two hun-
dred and twenty-five thousand are shot by hunters each year. Among the beasts
of prey, the cougar or mountain lion is probably the most important enemy of
the mule deer. Hunters and others commonly assert that a cougar's toll is about
a deer each week. No one knows for certain. It is probable that many cougars
are not as successful as that. There is some evidence that a large percentage of
the deer killed by cougars arc the weaker animals, perhaps crippled by encoun-
ters with human hunters, or weakened by disease or age.
During the fawning season, bears, both blacks and grizzlies, spend con-
siderable time hunting for fawns, and very likely are rewarded fairly often.
Badly crippled, sick, or very careless adult deer may be killed and eaten by
bears, but ordinarily deer are too alert and fast to be caught by these clumsy
carnivores.
Coyotes hunt deer at times and being numerous throughout the West
undoubtedly account for more deer than the far less abundant though much
more powerful mountain lions. Under ordinary circumstances, most of the
coyote-killed deer are crippled, diseased, or young animals. Bobcats, lynxes and
wolverines kill a few deer, usually in deep snow and during times of food
scarcity. Golden eagles are believed to take some fawns.
Mule deer are subiect to most of the parasites and diseases that affect their
THE DEER FAMILY 39
cousins the whitetails. Screwworms also arc present at times. The famous epi-
demic of hoof-and-mouth disease in California in 1924-5 was responsible for the
deaths of many thousands of mule deer. More than twenty-two thousand in
addition were slaughtered in a campaign to check the malady. Eyeworms,
which are tiny white round worms twenty-five hundredths to eighty-five hun-
dredths of an inch long, are sometimes found in their eyes. These parasites live
in the liquid between the eyeball and the lid and set up an irritation that may
result in blindness.
When a small hard object lodges in the stomach of any of the deer, calcium
and other salts may be deposited around it, resulting in the formation of a
hard, smooth, round "stone" called a calculus or "madstone." Sometimes the
base is a nail, a pebble, a wad of hair, roots, or a bullet. According to early
superstition, if a "madstone" were laid on a wound caused by a rabid dog, it
would draw out the poison and prevent rabies. Similar calculi are found in
many mammals, including man.
The high branched antlers of the mule deer are greatly prized as trophies.
Normally, a full head has a total of ten tines, although abnormal sets of horns
have been recorded with sixty or more "points." The largest head ever taken
which had a regulation set of tines had a spread of thirty-six and one-quarter
inches, measured thirty-three and three-quarter inches along the outside curve
of the beam, and tallied nine points.
Occasionally does grow antlers. These structures are usually malformed,
covered with velvet, and result from disease or other aberration of the sex
organs or glands. In a few cases horned does produce young and are otherwise
normal.
General description. A rather stout-bodied deer. Antler tines of the male are
usually pronged or branched. In summer, the body, neck, and upper legs are
pale, dull yellowish brown to yellowish tawny; upper throat, inner ear, and
inside of legs whitish; forehead dark brown; a large patch of white on the
rump; tail white with a black tip; belly dark brownish to blackish. In winter,
the color is dark gray instead of brownish* Size variable with the locality: total
length, 56 to 68 inches; height at shoulder, 36 to 42 inches; weight, 145 to 200
pounds, up to 400 pounds as an extreme.
Distinguishing characteristics. Ears large and broad. Antler tines branched (as
are the blacktaiPs) instead of single like the whitetaiPs. Tail whitish and
rounded with black tip instead of all black on the outer surface (blacktail deer)
or bushy and completely white beneath (whitetail deer). See also this section
(pp. 32-33) of the chapter on whitetail deer.
4 o
MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
Range. Western United States and southwestern Canada, from western Minne-
sota to north-central Alberta and eastern British Columbia; south through
eastern Colorado and western Texas to the Tropic of Cancer in Mexico; west
to central Washington, Oregon, and the Pacific Coast south of San Francisco
Bay.
BLACKTAIL DEER
ODOCOILEUS COLUMBIANUS
Life in the humid forest belt along the Pacific coast has darkened the coat
of the blacktaiL It is a little smaller than the mule deer, the antlers generally
have fewer points, and the ears are shorter and slightly broader. Instead of the
rounded whitish tail with the black tip, this deer's tail is broader, entirely black
on top and whitish underneath.
Nevertheless the two deer look much alike and often consort together when
BLACKTAIL DEER
THE DEER FAMILY 41
occupying overlapping territory. The resulting progeny may have characteristics
of either parent, or a combination.
Ordinarily the blacktail has little use for the high bounding gait which
carries the mule deer away from danger. The typical blacktail lives on the floor
of the great redwood or spruce-fir forests where the undergrowth is dense and
rank, hence it is sometimes called "redwood deer." It can't leap high enough
to clear the great blueberries, salal, salmonberry, and other shrubs that grow as
much as eight or ten feet high, and doesn't try. It jumps only to clear the great
trunks of fallen trees that lie rotting in such profusion on the spongy ground.
The blacktail's gait, therefore, is between the flat run of the whitetail and the
high bounding gallop of the mule deer.
Having learned from experience that the thicket is a shield against enemies,
the blacktail just remains quiet when he hears something poking about. The
chances are that, whatever its identity, the intruder is practically blinded by the
green blanket that presses down everywhere. Panicky flight would be heard
and give the clue for which the enemy is searching. So the deer keeps calm and
still. If it seems best, finally, to seek another refuge, it steals silently away
through the labyrinth of trails that it knows so well. But it will stop and hide
again within a couple of hundred yards.
Next to man, the blacktail's most serious enemies are the cougar, the wolf,
and the coyote. On the northern coastal belt the cougar's place as a predator is
partially taken by its smaller but potent kinsman, the lynx.
In the lowlands, the deer stay on the same area the year round. Inland, and
in the far north, there is a distinct although generally short migration twice a
year. By summer the most venturesome blacktails have climbed to the heights
where the forest is no longer dense and towering, and is broken by alpine
meadows. It is here, as well as at the southern extremity of the range in Cali-
fornia, that the blacktails and mule deer may meet and exchange courtesies.
Occasionally mountain-dwelling animals of the two species migrate to the same
valleys and winter together.
The habits of the blacktail and mule deer are generally similar, with differ-
ences which are determined by the various conditions of climate and vegetation.
The blacktail buck sheds his antlers in January and February. New antlers
start growing during April and are hard about four months later. He mates as
early as September, in the south, but not until November in Alaska.
The fawns, generally two but sometimes one or three, are born any time
between April and July. They are reddish brown, with more numerous and
conspicuous spots than the young mule deer.
Blacktails are typically browsing animals. Those that inhabit the dense low-
42 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
land forests almost never eat grass, because there isn't any. At least very little
can grow in the deep shade of the vast trees and thick undergrowth. In the
openings, of course, the deer find it together with sedges, clover, skunk cabbage,
fireweed, hedge nettle, and other favorite herbs. They like huckleberry, blue-
berry, wild lilac, salal, dogwood, mountain ash, mountain maple, elderberry,
hazel, buckbrush and other shrubs, as well as salmonberry, raspberry, and
thimbleberry. Moss and mistletoe are plentiful in the humid "rain forest" and
are eaten in large quantities. Fungi spring up in the autumn rains and are
greatly relished. Acorns fatten the deer for winter, and oak browse is an impor-
tant food the year 'round. The high winds and wet, heavy snow of winter
break many branches and so actually help provide food. This may be leaves or
twigs of cedar, hemlock, red alder, and other trees. The deer generally eat at
sunrise and sunset. They may be active on moonlit nights, but are very quiet
during the daylight hours. Because of the thick cover, they are seldom seen even
where a good-sized population exists.
Along much of the Alaskan coast where blacktails live, the mainland moun-
tains rise steeply from the Insjlde Passage. Only a narrow strip below the glaciers
and the heavy winter snow belt is habitable. Most of the deer, therefore, live
on the offshore islands. Winter is a critical time. While snow is never heavy
on the island beaches, it increases rapidly in depth as one goes inland. Some-
times for weeks, the deer cannot get more than two hundred yards away from
the water's edge.
Food occasionally becomes depicted and great numbers of animals, especially
the smaller ones, may die of starvation. The survivors, as a last resort, are said
to forage along the water's edge for seaweed and kelp. Wolves, coyotes and
lynxes find easy pickings. When winter breaks, the remaining deer follow the
retreating snow line back to the open barrens above the forest. Here the fawns ,
are born and the tenacious race starts toward another peak of overpopulation.
The hard fact is that this northern land is "sub-marginal" habitat for deer
where only the most rugged can subsist.
The deer that are born in a big burn or cut-over region are the favorites of
fortune. Those that live in the deep shady forest have two strikes against them
from the beginning of their struggle for existence. The undergrowth may be
dense and the deer's stomachs crammed with palatable food. Still, in late winter,
many of them die. On brushy areas where the mature forest has been burned or
logged off, the deer thrive amazingly. The largest animals are found here, and
all the deer seem fat and healthy.
The reason has been explained by Arthur S. Einarsen. When he examined
the chemical and nutritive content of the browse that grew in the shade and
THE DEER FAMILY 43
that in the open, he found an astonishing difference. The shade-grown leaves
and twigs in winter were low in protein value. A deer might stuff its belly with
them, but it would still be hungry and spiritless. Browse that grew in the clear-
ings, however, was packed with proteins and bone-building ash. No wonder
that the deer that pasture here continue to be "fat and sassy" despite bad
weather!
Forest fires sometimes kill individual blacktails, but they benefit the race as
a whole by stimulating a luxuriant growth of energy-foods. They also destroy
many of the deer's most harmful parasitic enemies.
All deer swim well, but the blacktails that live in the coastal and insular
region of British Columbia and Alaska are amazingly venturesome and intrepid.
They strike out across channels between islands, and across fiords whose waters
are chilled by icebergs. A rugged human swimmer would die of cold in a
half-hour. Fairly often deer are seen crossing Icy Strait between the Glacier
Bay mainland and the islands such as Inian and Chichagof.
Through this well-named channel and Cross Sound Passage, at least two
miles wide, the tide sometimes runs so swiftly that a strong oarsman in a dory
may be swamped in the chop or swept out to sea. Probably some of the deer
suffer these fates and are drowned. Once, when I was passing through Icy
Strait on a large steamer, we intercepted two deer near the middle of the
channel. Frightened by the bow wash of our ship, they turned back toward
Inian Island.
As a hunting trophy, the antlers of the blacktail buck do not measure up to
those of its two larger relatives. Less than a half-dozen sets of antlers with a
spread of thirty inches or more have been recorded. Even big blacktails may
have only two points on each side. A record head with beams thirty and one-
half inches long carried a total of six points.
General description. A dark-colored deer with antlers much like those of the
mule deer. In summer, the upper parts are reddish to reddish yellow; in winter,
rich brownish gray becoming dark along the backbone; forehead, nose and chest
blackish; belly and inside of forelegs and ears white. Total length, about 60
inches; height at shoulder, 38 inches; weight, up to 150 pounds and, rarely, to
310 pounds.
Distinguishing characteristics. Darker and smaller than the mule deer, and with
antler tines less often forked. Ears shorter and proportionately broader. Tail
broad at base and tapering toward tip, entirely black on the upper surface,
instead of only at the extremity as in the mule deer. The gland on the hind leg
44 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
is near the middle of the shank and is only about 3 inches long, or one-third
the length of that bone, while in the mule deer the gland is about 5 inches long
and extends nearly to the heel.
Range. Forests of the Pacific Coast and parts of the western slope of the Sierra
Nevada and Cascade Mountains, from central California (Point Concepcion)
northward to the region of Glacier Bay and Cape Spencer, Alaska.
MOOSE
ALCES AMERICANA AND A. GIG AS
The moose is the largest antlered mammal that ever lived on earth. The bull
is crowned with a magnificent set of broad-bladed antlers that spread perhaps
six feet or more. He may be seven and one-half feet high at the shoulders and
weigh an extreme of one thousand eight hundred pounds, but he can turn and
fade into the forest as quietly as a mouse.
His four-and-one-half-foot-high stiltlike legs support a high-humped dark
body. Thrust forward on an awkward neck Is a great head with a pendulous
muzzle. Hanging about six inches below his throat is the bell or ropelike flap
of skin covered with long hair. This varies in length from a few inches to three
feet, twelve to fifteen inches being most usual. Reaching its best development
in young bulls, it becomes a mere dewlap in old animals. The cow's bell is
generally smaller.
Once in a great while you may see a moose on his knees. Pushing his head
and antlers ahead of him like a very slow lawn mower, he chops off the tender
grasses for a series of salads. He is much more likely to be rising toward the sky,
tearing down foliage. It is nothing at all for him to reach eight or nine feet from
the ground for food, far higher than any deer could stretch. By standing on his
long hind legs, he can pull down foliage growing twelve feet above the ground.
Even this is still not very high, for by running his chin up and along saplings
and branches, and so forcing them lower, he can strip off the leaves that were
growing twenty feet above the ground. Frequently he snaps off the saplings, or
rides them down between his fore legs and eats the leaves in comfort. I have seen
brittle trees, like aspen, up to three inches in diameter and twenty feet high that
had been broken down by a moose for dinner.
Despite its long legs that could travel great distances if necessary, the moose
has no desire to travel and usually spends its entire life 'in a relatively small
area. The only time that a bull takes a trip is during the mating season when
THE DEER FAMILY 45
he may bestir himself out of his little territory of five square miles to track down
a cow or two. At this time the cow moose is bolder than the doe deer. She runs
around in circles and gets very excited. With low hoarse calls, she invites any
male within hearing distance to come to see her. Then, when he arrives, she
may pretend to be shy and run off. Her calf continues to hang around, but
this does not dampen her ardor. She tries only half-heartedly to drive him off,
and the visiting bulls simply put up with him.
Big and powerful as he is, the bull moose does not assemble a harem like
the elk. He is content with one female at a time. He stays with her for perhaps
ten days and then departs to find another. During the four to eight weeks rut-
ting season, he may have several mates.
During this period he is ready to fight any bull whom he suspects of being
a rival. His great ears are on the alert for every sound the crackle of footfalls,
the beating of antlers on a dead branch, or the deep grunt of another bull. Then
caution may be forgotten. Off he goes in a shambling but rapid trot, crashing
through the branches, swinging his antlers furiously. Sometimes he stops and
beats them against trees as if warming up for action. If his rival is equally
pugnacious a mighty battle may develop. The ground is torn up, small trees and
brush are trampled. Antlers are nicked and broken, and hides are gashed and
bleeding. Usually one bull or the other gives up and runs away. Occasionally
the pair lock antlers. A broken neck may then end the life of the weaker bull,
but the other is fastened inextricably to the corpse of his victim. He either starves
to death, or is killed by wolves or a late roaming bear.
When two moose in western Alaska once locked horns, Jack Benson, famous
game warden, happened to notice them from an airplane. Immediately he
ordered the plane to land. The smaller bull was already dead but the other
continued to struggle with the carcass to which he was bound. Jack and his
assistants lassoed him and after herculean efforts succeeded in sawing off an
antler. This dislodged the dead bull. Free, but annoyed by the loss of his antler
and the whole situation, the great moose took after his benefactor.
Generally there is not a great deal of fighting. A smaller bull hesitates to
dispute with a larger one. He may look longingly, but seldom attacks.
By the middle or end of November the rut is at an end, and the moose revert
to their usual drowsy routine of eating browse and chewing their cuds. They
eat day or night whenever they feel like it. Erstwhile rivals forget their differ-
ences and sometimes spend the winter together. A little group may include a
cow or two with their gangling, growing calves. The band generally uses a
thick swamp as headquarters, feeding daily out over the neighboring ridges.
Their heavy winter coats, which are nearly an inch thick over their backs, keep
MOOSE
THE DEER FAMILY 47
out the cold. Dense conifers help to break the wind. Their long legs permit
them to wander as they please unless the snow becomes very deep. Then they
make something like a deer's "y^d," where crisscrossing trails are kept open
by the passing individuals or groups of moose.
Sometimes, of course, deep snow restricts them and their available food
becomes scanty. Weakened by starvation and cold, they may fall victim to
pneumonia, or to their only serious four-footed enemies, the wolves. In the
northern Rockies the cougar occasionally makes a meal of a moose. Moose may
suffer from liver flukes, tapeworms, roundworms, degeneration of the brain,
liver and kidneys. One poor old moose had cataracts of the eye and went around
charging imaginary objects. Sometimes these great deer acquire Bang's disease
from domestic cattle.
By early May the cow begins to find much fault with her yearling calf. It
certainly is grotesque gangling, awkward and possessed of very little sense.
The mother's suddenly determined attitude, however, stems from another cause.
She lowers her ears, raises her mane, and makes short rushes at the yearling.
Although she does not strike him, he is bewildered and frightened, and re-
treats hastily. After a few days, he either gives up, or is successfully evaded by
the cow which desires only solitude. She picks out a thicket or, if available, a
small island, for a safe, secluded delivery room and nursery. Here her new
calf is born in late May or June.
The little calf, sometimes a twin and very rarely a triplet, is a skinny carica-
ture of its mother. It has a bell, but the legs are even longer proportionately,
and it lacks the high shoulder hump and overhanging upper lip. Unlike the
deer fawn, it is not spotted. Except for the black muzzle, and a mark over each
eye, the coat is a uniform light bay color. After the first few weeks spent in or
close to the birthplace, it travels about with its mother. The two are almost
inseparable for nearly a year. Only the impending arrival of the next little calf
the following spring will send it out to shift for itself.
A yearling newly thrown on its own resources is plainly adrift. It has not
learned to depend on its wits, and seems a little foolish. I once met such a
youngster on Isle Royale in Lake Superior. Seated on a log in a clearing above
a beaver pond, I was eating my lunch. A yearling moose ambled out of the
woods on my left, heading for the water. It was almost past before it saw me.
Then it turned and trotted directly toward me. When it was only thirty feet
away and still coming on I leaped to my feet and shouted. The youngster
recoiled in fright, then stood in such evident dismay and uncertainty that I
regretted my rudeness. Fully three or four minutes elapsed before the be-
wildered creature slowly and hesitatingly turned and fled back into the timber.
48 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
Bungling through the windfalls, it crossed behind me and emerged about two
hundred feet away. Wading into the pond to feed on water plants, it looked
back wonderingly at me from time to time.
Ordinarily, and especially when hunted, an experienced adult moose is
running and wary. While its sight is not too keen, the sense of smell is excellent
and the hearing phenomenal. A moose that is on the alert keeps its big ears
in almost constant motion, turning them this way and that to catch the faintest
sound from every direction. It is able to detect the presence or approach of
another moose or a person long before the human ear can pick up a footfall.
Such a moose was the huge bull that I once tried to stalk near Naknek Lake
on the Alaska Peninsula. He was standing at the edge of some woods over-
looking a marsh, alternately drowsing and then beating a dead spruce snag
with his great shovel horns. Keeping well concealed, and walking in the deep
tundra moss, I made a careful approach upwind. Yet, when I neared the spot
over a little ridge, the moose had vanished. A red squirrel overhead exploded
into a shower of invectives. Perhaps the moose was curious. He stalked me for
the next twenty minutes, and I could hear him occasionally as he circled; but
I never saw him again.
The moose can move swiftly, with scarcely a sound. On a wooded slope on
Isle Royale I once startled a bull moose, apparently out of his siesta. He ran
a little way groggily, then stopped to watch me. After a few minutes I started
to follow. I looked down for a second to step across a fallen log. In that moment
he disappeared. I went to the spot, less than a hundred yards away, and found
his fresh tracks and trail where he had run down the hill. The slope was littered
with dry, dead brush in which my every step created a loud crackling, but the
moose had not made a sound that was audible to my perfectly normal hearing.
Through the long days of the northern summer, the moose cow and her calf
wander along the streams and lakes, feeding on the lush grasses and water
plants. Hordes of flies and mosquitoes suck their blood. To avoid the stings, the :
moose wade into the water, sometimes until they are submerged. They may
take rather long excursions by water, frequently preferring to swim across lakes
rather than to walk around. If the calf tires, it can rest its neck on the mother's
withers or throw a front leg over her neck. She then tows it alongside her
shoulder.
Moose are strong swimmers. No one knows how far they can travel by this
means. There are talcs that moose have been seen crossing frigid Lake Superior
between Whitefish Point, Michigan, and the Ontario shore, an air-line distance
of sixteen miles. I know of a cow and calf that chose of their own volition to
swim across a bay of Lake Superior on a December day when the thermometer
THE DEER FAMILY 49
stood at four degrees above zero. Moose occasionally drown, when swimming,
and sometimes break through thin ice and are unable to regain the shore.
In summer, another favorite resort of moose is the wallow and lick. This is a
muddy spot, usually beside a stream, well trampled and worn by the animals
that have frequented it to eat the tasty muck and to roll in the ooze. Some of
them come at least once a day from spring until fall. A good coating of mud
certainly helps to discourage the blood-sucking flies, but it does not improve
their looks. Sometimes they even patronize a lick during winter when they have
to scrape at the snow and mushy ice with their hoofs to get at the muddy water.
Apparently these unwieldy giants have no fear of being mired in the mud or
quicksands of the northern swamps and lake borders, but occasionally an unfor-
tunate is drowned in them. Sick or aged moose may not estimate their strength
correctly and bog down, while others have entangled their feet in submerged
roots, and died of exhaustion or starvation.
I have watched moose cross deep mud holes buried to their withers in muck.
They plunged laboriously until tired, then rested with complete unconcern. A
more nervous animal, such as a deer, would have gone into a pack. I have seen
the deep tracks of moose emerging from the swirling delta of the Ukak River
of southwestern Alaska a quarter mile of soupy volcanic ash that is churned
into quicksand by the shallow rushing stream that drains the Valley of Ten
Thousand Smokes. The great animals apparently plunge in and cross without
hesitation.
Through the summer, while the cow moose is caring for her calf and the
yearling is learning more about the wilderness, the bull dawdles about, growing
a new set of antlers. One would think it a difficult job, for he rests a great
deal! Early in May, two swellings had begun to appear, one on each side of his
forehead. Covered with black fuzzy skin through which the blood supply
courses, the swellings become knobs and finally antlers. The maximum size
depends on many factors, the chief of which is the health and vitality of the
individual bull. Generally the yearling grows a set of spikes six to eight inches
long, a two-year-old develops a fork-horn, and a three-year-old moose has a
narrow palmed antler with three or four points. After that the antlers become
heavier and broader each successive year until the bull passes maturity at per-
haps twelve years. Then his waning vigor is indicated by smaller and weaker
antlers.
Like other deer, moose occasionally have abnormal antlers. One of the
strangest cases was that of an Alaskan moose that grew two soft lumpy struc*
tures, with a hard outer shell, like a pair of big mushrooms.
When the antlers are fully grown in August, the velvet begins to die and is
50 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
rubbed off by the bull. A fir tree about three or four inches in diameter whose
trunk is free of lower branches makes a favorite rubbing post. When the velvet
is first removed the antlers are bone-white, streaked with blood. They become
brown as the bull continues to rub them against saplings and to vent his grow-
ing ill temper by beating shrubbery and dead trees.
A fine bull moose grows heavier antlers than any other antlered mammal
living in the world today. A record "head" of a Canadian moose may spread
seventy inches or more, while the great antlers of a fine Alaskan moose (Alces
gigas) will be over seventy-five inches from tip to tip and weigh eighty-five
pounds. The largest authenticated head taken in the United States is from near
Kendall, Wyoming. That Shiras moose, shot October 16, 1941, had antlers with
a spread of fifty-eight and one-half inches. The broad sweeping shovels, with
their many short prongs along the front edge and outer end, are magnificent.
They are among the most prized of all hunting trophies.
How dangerous is a moose to man? The mother moose on Isle Royale has
at times abandoned her calf to save her own skin. But I know of one moose
that repeatedly chased a big black bear up into the treetops when she and her
calf were feeding in the neighborhood.
Music hath charmssometimes. A quick-thinking ranger in Yellowstone
Park had heard that the European moose can be lured into target range by a
hunter playing a violin. In fact, he knew of a moose right in Yellowstone which
beat time to radio music with his head. This ranger was confronted by a moose
whose picture he wished to take. Resourcefully, the ranger began to whistle, and
the moose stopped dead in her tracks. Valiantly, the whistler kept on, his emo-
tion now and then causing false notes. Fascinated, the moose applauded by
wiggling her ears. While she stood there, apparently thrilled by the solo, the
intrepid ranger backed slowly away for twenty-five feet. Coolly he proceeded to
take pictures of the musical-minded moose and then sprinted off to more
complete safety.
During the rut, the bull moose is much more likely to be disagreeable. He
has driven many a man up a tree and kept him there, sometimes for hours. One
of my friends was chased across a creek, up to his neck in water. Even a snow
plow and tractor has been charged.
As a matter of fact, a moose under most circumstances is very unlikely to
make an unprovoked attack. I have studied and photographed a good many
moose from a reasonable distance and evoked nothing more than a gnashing
of teeth.
The legs of a moose are only long enough to reach the ground. But they
are too long for it to reach conveniently the sedges, grasses, horsetail and many
THE DEER FAMILY 51
other herbs that it likes, without getting down on its knees. However, it can
readily reach the tall plants, such as ferns, asters and jewelweed while standing.
It is very fond of water plants. Where moose are numerous they may almost
denude the lakes of water lilies. Floating duckweeds (Potamogcton, etc.) are
scooped off the surface, while submerged plants such as burreed and duck-
potato require going underneath the water.
The moose isn't built for diving. It doesn't like to feed where the water is
more than six feet deep. Even then, when its feet leave the bottom, it may roll
over on one side most ungracefully. Usually it dines in shallower water, plung-
ing its head underneath to grasp the plants. Sometimes it even pulls up the
thick, scarred bases of the water lilies. I have never seen it keep its head under
water more than a minute at a time, although it is said to be able to hold its
breath twice as long.
Even in summer, it eats more browse of woody plants than anything else.
The leaves of aspen, white, gray, and black birch, hard and soft maple and the
striped (often called "moose") maples, cottonwood, mountain ash, willow and
cherry are especially delectable. Many shrubs such as viburnum, dogwood,
honeysuckle, blueberry, hazel, alder, currant, raspberry, and thimbleberry are
also taken.
During the long cold winter the herbs are withered and the grass is buried
under the snow. The moose then eats the buds and twigs of the browse species,
but most of the food consists of conifers, especially fir, which it usually ignores
in warm weather. Willow is an important cold-weather food in many localities.
In the eastern part of its range, the moose is said by some naturalists to
browse extensively in winter on white cedar. My own observations indicate that
it does not like cedar and takes it only occasionally. Ground hemlock (a yew)
is eagerly sought at all seasons. On Isle Royale the great numbers of moose
diere have almost exterminated ground hemlock and it is difficult to find plants
of more than a single sprig about a foot high. A vivid picture of the effect of
this dense moose population may be obtained by going from Isle Royale about
ten miles east to Passage Island. In the absence here of any moose whatever
during historic times, suitable areas are covered by a dense "jungle" of ground
hemlock about five feet or more in height.
During winter and spring some aspen bark is eaten. The moose removes this
from the trunks of standing trees by a slanting, upward gouge with his lower
incisors. (The moose has no front teeth or incisors on his upper jaw and so
cannot bite out chunks of bark as the horse does, for example.) More often,
however, this food is obtained from the upper parts of aspens that may be wind-
thrown or broken down by snow, ice or avalanche. Such bark is more tender,
52 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
and perhaps more tasty, than that on the lower trunk of the tree. It is often
stripped off completely from many feet of the branches. Moose visit and revisit
a fallen live aspen numerous times during the winter and spend much time
standing around and nibbling at the "heaven-sent delicacy."
Once almost or quite exterminated from most parts of the original range in
the eastern United States, moose now seem to be recovering. An estimated
two thousand five hundred animals inhabit the Maine woods. A few live in
New Hampshire, Vermont, and the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts. Indi-
viduals have even wandered recently across the Connecticut Valley to the Mount
Tobey region. The species has been reestablished in the Upper Peninsula of
Michigan by transplanting from Isle Royale. On that island the animals are
abundant. Considerable numbers also occur in northern Minnesota.
Some hunters imitate the amorous call of the cow moose for her lover. This
moose "calling" as a means of enticing the bull within rifle shot range is
frowned upon by many sportsmen as unfair and as bad as shooting over a
salt lick. Others consider it quite legitimate. North-woods guides jealously prefer
their own individual fashion of horn-making. Each has his peculiar routine of
grunting or whining through it, with hands helping to vary the volume and
resonance. Whether the long quavering whine of the cow or hoarse barking
"uh uh uh" of a rival bull is well or poorly imitated, any unattached bull
within a mile or two is likely to investigate. Skeptics insist that he is as easily
attracted by the mere breaking of branches. They claim that any noise that
might indicate the presence of an unmated cow will bring the bull running.
Moose meat is dry, like other venison, but tastes more like beef than deer
meat does. In Alaska and northwestern Canada it is a staple food among trap-
pers and other woodsmen. Small-town restaurants and hotels keep it on hand
for emergencies and tourists. Along the Pacific Coast and where meat cannot
be kept frozen, moose flesh is canned or corned. The fat is sometimes said to be
inedibk. It is very strong, but I have known Alaskans who could eat quantities
of it when traveling in sub-zero weather. Moose muzzle (the gelatinous nose
and upper lip) is a great delicacy. As a rich stew it is said to taste much like
green turtle fat.
During the Middle Ages, the European moose was used at times as a draft
animal in Scandinavia. For the carrying of mail in winter this moose could
draw a sled through deep snow for long distances far faster than relays of
horses could. The American moose, in a few cases, has also been "broken" to
harness.
General description. A large, ungainly deerlike animal with humped shoulders,
THE DEER FAMILY 53
heavy pendulous muzzle, and long legs. A growth of skin and hair, called the
"bell," hangs from the throat. Males have very heavy, flattened antlers. Color
of upper parts blackish brown to black, belly and lower legs brownish gray,
muzzle gray. Total length, 100 to 122 inches; height at shoulder, 66 to 92 inches;
weight, 900 to an extreme of 1800 pounds. Females are about 25 per cent smaller.
Distinguishing characteristics. The size, grotesque appearance, pendulous muz-
zle, throat "bell," shoulder hump, and broadly flattened antlers of the adult
bull distinguish the moose from all other deer.
Range. The coniferous forests of northern North America; south of the limit
of trees, from Nova Scotia and the Adirondack Mountains west to northern
Minnesota, central Saskatchewan, southern James Bay, and the Mackenzie River
delta to Bristol Bay and Kenai Peninsula of Alaska. South in the Rocky Moun-
tains to central Wyoming, Idaho, and (occasionally) northern Washington.
CARIBOU
RANGIFER SP.
Thousands of caribou surge over the tundra day after day. The Great Trek
is on. At least once they have been seen to form an unbroken line four miles
long, walking twelve and fifteen abreast. At other times the whole country as
far as one can see is alive with caribou, all moving in the same direction. They
eat as they travel. Continuously they push on, impelled by a mysterious urge to
go beyond the horizon.
Click I Click! Click! The movement of the small ankle bones or the shifting
of the tendons makes a continuous sound as they walk or trot. The mass of
many-forked antlers bends and tosses with their moving bodies.
Rivers that are in their way are crossed without hesitation. Sometimes they
swim directly across, sometimes upstream or downstream.
Where do they come from? Where are they going? No one ever really
knows. Thousands of them may appear in one week and be gone the next. Sev-
eral times since the settlement of Maine, waves of caribou have flooded in from
the North. Almost as suddenly the tides receded and the woods were deserted.
What causes these unpredictable migrations? Why do they invade a region?
Why do they suddenly depart and perhaps not return for years? Many theories
have been advanced: avoidance of the mosquitoes, need for shelter, some mag-
netic attraction. The most reasonable explanation is based on the need for food
BARREN-GROUND CARIBOU,
THE DEER FAMILY 55
Lichens, a favorite food, grow extremely slowly and once over-pastured require
twenty to forty years to renew themselves completely. Trampling does even
more damage than grazing, so it is logical that the caribou should not follow
age-long migration routes like most other game species.
The bull caribou has a clumsy build according to our standards of beauty,
but in his fresh winter coat he is magnificent. His brown body is set off by the
white neck ruff which forms a "beard" on his upper chest. The white runs back
over his shoulder and rather indistinctly along the lower flank as far as his hip.
White bands circle the lower legs above the hoofs.
His antlers are quite different from those of any other deer. They are made
up of two great, heavy beams. Along their upper, forward-pointing ends, they
bear a number of points or tines which may be up to a foot long. Just above
the base of each beam is the flattened, vertical brow tine or "shovel" which
extends forward over his face.
Caribou antlers have a multitude of shapes and forms, and some are more
flattened than others. The largest ever known measured sixty-seven and five-
eighths inches along the beam and had a maximum horizontal spread of forty-
eight and one-half inches.
The female caribou is the only female of all the American deer that wears
antlers. They are smaller than the bull's, with fewer points, and the brow tine
is a mere round stub, or at best a small shovel. She grows them each year and
keeps them until the fawns are born. The bull discards his weapons earlier in
the season. The coat of the doe is paler than that of the bull, and her neck is also
demurely gray instead of the bull's startling white.
During spring the caribou is no longer handsome. He looks -like a tramp
with his old coat torn off in shreds and tatters. Ragged patches of faded hair
flutter in the breeze. Great streaks and blotches of black skin are laid bare.
Later he is clad in a neat, smooth suit of short hair that is dark brown or
grayish. This does not last long. It is gradually replaced, hair by hair in a much
more orderly process than in the spring, by the thick winter coat.
The caribou has big feet. They are specialized for his particular needs. In
mud, spongy tundra, and snow, the two halves of the hoof spread to support his
weight. It is said that the great rounded hoofs and pasterns, as much as four
inches wide by seven inches long, give him one square inch of foot support for
every two pounds of weight. The mighty moose has only one inch for every
eight pounds. The sharp outer edges of the concave hoofs enable the caribou to
travel sure-footedly over crusted snow, slush ice, or rocks that would be almost
impossible for other deer.
Where do the caribou live? All the way around the North Pole in the
56 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
northern parts of the Old and the New Worlds. We can roughly divide them
into the reindeer of Europe and Asia, and the caribou of North America, the
west coast of Greenland and the intervening islands of the Arctic Ocean.
Two types of caribou are recognized on this continent:
1. The barren-ground caribou which lives on the Arctic tundra from
Labrador to Unimak Island, Alaska.
2. The woodland caribou immediately to the south from Nova Scotia and
Newfoundland to British* Columbia.
Probably two million of the barren-ground caribou roam Alaska and the
Yukon. Except in western Alaska, the herds are still basically intact.
The woodland caribou have not fared as well. They are in some danger of
fading into oblivion. When they were exterminated from a great area of
western Quebec and eastern Ontario, the bands in Newfoundland, Labrador
and eastern Quebec were practically isolated from those of the West. The ani-
mals are still fairly numerous in western Alberta.
Today the only resident caribou in the United States are a small remnant
band of the woodland caribou in northern Minnesota. Bands occasionally
wander south from Canada into western Montana, Idaho and eastern Wash-
ington, but they seem to be only temporary visitors. Maine, northern New
Hampshire and Vermont, the Adirondacks, Isle Royale and the Upper Penin-
sula of Michigan, and northern Wisconsin and Minnesota were always on the
southern margin of their range.
The characteristics and life histories of the two caribou are generally similar,
with differences in details caused by long residence in contrasting habitats.
The woodland caribou lives in the evergreen forests which -alternate with
open bogs. Except in Newfoundland, it is darker in color, and is supposed to
have longer legs than its northern relative. Its antlers are generally more flat-
tened and shorter. It is rather solitary in summer and rarely bands together in
herds larger than a half-dozen until autumn brings the animals together. In
warm weather, it stays under cover during the day, coming out to feed in the
bogs and around lakes in the evening.
The barren-ground caribou is rarely solitary. Living where night does not
come in summer for many weeks, it can not afford to wait for darkness to do
its foraging.
During the Arctic winter, the older bulls begin to wander away from the
cows until by spring they are in separate bands. The mother caribou usually,
but not always, drive away their yearling calves who gravitate together in dis-
consolate "tenderfoot" clubs. All this is in preparation for the birth of the fawns
in late May or June.
THE DEER FAMILY 57
Among the woodland caribou, twins come fairly often. The barren-ground
animals usually have only one. The little fellows, unlike many young deer, are
not spotted. Their coats are a uniform buffy brown; their muzzles and lower
legs are black.
The birthplace is anywhere that the cows happen to be when their time
arrives. They often do not pick out a secluded spot in advance, for as soon as
their fawns are dry they are able to follow. The youngsters' legs are wobbly, but
they have surprising strength and speed. On the soft spongy tundra they
can outrun a pursuing man. A wolf, however, is another and more serious
menace.
Through the summer the mothers and their calves wander about. They talk
rather seldom- in piglike grunts, in "sign language," and by their actions. They
feed on the grassy lowlands and mountain slopes, stripping leaves from willows
that grow along the streams and over the flats, and from the dwarf birch. Grass
and sedge are mainstays, but they never pass by lichens even though these plants
were their main diet all winter. They also eat blueberry, mountain cranberry,
crowberry, Labrador tea, woodrush (Luzula), and horsetail. Fungi, which are
abundant in the far North duringjuly and August, are great delicacies.
All this fine fare makes the caribou fat, and by the end of summer they are
in top-notch condition. The bulls, particularly, have been getting ready for the
rutting season. They have acquired a great deal of fat, especially over their
rumps, where it may be as much as three inches thick.
By the end of September, their necks are much swollen, their cleaned anders
are being put to heavy use in sparring matches, and fighting becomes bitter.
The antlers of the big bulls are sharp and long, and can easily slash through
the hides of opponents. Bruises and cuts are inevitable. Sometimes they lock
anders and starve to death or are eaten by predators.
As promiscuous as the elk, the caribou bull rushes about day and night
guarding his cows and looking for new ones, but seldom keeps more than a
dozen or so at a time. Weaned calves and sometimes even yearlings are at-
tached to the successive harems. As long as a female provides any interest for her
master, she is kept in the harem, jealously watched, and guarded from any
rival. Eating little or nothing, a successful bull loses his reserve of fat and is
very thin by the beginning of winter. Fortunately his fur coat keeps him
warm during the icy blasts and temperatures as low as sixty degrees below
zero. ^
Even the muzzles of carioou are now covered with extra-thick hair. Prp-
truding through the thick layer of fine wool underwear are the many longer
guard hairs that form their outer coats. These guard hairs are formed like
58 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
delicate quills. Each one is hollow and is filled with air. Since dead air is an
efficient nonconductor of heat and cold, they give the caribou superinsulated
comfort. Very little of their body heat is lost.
These air-filled coats act like rubber boats when the caribou want to cross
a stream or lake. Floating high in the water and paddling vigorously with their
big hoofs, the animals make good time.
Like many other hoofed animals, the caribou have a strong curiosity. They
have been known to follow a pack train all day, usually at some distance but'
at intervals approaching within a few feet of the horses. Hunters have some-
times lured the animals into rifle range by waving a rag, or their feet, in the air.
I have never been able to get the same result. My caribou in Alaska have
merely stared and shifted about uneasily before finally trotting off. Their eye-
sight does not seem to be much if any better than that of other deer. They
depend largely on the sense of smell, which is acute.
The caribou appear to be stupid. Certainly they are not very difficult, to
shoot. Being highly gregarious and accustomed to traveling in large herds, they
frequently depend on "the other fellow" to detect danger. A number of times,
caribou have been found sleeping so soundty that men have walked up and
photographed them at close range.
When an unusual danger presents itself, the members of a caribou band
generally are uncertain how to cope with it. There is much uneasy shifting and
dashing about. The caribou may trot away together. Then various animals may
run this way and that. Or, like Lot's wife, stop and look back. With black
noses held so high that their faces are almost horizontal, they run with a high-
stepping trot. This looks clumsy, but is an efficient, ground-consuming gait. If
they are pressed further, the trot becomes labored. The big feet swing wildly
and awkwardly and the animals soon tire. If trapped, they become panic-
stricken and gallop madly about, becoming so exhausted that heart failure is a
common result.
In a normal lifetime, each doe produces about a half dozen fawns. If Nature
did not impose rigorous checks on this increase, the herds would double every
three years. Soon the northland would be full of caribou. They would eat up all
the food, which would be disastrous for the race.
Bothered by mosquitoes, individual caribou often stand on a hill with their
rears to the breeze and desperately swipe their faces with their forelegs. The
mosquitoes bite and drink the animjls' blood, making the weak still more
sjisceptible to other troubles. Warble flies lay their eggs on the hair. The larvae
hatch, bore into the flesh, and migrate into the back muscles where they
develop. Finally they work out through the skin and drop to the ground to
THE DEER FAMILY 59
pupate. A large buck may serve as an unwilling host to several hundred of
these big "grubs." Nose fly larvae live in the nasal passages, where they set up
irritation and absorb blood. Bladderworms settle in the liver, and tapeworms
and roundworms infest the lungs. It is unfortunate that Nature cannot devise
a pleasanter means of population control!
The wolverine and Canada lynx kill young caribou on occasion. Bears, both
blacks and grizzlies, hunt fawns systematically at calving time. They probably
get a good many meals for their efforts. Unwary or sick adults may be killed as
well, at any time of year. The most potent enemy is the wolf. This animal,
which sometimes weighs one hundred pounds or more and stands three feet
high at the shoulder, has great speed and endurance.
Nevertheless the two species caribou and wolf have lived together for
centuries. A normal caribou can run faster than his ancient enemy. Even the
fawn, after it is a couple of weeks old, can race as fleetly as its mother. The wolf
must test band after band, perhaps for hours, before spotting the crippled or
diseased caribou, or even an occasional healthy one that makes a square meal.
Man the game hog, the wasteful native, or the traveler with many dogs to
feed has reduced the herds of caribou more in the past three hundred years
than has the wolf during the historic period.
. The long winter is the lean season for the caribou. Then and through the
rest of the year the caribou eats whatever is available. It digs deep holes into
the snow if necessary to get at the lichens, grasses and mosses which constitute
the bulk of its food. The twigs of willow and dwarf birch also make good
browsing. South of the barren grounds, woodland caribou live on the same
plants, plus aspen and red osier as well as other shrubs.
Tradition says that the caribou digs away snow with its shovel the brow
tines of the antlers. But even the largest brow tines do not extend beyond the
buck's nose, and they are set so nearly parallel to the animal's face that they
would be awkward to use for that purpose. The antlers of does and yearling
bulls are considerably smaller, while calves have only spikes without any brow
tines at all. The truth is that all caribou dig through snow with their feet, just
as do other deer.
Despite their apparent clumsiness, their serious demeanor, and the harshness
of the climate and the region in which they live, the caribou like to play on
occasion. Fawns gambol with each other and their parents, just as do the young
deer of pleasanter climes.
In the old days, the Eskimos, Aleuts, Chipewyans, and other northern
Indians hunted caribou with bows and spears, lying in wait for them at river
and lake crossings and stalking them on the tundra. They also killed the animals
60 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
at simple fence traps, and in pits that were covered with brush and thin slabs
of hard snow. Another method was to set rawhide snares among willows at
river crossings. When they first acquired rifles, they slaughtered the animals to
the last one at every opportunity. Often many of the carcasses were wasted, only
the tongues being taken.
In our Alaskan country where reindeer have been introduced, caribou are
detested and killed at every opportunity because the wild bands are likely to
attract and toll away the reindeer. Sometimes thousands of reindeer are thus
"lost" from the domestic herds, especially when they are not systematically
watched. This results in hybridizing the native caribou with the smaller and
less rugged reindeer.
Reindeer are the domesticated Old World barren-ground caribou. They
were introduced into Alaska from Siberia. The one thousand two hundred and
eighty animals imported between 1891 and 1902, chiefly to the Seward Peninsula,
have increased to well over a million. They are now spread over western Alaska
from Point Barrow to the Alaska Peninsula and the south end of Kodiak Island.
A large herd was established in 1935 near the mouth of the Mackenzie River in
Yukon Territory for the benefit of the Canadian Eskimos.
The objectives of the project were to provide the Eskimos with a dependable
source of food and to establish an industry in western Alaska. The reindeer now
furnish a vast quantity of meat for humans, dogs and fur-farm foxes, as well as
hides and other products.
Where they have been in captivity for generations, reindeer are much more
tractable than the wild caribou. When tamed and herded like cattle, they learn
to depend upon man for food and protection. Even some of the cows seem to
take less responsibility for their offspring.
The uninvited caribou stand out conspicuously in a herd of reindeer. Their
larger ears and longer legs make them look much taller. They have more white
on their undersides, and the buck anders average larger than those of the
reindeer.
General description. A large, rather awkward-looking decrlike animal with thick
hairy muzzle, maned neck, broad flat hoofs that are concave underneath, and
rather long, loose hair. Both sexes have slightly flattened antlers. Color, brown
in summer, grayish brown in winter, with yellowish white on neck, belly, feet,
and rump, including tail. Total length, 60 to 90 inches; height at shoulder, 40 to
60 inches; weight variable with the species, 200 to 700 pounds; average about
275 pounds. Females are about 30 per cent smaller.
THE DEER FAMILY 6l
Distinguishing characteristics. The combination of blocky form, maned neck,
large hoofs, and slightly flattened antlers of both males and females.
Range. Most of Canada, and many of the islands of the Arctic Ocean, except
Nova Scotia, southern Quebec and Ontario westward to the mountains, and the
Pacific coastal belt; Alaska, except the extreme western portions adjacent to
Bering Sea. A small herd in northern Minnesota apparently comprise the only
resident caribou within the United States.
3. The Heliographer
ANTELOPE ANTILOCAPRA AMERICANA
The antelope can travel almost a mile a minute when necessary. Although
it cannot keep up this speed for long, it is probably the swiftest of all our
American mammals. When in good condition, it can run forty miles an hour
for several miles.
At the first appearance of danger anywhere on the horizon, the antelope
throws up its head and stares. The great black eyes dilate, the pointed ears, five
inches high and three inches broad, are thrown forward to scoop in the faintest
sound. For an instant the beautifully marked body is tense. At the same moment,
the twin white disks on the buttocks serve as heliographs. The alarm causes a
contraction of special muscles, and the multitude of white hairs at the rear rise
instantly. These flaring patches reflect an astonishing amount of light. Other
antelope may see these signals a couple of miles away. They immediately repeat
it, and the warning is then spread far and wide. Even fawns a few hours old
erect their rosettes, although theirs are dulled by a tinge of brown. The whole
plains landscape seems to be dotted with flying white rump patches.
Simultaneously, as the rump signal is flashed, a strong musky scent is released
from a set of twin glands located in the muscles that erect the glistening hairs.
It is so strong that some human noses can smell it several hundred yards away
down wind. Antelope probably detect the odor at a far greater distance, perhaps
a mile or even more.
As soon as the members of a band see and smell the warning signals, and
repeat them for the benefit of others, they dash to a rallying point. Then the
bands act as one unit, galloping, wheeling, and stopping to look back as if on
command.
Antelope make tremendous horizontal leaps at times. Rarely do they make
high vertical jumps. They can go through the strands of a wire fence, or under
the bottom wire, with astonishing ease and speed. I have seen running antelope
flash through a space no more than a foot high between the ground and lower
strand of a fence, with hardly a pause.
Coyotes and wolves by running in relays sometimes tire and pull down
antelope. One of the carnivores will chase an antelope for some distance, and then
62
ANTELOPE
64 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
turn it over to a waiting companion that is freshly rested, and takes up the
chase. When tired, it turns the flagging prey over to another member, and this
continues until one of the pack can overtake the victim.
The antelope does not depend entirely on flight for defense. It has stout
sharp hoofs and does not hesitate to use them. I once watched two coyotes chase
a large buck antelope. The trio came running, a coyote on each side and about
twenty feet away from the buck's hind quarters. I drove my car off the road
and up over the hill after them. From time to time, one of the coyotes would
make a move to close in or to head off the antelope. At each attempt, the ante-
lope jabbed furiously at the coyote with a front foot. Each time the coyote
recoiled hastily. Galloping, then stopping to strike off his tormentors, and gal-
loping again, the antelope disappeared over another ridge where I was unable
to follow because of an intervening fence.
Coyotes are believed by many hunters to be deadly enemies of the antelope.
In the above instance, however, the antelope seemed to be taking care of him-
self. I also know of a lone antelope buck with a broken hind leg that lived for
two years unmolested on a range where coyotes were numerous. On a number
of occasions I have watched bands of antelope as they tagged along after
coyotes, watching them hunt for smaller fry. The coyotes seemed to be annoyed
by this inquisitiveness, but did not do anything about it. I have found several
antelope carcasses in the dead of winter, untouched by coyotes. Undoubtedly, if
a coyote is hungry enough, fast enough, strong enough, and smart enough, he
will kill an antelope. But under most circumstances there are many other foods
easier for him to secure.
Disease is perhaps a greater factor in antelope existence than predators. Sev-
eral parasites are dangerous: ticks, lice and mites, externally; flat worms and
round worms, internally. The antelope seems to be subject to lung ailments,
such as pneumonia and ulcers. A very serious and frequently fatal malady is
actinomycosis or "lumpy-jaw." This disease may be transmitted to man, and
sometimes it is fatal. In confinement, the antelope is very delicate and rarely
lives longer than a year. Its extreme nervousness and tendency to bolt blindly
on the slightest unusual noise, sight, or smell also make it a difficult ward in the
zoological parks. Under natural conditions, it reaches maturity at five years and
may live for three to five, or even eight, years longer.
The antelope is smaller than our deer, but much more striking in appearance.
The beautiful tawny body has immaculate white underpinnings and buttocks.
Bkck horns, dark markings on the face, and bands around the throat are deco-
rative accents. The shining black eyes, with black eyelashes, are bigger than
those of the much larger horse.
THE HELIOGRAPHER 65
Prominent and set well to the sides of his face, the eyes can cover a wide
range without any movement of the head. Their "binocular" qualities arc amaz-
ing. All the antelope asks is a ridge or knoll as a lookout over open country.
Sometimes it lives in open pine forest, as in parts of the Southwest, but its
typical home is on the vast grassy plains and valleys where the shrubs grow
sparse and low. There the wolf or coyote, practically its only four-legged
enemies, can be seen while a long way off.
Most hoofed animals have four toes on each foot, but the antelope has only
two. It has lost all bony remnants of the lateral toes (dewclaws) of its ancestors.
September and October is mating time in the antelope world, possibly a little
earlier in the South. The buck is satisfied with a small harem. You will rarely
see him with more than three or four does, and often with only one. It takes a
very enterprising buck to control eight mates. Each doe leads him a long chase
before allowing him to catch her. Most does can run faster than the portly bucks,
if they wish!
The bucks that spent their summer alone, or in bachelor groups, gather on
the fawning range and try to lure away the mates of the older bucks that have
stayed with the does the year round. Fights are usually mild. A couple of males
will knock their heads together a few times until the weaker one flees precipi-
tately with the other after him. The "victor" keeps up the chase perhaps a half
mile and then returns to his apathetic mates.
Once in a while a fight between two equally matched and ardent males may
be vicious and terrible. In Yellowstone Park a buck was badly wounded by his
rival With blood streaming, he fled and disappeared over a knoll. The victor
followed and found him lying flat on the ground by a fallen tree. Ruthlessly he
dug his horns into the prostrate animal again, and, as the tormented creature
writhed in agony, the pronged horns twisted and tore out its vitals. Satisfied, the
vainglorious antelope bounded away.
After the rutting season, the antelope gather into larger bands. Since the
antelope population has been reduced so greatly, these present-day bands will
probably not number more than fifty or one hundred.
The interval between the mating and fawning seasons is slightly over eight
months. As winter approaches, the antelope's thin coat of fine hair is replaced
by a thick warm blanket made up of coarse, hollow hairs. This in turn is shed
during March and April, beginning at the muzzle and working back over the
body to the rump patches.
The American antelope or pronghorn is the only animal in the world that
annually sheds the horny coverings of the permanent horn cores.
Headgear that is solid, like that of the deer and elk, is called antlers. These
66 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
are discarded every year. The hollow forms, like those of domestic and wild
cattle and mountain sheep and goats, are called horns. They must last a lifetime,
for if they get broken the damage is permanent. The antelope, however, can
repair damage to the outer portions of the horns by growing new sheaths each
year.
Shortly after the end of the rut, both does and bucks begin the process of
acquiring new horn coverings. The old black horn sheaths loosen at the base
as the new sheaths grow and push underneath. Finally the old coverings are
shoved so far out of place that they fall off. Then it can be seen that the
permanent cores, three- or four-inch fingerlike spikes, are coated with a soft
thick membrane. Near the base this is densely covered by upstanding coarse hair.
The membrane and hair harden into horn, beginning at the tip of the core
and working down. At the same time, new horny material grows upward,
beyond the tip, putting out a backward spike or prong. The new sheaths are
complete about four months after they first began to push off the old ones.
The horns of the female antelope are hardly worth mentioning. They are
rarely longer than four or five inches and but very slightly forked. Sometimes
they arc so small that they arc invisible at a distance. The horns of both sexes
grow longer and heavier each year until the animal reaches maturity at the age
of five years. A set of buck's horns measuring more than twelve or thirteen
inches along the outer side of the curve is considered remarkable. The all-time
record for this measurement is that o an antelope killed in Arizona in 1899. The
length along the outer curve was twenty and five-sixteenths inches, while the
greatest spread between the horns was sixteen and three-sixteenths inches.
The spikes of the fawns start to grow when they are about ten months old.
By the following autumn, when the first shedding takes place, those of the
young bucks are two or three inches long.
Since the antelope's horn sheaths are not nearly as substantial as the solid
antlers of the elk, deer, or moose, they disappear relatively soon after shedding.
Even in a very arid climate such as the Arizona deserts, these relics rarely last
more than three years. When softened by rain or snow, they appeal to hungry
coyotes or badgers that make good meals out of them. Hard or soft, they arc
gnawed by porcupines, ground squirrels, mice, gophers and prairie dogs which
in this way renew their supply of calcium. Even the antelope have been seen
chewing their own horns after shedding them.
Fawning time follows the full greening of the plains, as early as the first of
May in Mexico and a full month or six weeks later in western Canada. The
little fawns are frequently two in number after the doe's first accouchement,
when she has only one. She may deliver them in a little "park" in a pine forest,
THE HELIOGRAPHER 67
or, more likely, she may choose the top of a knoll or ridge on the open plains,
perhaps only one hundred to two hundred yards away from the band. Most
likely, they are just dropped anywhere.
The little fawns appear to be all ears, eyes, and legs, and measure about
sixteen or seventeen inches high at the shoulder. Paler and grayer than their
mother, their color pattern is very faint. The forehead of the little female shows
no indication of future horns, although small whorls of hair mark the spots on
the male. Another mark that distinguishes the male, at birth, is a black streak
on the lower edge of each of his lower jaws. This lasts throughout life. It starts
at the angle of the jaw and runs about halfway to the muzzle.
Little antelope develop much faster than deer fawns. When only a day or
two old, they can run at the rate of twenty-five miles an hour for a short time.
Hiding is the preferred method of avoiding trouble, however. During the first
week of their lives, they spend most of the time flattened out on the ground
with their ears folded back. How do these delicate creatures stand the extremes
of blazing midday heat and the cold nights of the high plateaus?
The mother takes the precaution of stationing her twins separately, seventy-
five to one hundred yards apart. She stays at a distance except when it is time
to feed them. Then, after looking around to be sure that no possible enemy is
watching, she saunters apparently aimlessly to the first little dun-colored bump
on the plain. The fawn gets up eagerly and nurses for a few minutes. It may
then drop down again, or walk with its mother to the brother or sister which
nurses in turn. As the youngsters grow stronger, they travel more and more
with their mother. When they are a few days old, she takes them to her band
consisting of other mothers and their kids, perhaps six to twelve yearlings, and
a buck.
The golden eagle is supposed to kill young fawns at times. The wolf, coyote,
even bear and fox, search for them diligently. When a mother sees one of these
predators in the vicinity, she does not get excited, but cannily pretends complete
indifference and lack of concern. She is smart enough to stay away from her
fawns, even if they must go hungry for a little while. She knows that her young-
sters have almost no scent and the odds are against the predators finding them.
When an enemy approaches, the little fawns instinctively "freeze," but if the
predator comes too close, they are off like a shot and the marauder is lucky if
he catches them. Usually, if the predator gets dangerously near his quarry, the
mother takes action. When the hunter is a coyote or fox, she dashes in and
puts an end to the hunt. Even a coyote, if alone, rarely puts up much of a fight
against an aroused mother antelope. He can't afford to risk serious crippling
from her sharp front hoofs.
68 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
When the hunter is of greater strength, she turns to strategy, trying to lure
him away by getting near enough to be tempting prey herself. An exceptionally
artful doe is said to feign injury. Of course, some mothers are more devoted and
smarter than others.
Fawns are very playful when out of danger, and their antics often have the
appearance of games of tag. Even grown-ups like impromptu sprinting con-
tests. A notable characteristic of the antelope is the overpowering impulse to
outrace and cross in front of any swiftly moving object.
Numerous times my attention has first been drawn to an antelope by having
it gallop in from a distance to speed alongside my automobile or horse. After
traveling parallel for a little way, the antelope would unleash a burst of speed
and cross the road just ahead of rne. Then it would slow down as if completely
satisfied with its demonstration of superiority.
The antelope swims when necessary, but not for the fun of it. It has been
suggested that the antelope does not have to seek water for relief from flies,
since the secretion of musk is so odorous that it drives them away. My experi-
ence has been that the flies are not so particular.
The antelope has many scent glands on the rump patches, on the jaw, at
the base of each horn, on the lower back, and on each hind leg near the hock.
All these secretions may serve as messages to other animals. Small glands
between the claws of each hoof also leave an identifying trail that may be read
by antelope that pass.
Occasionally one will see an antelope feeding or resting alone or sometimes
there will be a pair. Generally these animals are bucks, perhaps grumpy
bachelors bored by feminine company. Most antelope, however, are sociable.
Sentinels seem to be posted to keep watch while the band grazes or rests. Prob-
ably they are only individuals that are especially cautious. As a rule everyone
takes a look around occasionally. The fawns seem to be as suspicious as their
elders.
During summer and winter, the antelope depends on browse. In the north,
the staple shrub food is sagebrush. Atriplex, rabbitbrush, greasewood, and Rus-
sian thistle are also important. At all times the antelope is a dainty eater. It feeds
thriftily, and does not trample down and discard undesired plants as do some
other big game species. Like all hoofed animals it relishes the salt licks.
Tender grasses are a major item of the antelope's summer food, although
they are also taken in winter if green. The antelope prefer such varieties as
grama and buffalo grasses. Nosing down into the heads of bunch grasses, they
seek out the green sprouts. Fond of alfalfa, they sometimes do considerable
damage to irrigated fields of this plant and of grains such as oats. Their ability
THE HELIOGRAPHER 69
to squeeze through fences makes it difficult to keep them out o cultivated
fields.
In spite of their ability to run fast and far, antelopes are not erratic wanderers.
If food is plentiful, they will normally stay within a circle no more than three
or four miles across. Sometimes they get along for months on much less than
that area. However, they make seasonal migrations. Those that live in the
mountains in summer move down to the valleys in autumn to escape the deep
snow. That is a "must" for antelope. Unlike many other animals, they seldom
paw for their food. Wind-swept slopes provide feeding space in the north.
In early days, antelope on the northern Great Plains congregated in enor-
mous loosely organized herds in the fall. A general movement took the animals
to favorable wintering areas, away from the flat prairie. These were not neces-
sarily in the south; the southern lee of the Black Hills of South Dakota, for
example, is much milder than the country to the east and west of that range,
and was a favored cold-weather region. Most animals moved but a few miles to
find shelter from the cold winds in coulees or draws and low hills.
Early travelers and naturalists estimated that the antelope multitudes were
nearly as numerous as the buffalo, or perhaps even greater at times. Seton calcu-
lated one hundred million, and there must have been at least thirty to forty
million and perhaps many more. For centuries the species furnished meat, hides,
and tableware for the plains Indians. Then the whites came, and for a few
decades antelope steaks were the most common palatable meat on the bill-of-
fare along the covered wagon routes from the Mississippi to California and
Oregon. By 1908, the millions of antelope had melted to about nineteen thousand
animals north of Mexico.
Fencing, plowing and livestock grazing cut up the antelopes' habitat and
depleted their supply of food. Thousands of the animals were surrounded by
companies of mounted men and driven together where they could be
slaughtered. Driving antelope was a favorite method of the Indians, particularly
after they acquired horses. Many other antelope were shot down from ambush,
at river crossings and passes through the hills.
Frequently individual hunters took advantage of a fatal weakness in their
prey. The antelope has an overwhelming curiosity about any strange object.
Hunters disguised themselves in outlandish garbs. They crept on all fours,
covered themselves with skins of buffalo or antelope or even bed sheets, waved
flags, or lay on their backs and kicked their feet in the air to lure the animal
within rifle range.
I have tried this latter method, after making sure that no one was around
to report me to the insane asylum, but the antelope kept right on going. If I
JO MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
had continued these antics long enough for them to overcome their fear, they
might have returned. However, the modern antelope is apt to be too sophisti-
cated to be fooled by man and his tricks.
Conservation practices were applied in time to save the antelope race from
extinction. Rigid protection of the surviving bands has resulted in an estimated
population in the United States of a quarter of a million animals (1945). With
a limited area and food supply, some ranges in New Mexico, Colorado, Wyo-
ming, the western Dakotas and Montana have become fully stocked. An annual
hunting kill of approximately ten thousand antelope is now safe. Methods of
capturing and transplanting surplus antelope to new ranges have been worked
out. It appears that this graceful animal with the colorful past may become a
common sight again in many parts of the West.
This is the only native American of all our hoofed animals. It has no dose
relative, nor has it ever had any, on the other continents. Although called the
American antelope, it is not even a second cousin of the African or Asiatic
antelope. Scientists have traced the pronghorn's ancestry back to a practically
identical American forebear in the early Pleistocene, between one and two
million years ago. The other American hoofed animals of that time the great
giraffe-camels, the hornless deer, and the antlered deer-antelopeshave become
extinct long since. Our modern deer, moose and elk are all immigrants 1
General description. A medium-sized, graceful hoofed mammal with rather
chunky body, slightly curved single-fork horns, long pointed ears, slender legs
and short pointed tail. Color varies with the habitat from light tan to rich
reddish brown; whitish to yellowish white under parts, rump, side of head,
and two broad bars on the underside of neck; dark brown to black on muzzle
and below ear. Total length, 4 to 4% feet; height at shoulder, 32 to 40 inches;
weight, 100 to 125 pounds. Females are about 10 per cent smaller than males,
with horns much smaller, or vestigial.
Distinguishing characteristics. The contrasting pattern of brown or tan, black
and white. Rounded white rump. Both sexes have single-forked horns without
distinct slender tines, situated directly above the eyes. Small, slender form as
contrasted with most deer.
Range. Western plains areas from southern Saskatchewan and Alberta to Baja
California and southern Coahuila; central Nebraska and western Texas to
central Oregon, western Nevada, and the Sacramento Valley of California.
4. Original American Livestock
BUFFALO BISON BISON
A mountain of a beast, the buffalo seems to be perpetually brooding. The
mighty head with its solemn short beard is low. The humped shoulders appear
bowed with the sorrows and wrongs of a continent. It personifies in its vast,
sombre hulk, and dull, inattentive eyes all the wildlife that was wastcfully
slaughtered in the Era of Exploitation.
Fact lies behind this fancy. The buffalo has had a tragic history. It has come
perilously close to passing into the shadowy land of extinct species.
According to De Solis' account, the first white man to see one of these great
mammals was Cortez. It was 1521 in Mexico City. Montezuma was nervously
showing his dangerous pale-faced guests through his zoological park. There in
a paddock was a great bull, which Montezuma said had been brought from
many leagues to the north. Cortez recognized it as a kind of cattle or wild ox,
and he ordered his official historian-artist to make a drawing and description to
impress the King of Spain.
Later American explorers found buffalo in widely separated parts of the vast
continent. Western Pennsylvania, westward to southern Idaho, the Pecos River
in New Mexico, and possibly across northern Nevada to the eastern side of the
Sierra Nevada and the Blue Mountains of Oregon. North, around Lake Atha-
baska and Great Slave Lake in northwest Canada. Southeast, near the head-
waters of the Potomac, and in central Georgia and northern Florida.
In some regions there were vast numbers. Blue Licks, in Kentucky, attracted
thousands. Daniel Boone and others of his generation said that the trails lead-
ing from all points of the compass to the Licks were cut deep in the earth "like
the streets of a great city."
It was on the vast central prairies and the high plains to the westward, how-
ever, that the buffaloes found their best habitat and reached the peak of their
abundance. Uncounted millions! Beginning with Coronado in 1542, three cen-
turies of explorers marveled and exhausted their stock of adjectives in trying to
describe the spectacle.
The plains were not covered everywhere with buffalo. The herds were ever
shifting as they wandered for fresh grazing. Unlike cattle, the buffalo did not
7*
MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
BISON
Jhc vast herds came and wenfArr 700610 ^ 111 ^ or two
and their numbcrs ,*$*****. *T blackened the
pai ng ^ -. ^ -aked on
ORIGINAL AMERICAN LIVESTOCK 73
dance in various regions, and areas of scarcity. The result: sixty million buffaloes.
It seems certain that civilized man has never seen a greater aggregation of
animals anywhere on the earth. Not even the teeming myriads of antelopes,
zebras, wildebeests and other grazing animals of southern Africa approached
the multitudes of bison and antelope of colonial America.
But civilization steadily rolled westward like a tidal wave. The buffalo was
in the way, and despite its huge bulk and vast numbers, it was overwhelmed.
By 1820 not a bison was left east of the Mississippi River. Through the fifties
and sixties the slaughter went on. With the Civil War out of the way, the nation
turned to the West. Like slender steel tentacles, the transcontinental railroads
stretched toward the Rockies and out through the buffalo range. They brought
men to slaughter buffalo and antelope and catde to devour grass as no grass-
hoppers or crickets had ever done.
Buffalo Bill Cody contracted to supply the Kansas Pacific construction crews
with an average of twelve buffaloes daily. In eighteen months Cody killed four
thousand two hundred and eighty animals and earned the nickname which
became world famous. Railroads advertised special excursions, "with refresh-
ments," and practically guaranteed a kill from the car windows. General Phil
Sheridan got up a hunt for the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia. By 1889 Hornaday
was able to account for only five hundred and forty-one buffaloes remaining
alive in the United States.
The greater number of these millions of slaughtered buffaloes were wasted.
Many were killed merely for their hides, or for their tongues alone. Thousands
were shot for sport and never touched. Buffaloes in the northern plains region
were killed for the express purpose of destroying the principal food supply of
the Sioux, the Crows, and other tribes, in order to starve them off the warpath.
Soon the grasslands were empty. The hordes of big game had vanished, and
only their bones lay bleaching in the sunshine.
For a number of years, a few bison bands persisted in a wild state, existing
precariously in inaccessible canyons or mountainous regions. Head-hunters slowly
decimated these to sell their scalps to taxidermists, and the hides to tanners to
make sleigh robes. Only one primitively wild band survived in the United
States, about twenty-two animals in Yellowstone Park. In Canada the plains
buffaloes were reduced to a handful; and the wood bison by 1900 were down
to about two hundred and fifty animals.
The rest of the surviving buffaloes of the plains were in captivity in the
United States, in zoos and on ranches of old-time cattlemen. The future of these
animals was no more secure than the lives and fortunes of a small group of
mortal men. Conservationists were aroused to action. Under the auspices of the
74 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
federal government, a buffalo restoration project was started in 1902 in Yellow-
stone Park. This and a number of other preserves and refuges were successful,
and a similar program was put into effect in Canada.
The buffalo was saved. Today, about five thousand buffaloes are found in
the United States., Some were introduced into central Alaska, and that herd
now numbers more than two hundred (the first that have lived there since the
Pleistocene Age). Canada has at least fifteen thousand buffaloes. It seems that
as a species the buffalo is now as safe as human forethought and limited range
can assure.
Only one important step remains.
A big national monument should be established in the Great Plains area
where a moderate sized herd could live under primitive conditions, together
with other plains species. This would ensure the perpetuation of the animal as
a wild species, free from danger of domestication.
The buffalo is the most gregarious of all the wild cattle. Cows and bulls
graze together throughout the year. The bands vary in size from small groups
of six or eight animals to herds of a hundred or more. The basic unit of buffalo
society seems to be the family, consisting of the mother, several generations of
her calves, and a more or less interested bull. The latter may be a roving, care-
free fellow. In any case the clan revolves about the old cow. Any number of
these family groups may join forces, and divide again as grazing, fancy, or num-
berless other factors decide. During cold weather, buffaloes seem more gregarious
than in summer and have a tendency to form larger herds. Even then,
groups of one or more clans may leave temporarily to follow their own
course.
The only exception to this custom of bison sociability is the older bull Young
males stay in the band, apparently loosely tied to their mothers* apron strings.
As they approach maturity they tend more and more to break away. Some
naturalists blame much of this on jealousy. Undoubtedly the ambitious upstarts
try to steal an older bull's cows and are thrashed and thrown out in the cold.
I believe, however, that many bulls leave of their own accord. Perhaps, like other
males, they get tired of communal life and want a change.
Frequently two, three, or even more mature bachelor bulls will form a litdc
club. Wandering about together, they seem to get just enough companionship
without manifesting any visible camaraderie. Other buffaloes are solitary her-
mits, and have nothing to do with their kind. On several occasions I have stepped
behind trees to let one of these majestic old fellows walk by, less than fifty feet
away. They ignored my presence or were unaware of it.
Normally the buffalo is a timid animal, but it is unpredictable. On one
ORIGINAL AMERICAN LIVESTOCK 75
occasion a band of bison may stand and stare for some time, allowing a person
to approach in plain view within a hundred yards. The next time, the same herd
may stampede while the approaching person is still a half mile off. Cows are
much more "scary" and alert than bulls. The signal to run is almost always
given by a female, whereupon all the animals gallop off as a unit, snorting and
hoisting their skimpy tails in the air.
Rarely the buffalo is bold and aggressive, but then it can be as dangerous as
a rhinoceros. Weighing up to a ton or more, it lowers the heavy sharp horns
and plunges after an enemy. For a short distance it moves as fast as the swiftest
cow pony, and is almost as agile. Unlike a domestic bull, the wild bison does not
shut its eyes when charging. More than one unfortunate man has been killed
by taking chances with captive buffaloes.
I have hiked many miles on buffalo ranges, but I have always planned my
course sufficiently close to stout trees, on the assumption that I might need them.
Another "must" to remember: buffaloes seem to bear a grudge against horses
and will sometimes go out of their way to attack and try to gore them. A crusty
bachelor bull, or a cow with calf should always be assumed to be dangerous.
The bull that accompanies the herd is almost as willing to defend a calf
against attack as is the mother. Most of the young are born in May, but numbers
of them may arrive in late April or in June. They have no nursery area. When
the mother feels that her time has come, she merely moves a short way from
her companions. Like the domestic cow, she has taken nine to nine and one-half
months to produce her calf.
A single calf is the rule; twins are exceedingly rare. It looks much like a
domestic calf but is shorter, less gangling, and has a much shorter neck. There
is only the faintest suggestion of the humped shoulders of the parents. The color
is completely different, a bright yellowish red which becomes paler on the belly
and legs. Only a blackish smudge on the muzzle and lower face prevents the
bison calf from being really handsome. This gives it a dull, blunt-headed appear-
ance, but actually it is a gay, lively little animal In two or three days it is strong
enough to join and follow the band, which has fed around in the general vicinity.
It sometimes takes the whole herd to chase away a lurking wolf effectively. The
young calf plays with others its own age, bouncing stiff-legged, dodging through
games of tag or follow-the-leader. They like to butt and shove head-to-head to
show how 'strong they are.
Every little while the calf s stomach overpowers its love of fun and it runs
to the mother for a quick lunch of milk. Buffalo nursing is always an enthu-
siastic, vigorous matter. I have seen good-sized calves bunt their mothers so
heartily as to lift the hind quarters off the ground. If the grazing is good, the
76 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
mother's milk supply may last practically through the year, and weaning is some-
times deferred until a new calf is due.
Albino buffaloes occur, but very rarely. They were eagerly sought by the
Indians, for a prayer uttered over one of these skins was practically assured of
a favorable answer. A Mandan would offer the equivalent of ten to fifteen horses
for a white buffalo hide, and consider himself lucky to close the deal. In recent
years, two or three albino buffaloes have been raised on the National Bison
Range in western Montana. Although mother buffaloes are usually devoted, a
mother in Yellowstone Park abandoned her albino calf the day after it was born,
and it was too blind to follow her.
There are said to be only three albinos among the five thousand buffaloes in
the United States today. A true albino, blind from birth, is in the National
Zoological Park; another was reported seen in an Alaskan herd, and the third
is on the National Bison Range of Montana. This latter animal is a magnificent
bull, all white except for a shaggy black crown on his head. Instead of being
handicapped, as are most albinos, he is the leader of the herd. What he says,
goes. When he moves, the other bulls, the cows, and the calves follow after.
The calf changes greatly. The horns of the male appear in a couple of months
as twin bumps on the forehead, but those of the female are a little slower. The
shoulder hump begins to be quite definite at about the same time. During the
autumn the reddish coat is gradually shed and replaced by a rich brownish one.
Through the following years more changes occur. The straight spike horns
gradually curve inward and become heavier, and the shoulder hump, especially
of the bull, grows enormously.
Although the buffalo is not a fully mature animal until it is about eight
years old, it begins to look for a mate at the age of three. Cows may breed for
many years. When the buffalo herd in Wainwright Park, Alberta, was slaugh-
tered in 1940, it was found that a number of the original cows were accompanied
by calves. The mothers had been earmarked forty years before, yet they still
were productive.
While the weight of an average full-grown bull is around eighteen hundred
pounds, exceptional animals may be considerably larger. Several wild buffaloes
have been weighed after being killed that tipped the scales at over a ton. Accord-
ing to Garretson, an authority on the plains buffalo, a monster shot in western
Kansas weighed three thousand pounds gross. The largest bison ever killed for
scientific purposes, and accurately weighed on the spot, was a wood bison on
Peace River that totaled two thousand four hundred and two pounds. The
average wood bison is supposed to run a little larger than the plains buffalo.
The record head is that of a bull from the Yellowstone Park herd; the skull
ORIGINAL AMERICAN LIVESTOCK 77
is now in the Park museum. The greatest spread between the horns is thirty-five
and three-eighths inches; the longer horn measures twenty-two and three-eighths
inches along the outer curve, and is fourteen and seven-eighths inches in circum-
ference at the base.
The females are somewhat smaller and less bearded. Their horns are more
curved and slender, and their humps and shoulders are less massive.
I have mentioned the concern for the calves shown by the entire herd as well
as the mothers. Early travelers on the plains noticed that the mothers and calves
are practically always in the interior of the group, while the bulls are ranged
around them. While this gallant maneuver may have a defensive value, the bulls
probably do not plan it. Rather, the cows and calves are more gregarious and
bunch together, while the bulls tend to spread out more widely to get a better
selection of grass. The older bulls are notoriously careless lookouts. Hunters in
early days found it comparatively easy to crawl past them, in brush or a little
arroyo, to get to the interior of the herd and come within range of the younger
and better meat animals.
The buffalos' sight is not very keen, which makes them appear stupid at
times. Since their hearing and sense of smell are good, they seem to depend
particularly on the wind to bring indications of danger.
I have known bison to feed and move about on dark nights, especially in
summer, but this is probably out of the ordinary. Their usual routine is more
like our own than most animals. An hour or two after sunset finds the herd
lying down, each calf beside its mother, with the majority of the bulls toward
the outer edge. A bedground may be used for several nights or be abandoned
forever after one sleep.
They may feed in a restricted area for days or as much as a week. Then the
wanderlust may seize them, and the herd will move five or ten miles in as many
hours, stopping only for a mouthful here and there before settling down once
more. They are much more sedentary in winter. A siesta is usually taken for
four or five hours in the middle of the day, especially in warm weather.
Normally the buffalo moves at a plodding, dogged walk which seems slow
but actually covers ground at the rate of four or five miles an hour. Next fastest
is a swinging trot, which on slight urging becomes a stiff-legged, lumbering
canter or a fast, rolling gallop.
The buffalo's clothing is oddly distributed. In summer, especially, it is prac-
tically all bunched up on the head, neck and forequarters. After the animal has
torn and rolled off the faded, yellowish brown winter coat that hangs in tatters
and matted patches for weeks, the hindquarters and much of the middle are
barely covered with short hair.
78 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
Mosquitoes and flies of many kinds find this near-bareness a happy hunting
ground. The desperate buffalo's short tail is a most inadequate defense, and the
more easily frightened insects merely move forward and burrow into the deep
wool on the neck and hump. Sharp-awned seeds of squirreltail and foxtail grass
attach themselves to this fur and work down to the hide. The sun beats down
and adds heat to the buffalo's misery.
To get some relief the buffalo lies on the ground, going down front knees
first. Here it squirms and rolls furiously, going completely over in spite of its
hump. Kicking and thrashing, it wears off the grass and sod and works the fine
dust into its coat and burning skin. Lying on its side, it kicks bushels of dirt
onto the upper surface by means of the front feet, and drives off the flies
temporarily.
After a few dust baths, the wallow is a saucerlike depression from eight to
fifteen feet across and as much as sixteen or eighteen inches deep toward the
center. In places, wallows may be so numerous that they overlap, and some are
used for generations. Rain may fill the depressions, whereupon the rolling buf-
falo delightedly plasters itself with mud. It may also wallow in the mud along
a stream or at a marsh for the same purpose of fly control or to soothe an itching
skin. Rubbing against trees or rocks also affords relief. Around wallows, par-
ticularly, the trees are likely to lose their bark and lower branches by the rough
treatment. Saplings may be beaten to death by the thrashing of buffalo heads
and horns.
Magpies, blackbirds and cowbirds come to the rescue at times. Usually not
more than one or two, but occasionally as many as a dozen at a time may perch
on a buffalo's back and eat up the flies and other insects. At other times they
hop along a few inches from the great cloven hoofs, watching for the insects
that are stirred up.
Grass and sometimes a few herbs make up the buffalo's normal year-round
diet. Occasionally this is varied by a few leaves or twigs of low shrubs such
as willow.
While the buffalo can stand thirst better than domestic cattle, it must drink
eventually, especially in hot weather. In early days the approaches to streams
that were lined with high bluffs excited the wonder of explorers. Some of these
"roadways" were cut many feet deep in the clay by uncounted generations of
trampling hoofs. In some instances, these gave wagon trains the only opportunity
to cross deep arroyos and saved many miles of detouring. Some of the trails on
high, steep bluffs were extraordinarily steep and necessitated leaps of six or eight
feet down. Despite its enormous bulk and clumsy appearance, the buffalo is
surprisingly agile and sure-footed
ORIGINAL AMERICAN LIVESTOCK 79
It is a ready swimmer, sufficiently buoyant so that head and the upper ten
or twelve inches of hump stay above water. Before the "Great Slaughter," many
buffaloes were drowned at times when trying to cross swift rivers in flood. There
are also records of many hundreds crashing through weak ice and drowning.
In January or February, 1945, thirty-eight buffaloes tried to cross the Yellow-
stone River about five miles below Yellowstone Lake. Crashing through the thin
ice, they were unable to climb the steep wall of ice on either bank, and all
perished.
Boggy ground is sometimes a deathtrap. Rangers in Yellowstone Park have
found buffaloes hopelessly mired, especially in early spring. If the animals were
still alive, the men usually tried to drag them out with ropes and the help of a
saddle horse or truck. All too frequently the enraged and exhausted buffalo has
misunderstood the rescuers' intentions and, after release, tried to kill them.
In one instance a misguided but loyal buffalo prevented the rangers from
pulling its comrade out of a bog. Not until the drowning animal died, did the
stubborn champion depart.
Numerous times, buffaloes have chased rangers and hikers up into the tree-
tops and kept them there for hours at a time.
July and August are the months of the mating craze. Gradually the placid
tenor of life changes, and both cows and bulls become more and more restless.
Whatever camaraderie exists between the herd bulls is replaced by suspicion,
and later by active hostility. As each male reaches the breeding stage, he chal-
lenges the authority of a herd leader, or tries to break into a family group. Most
of these attempts are brief and are discouraged with no more than a glowering
threat from the reigning monarch.
I once witnessed a battle royal between two evenly matched bulls at Wind
Cave National Park. The whole surrounding region seemed to be shaken by
their deep-pitched, rumbling bellows. Standing about twenty feet apart, the
mammoth animals kicked dirt high in the air with quick backward strokes of
the front hoofs. Suddenly they lunged together, meeting head-on. Their com-
bined two tons of weight came together like a couple of piledrivers. Their
foreheads, rather than their horns, took the impact. Despite the thick mat of
hair, the sound was as if two vast bare skulls had crashed. Again and again the
infuriated beasts backed away, then came together again like colliding locomo-
tives. In the dust that covered the battlefield, the rest of the herd stood around
and watched, apparendy indifferently. After it seemed as if the skulls of both
gladiators must be shattered, one bull turned groggily and staggered off. The
victor took a few slow steps in pursuit, then stopped and stared glassily into
space, too stunned to enjoy his triumph.
80 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
Apparently very few of these combats result in injuries or fatal goring by
the sharp horns. Many of the vanquished bulls are not actually driven from the
herd, but they mind their manners and avoid giving the boss any reason for
additional punishment.
A stampeding herd of buffalo is almost an irresistible force. When thoroughly
frightened, the animals may run for miles in a blind, unheeding, compact mass.
It seems that no obstacle, alive or inanimate, will stop them. The thunder of
hoofs shakes the ground, and the rush of galloping bodies sounds like Niagara.
Calves, each one beside or almost underneath its mother, appear from time to
time as rusty flashes among the enormous black adults. It is miraculous that the
youngsters are not trampled into pulp, but casualties are rare.
The western Indians took advantage of this tendency of the bison to dash
blindly. Purposely they startled herds and then directed the fleeing animals into
prepared enclosures where they were easily slaughtered. In some places, bluffs
or cliffs were used so that the buffaloes cascaded over the edge before perceiving
their danger.
Such a natural trap was the famous Buffalo Jump-Off in the Yellowstone
River valley about twenty-five miles north of Gardiner, Montana. Excavations
at the foot of the sandstone cliff have revealed a great mass of buffalo bones,
hair, bits of dried skin, other remains, and many spear and arrow heads of the
hunters. This layer, which is a\ number of feet thick, extends from the foot of
the cliff down the talus slope to the plain below.
Exceptionally fierce, swiftly running prairie fires probably destroyed whole
herds. Such catastrophes may have been rare, occurring only at times of high
winds when the grass was tinder dry.
A cow buffalo at Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota, was once found
to have numerous porcupine quills in her face and neck. It would have been
interesting to watch the encounter of the quill pig and the great bison, and the
latter's discomfiture!
Although the buffalo was of great importance in the economy of the abo-
riginal Plains Indians as food, shelter, clothing and utensils, little impression
was made on the size of the immense herds. Other predators wolves, cougars,
coyotes, and grizzly and black bears probably often acted as scavengers or
killed cripples and senile animals and young. Under exceptionally favorable
circumstances these four-footed flesh eaters caught and killed healthy adults, but
extreme hunger must have been required to spur even the most powerful of
them to tackle a grown cow or bull in fighting trim.
Under absolutely normal conditions, as in Wood Buffalo Park, aged buffaloes
have been found dead of natural causes, not killed by the numerous predators
ORIGINAL AMERICAN LIVESTOCK 8l
that occur there. These buffalo patriarchs, that seem to be almost too tough for
the wolves, may be over forty years old. Their coats are hoary with age, and they
are almost toothless and blind.
The buffalo is well prepared by its heavy frontlet to face the winter storms
and weather them out. Its great head sweeps away the snow in a semicircle, and
uncovers cured grasses three feet or more below. It rarely paws the snow with
its feet. As it works, it breathes out great geysers of frost from its nostrils. In
spite of its endurance, winter weather, a combination of icy crusts and intense,
prolonged cold, or food depletion may have been the greatest factor in keeping
the bison herds within bounds before the white man came.
Two living races of buffalo are recognized:
1. The plains buffalo (Bison bison bison) which originally ranged over much
of the United States (except the arid Southwest and Pacific coastal region),
northeastern Mexico, and the Canadian extension of the Great Plains as far
north as central Alberta.
2. The wood buffalo (Bison bison athabascae), which some authorities say
is larger and darker in color, while others claim that the two cannot be distin-
guished. It was once found over a considerable area around Great Slave Lake
and Peace River in Northwest Territories and northern Alberta. The surviving
herd, in Wood Buffalo Park, has been mixed by the addition between 1925 and
1929 of six thousand six hundred and seventy-three plains buffaloes from Wain-
wright Park. The wood bison as a pure race already may have vanished through
hybridization.
General description. A very large species of wild cattle with heavy head, short,
curved black horns, short neck, high, humped shoulders, and short tail ending
in a tuft of hair. Fur on head, neck and shoulders brownish black, long and
rather wooly (as much as 14 to 16 inches long on top of head and forming a
beard on the chin). Fur on body and hindquarters short and close, grading into
brown to light brown. Total length, 10 to 12 J4 feet; height at shoulder, 5^2 to
6 feet; weight, 1600 to 2000 pounds, to an extreme of possibly 3000 pounds. Cows
are considerably smaller: length, about 7 feet; height at shoulder, 5 feet; weight,
about 700 to 900 pounds.
Distinguishing characteristics. Easily told from other mammals with deft hoofs
by large size, dark uniform color, humped shoulders and simple short horns
like those of the domestic cow.
82 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
Range. In the wild state, in Wood Buffalo Park south of Great Slave Lake, and
in Yellowstone Park in northwestern Wyoming; maintained in numerous
fenced refuges, parks, and other preserves throughout the United States and
southern Canada.
MUSKOX
OVIBOS MOSCHATUS
The muskox is one of the hardiest hoofed animals in the world. It is built
and upholstered for glacial climates. The bleakest, most barren tundras of the
North American hemisphere, north of timber line, are its home. Here the
surface of the thin, rocky soil barely thaws in summer, and temperatures of
fifty below are common through the long winter. This animal never migrates.
The muskox looks somewhat like a buffalo, but is not as large, weighing
only five hundred to nine hundred pounds. It has the longest hair of any animal
in America. The hair varies in length from about six inches on the back to two
feet or even three feet in exceptional cases on the neck, chest and hind quar-
ters. Hanging like a mane from its belly and sides, this "skirt" of its coat is
usually ankle length, but may brush the ground. It is dark brown to black, and
the "saddle" and socks are paler to whitish. The hair is perfectly straight, except
on the shoulders where it is curly.
The massive horns curve down, out and then up. Sharp, vicious weapons,
they get bigger and better every year. An exceptionally fine set of horns may
have a spread of twenty-eight to twenty-nine inches.
When the muskox tears off the old underwear each spring, it probably looks
more ragged and moth-eaten than any other animal in the world. Long streamers
and great patches of the dense soft wool work out through the long hairs of its
overcoat. Some of it lies in loose mats on top. Other pieces flutter in the air. New
underwear grows in simultaneously so that it is not embarrassed by flies nor
does it catch cold. The tundra is littered with these cast-offs, and rocks and
shrubs are festooned with them.
The muskox looks placid and kindly when its world is going smoothly. But
when it is disturbed, look out! It snorts, the eyes become bloodshot, and it lowers
its great head and charges with a swift dash.
No other animal has a defense method like that of the muskox. Instead of
trying to run away, the whole herd backs into a rough circle, with their heads
turned outward. The calves are pushed into the center, or they cower under their
mothers' curtained bellies. Occasionally a precocious calf will stand with its head
ORIGINAL AMERICAN LIVESTOCK
MUSKOX
out toward the enemy also. The packed mass of horned hcaUs threaten the
invader from every angle. The bulls rub their massive heads against their fore-
legs. Apparently this distributes the musk from a small gland just below each
eye. The odor may be noticeable more than a hundred yards away.
From time to time, one or more bulls will dash out of the circle to attack
the enemy. The muskox is exceedingly nimble and a single sweep of the pointed
horns can cripple or kill. Woe to the wolf or dog or Eskimo that trips and
stumbles. The infuriated ox will gore and trample him to death, or will endeavor
to fling the unfortunate creature so high than the fall will smash his bones. If
the rush fails, the ox backs into the formation, thus protecting flank and rear.
This method of defense is almost impregnable against natural enemies. Even
the great wolf of the tundra has a healthy respect for the muskox, and usually
finds it much more profitable to hunt hares or to follow the caribou bands.
A lone muskox, on scenting danger, tries to find a large rock or steep bank.
Backing up against this shelter, it attempts to keep an enemy from attacking
the rear. If grabbed by a wolf, it will buck and kick like a Texas steer. Suddenly
84 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
it may leap into the air and crash down on its side, crushing the life out of any
creature foolish enough to be clinging there.
Not even the great Barren Ground bear can attack the muskoxen with
impunity. A black bear once tried to feast on one of the muskoxen confined in
a pasture near Fairbanks, Alaska. Ripping and tearing, the muskoxen fought it
out. Although it succeeded in breaking the neck of one, the bear was badly cut
up by the maddened animals, and was later shot by the caretakers.
The defense formation and bravery of the muskoxen are formidable even to
primitive man. Many a hunter has lost his life to charging bulls or infuriated
cows with calves. The temper of muskoxen becomes more and more unreliable
as they grow older, and it takes correspondingly less trouble on the part of a
rash traveler to provoke a charge.
Unfortunately this method of defense that is so successful against predators
is a complete failure against modern man and the rifle. Bunched together, they
are an easy target, and can be wiped out in a few minutes.
The female muskox is about thirty per cent smaller than the bull. Her skull
is not as thick, the hair on her chest and neck is not as long, but she has a pair
of horns that may be even sharper than her mate's.
Her one calf is born into a bleak cold world in April or May. The Arctic
night, still much longer than day, fights with frost and icy wind to keep the
ground frozen and snow-covered. The sun stays above the southern horizon
only a few hours each day. The low, rounded hills, stony and barren of trees,
are little protection against the wind that streams off the Polar Sea. The calf
has real need for its birth coat of short, curly, dark brown hair. It weighs sixteen
to twenty-five pounds, is twenty inches long from nose to tail, and stands
eighteen inches high at the shoulder.
During the first few hours, if the weather is extremely cold and windy, life
is a nip-and-tuck affair. The calf may be frozen to death before it dries. On
weak, shivering legs, it huddles under the mother, seeking warmth from her
body. At the time, she may be foraging by herself or with another cow or two.
More likely she is still with a band of ten to twenty oxen. Perhaps half of her
company are adult cows, with four or five mature bulls and several immature
animals and yearlings making up the remainder. Even in a good year, three
calves or perhaps four will be all that a band of that size will produce. The
muskox cow may bear a calf in succeeding years, but frequently breeds only
every other year. Rigorous conditions of life in the Arctic impose a rigid system
of birth control.
For the first three months of life, the calf lives on its mother's milk, which
is rich and nourishing. Within a few weeks it begins to nibble at grass and
ORIGINAL AMERICAN LIVESTOCK 85
tender herbs. It must learn to eat solid food soon because food conditions in that
bleak habitat make it difficult for the mother to support herself alone. At the age
of four months it is munching plants for a steady diet.
As spring comes and leaves, to the tinkle of innumerable streams from the
melting snow, summer arrives with a rush. Mosquitoes and blackflies swarm on
the tundra and hang in the willow thickets in clouds. They drive the caribou
into frenzies and even suck the blood of the mice and lemmings. Due to the
new thick underwear and the long, fringed overcoats, the muskoxen are almost
immune. Only the edges of the eyelids and the upper halves of their ears are
vulnerable, and these are sometimes raw from fly bites.
Except for the flies and mosquitoes, the short Arctic summer is a pleasant
time. The flowers bloom and seed prolifically. Many species of plants grow on
the tundra, even on the great islands of the Polar Ocean. The muskoxen wander
slowly, methodically feeding and stopping in the best pastures until they have
eaten everything in sight. Their mainstay is grass and sedge, but saxifrage, horse-
tail, mountain avens, blueberry, dwarf birch, alder, and willows are also impor-
tant food plants. In pkces the ground is covered for acres with tiny lichens. Like
other bovines, the muskoxen have no upper incisors. They gather food with
their strong lips, tearing it loose with sharp lower teeth and tough upper palates.
As the summer sun warms the passions of the bulls, they compete for numer-
ous mates. Bulls that have stayed with harems the year round now put a more
rigid control on their cows. July and August see some mighty combats. Two
jealous monsters will square away and rush together, their heads meeting with
a mighty crack. The bony frontlet takes the brunt of the collision, but occa-
sionally even that may be cracked and broken. Time after time the bulls ram
each other. Sometimes the collision drives each animal straight up on his hind
legs as he paws madly in the air. Eventually one gives up. Muskoxen are vindic-
tive, unlike the chivalrous bighorns. If the vanquished bull can run away, he is
fortunate. If too weak or weary, he may be prodded and pounded unmercifully.
Bulls have been found with chests and shoulders slashed by the sharp horns of
their opponents. Some of them succumb on the field of battle with fractured
skulls, or are gored to death.
By September the rut is at an end and so is summer. The first storms of
winter powder the willow bottoms with snow and the muskoxen move into the
hills. Here their food consists of the dried, frozen plants of the same species
that are eaten in summer. The animals feed on exposed ridges from which the
snow is driven by the fierce wind. They can also paw away snow with their
broad hoofs.
These hoofs are remarkable aids to the muskoxen. Although the animals are
86 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
large and clumsy looking, they can run over hard crusted snow and rough rocky
ground at great speed. The hoofs spread and their sharp edges cut into or grip
the ground, furnishing their owners with non-skid traction. A herd of these
ungainly looking muskoxen can sweep like a flying carpet over steep rocky
slopes. The hills may be covered with loose debris, and avalanches of rocks will
pour from beneath their feet. Their trails cross steep slopes covered with snow
so hard that a person could scarcely walk without cutting steps. They can easily
run faster than man.
For as long as paleozoologists can discover, muskoxen have lived in this
barren environment and icy climate. When the great ice sheet covered much of
the northern part of the world, these oxen grazed across the snowy plains in
front of the glaciers. At that time, perhaps twenty thousand years ago, they lived
in what is now northern Mongolia, Germany, Pennsylvania, and Kansas.
As the world grew warmer, the glaciers melted back until a comparatively
modest ice cap around the North Pole is all that remains. Many of the mighty
animals could not adjust themselves to warmer climate and lush vegetation.
Some, such as the mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros, died out. The reindeer
and the muskoxen, being more adaptable, followed the retreating ice. Only in
America, certain Arctic islands, and Greenland were the muskoxen able to
persist down to the present time. In Europe and Asia the species retired to the
shores of the Arctic Ocean and died out in prehistoric times. Even in America
they have not been allowed to occupy the entire tundra belt. They were exter-
minated from northern Alaska before the coming of the first white explorers
about a century ago. Apparently they were also wiped out on the shore of Bering
Sea rather recently, for the Eskimos and Aleuts of that region still have accu-
rate descriptions of them.
The high-powered rifle has almost eliminated the muskoxen from their last
stand. Explorers have depende&ton them for much food, both for men and dogs.
Some of the early expeditions were large, with as many as a hundred men who
required great quantities of meat. The various Peary expeditions, it is said, prob-
ably accounted for more than six hundred of these animals. Bands consisting of
more than fifty were slaughtered for the fine nutritious steaks which were much
like beef. Only old bulls, those killed in July and August, or those that were
carelessly butchered had a musky flavor.
Eskimos and Indians, acquiring rifles for the first time, had an orgy of kill-
ing. Since time began for their races, they had prized muskox meat and fat for
food and fuel, the skins for bedding and other purposes, and the horns for
making dishes, spoons, dippers, bows, spearheads, blubber- and skin-mauls, and
many other implements and tools. Now they could bring down almost any
ORIGINAL AMERICAN LIVESTOCK 87
number of muskoxen with practically no risk and only the effort that it took to
seek out the animals. The ancient circle formation was no longer an impreg-
nable defense. On the contrary, it meant their death, for a hunter could stand
at a safe distance and kill at leisure while his prey glared and rubbed noses along
their forelegs in futile anger. Unless hit in the heart or spine the animals can
withstand many bullets before dropping. The killing is sheer slaughter and not
in any sense "sport."
Calf hunting has also accounted for the destruction of many muskoxen.
During the first quarter of the twentieth century nearly two hundred and fifty
calves were recorded as captured for zoological parks throughout Europe and
America. The first to be shown in this country arrived at the Bronx Zoo in
March, 1902. Any zoo director would pay at least a hundred dollars apiece for
the strange shaggy little brutes, and as much as sixteen hundred dollars was
given for one animal. Because the calves could not be lassoed or entangled in
nets until the protecting adults had been killed, many bands were wiped out for
this purpose only. Perhaps five or six adults were killed for every calf secured.
Possibly the primitive Eskimos and Indians were right. They passed on from
generation to generation a legend that if any muskoxen were allowed to go or
be taken South, all of the oxen would follow. To prevent such a catastrophe to
themselves, Eskimos crept into Buffalo Jones' camp on the Canadian tundra in
1898 and cut the throats of the five muskoxen he had captured and was taking
back to civilization. After little more than a century of exploration of the Arctic
by the white man, the muskoxen have been reduced to dangerously low num-
bers. The total population for all the vast range of mainland and islands under
the Dominion of Canada is only thirteen thousand. Perhaps eleven thousand
more live along the north and cast coasts of Greenland.
Apart from its interest to civilized man, the continuance of the muskox is of
vital concern to the Eskimos and other people o the Arctic. It is one of the few
animals that can thrive there. In an effort to rebuild the population, Canada
has forbidden the killing of these animals under any condition by either natives
or whites. Possession of skins is accepted as evidence of guilt. The Royal Cana-
dian Mounted Police carefully investigate any signs or reports of killing. The
Thdon Game Sanctuary, an area of fifteen thousand square miles northeast of
Great Slave Lake, has been established especially for protection of the largest
remaining group on the Canadian mainland, about three hundred oxen.
Through the efforts of the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Alaska Game
Commission, the species has been reestablished in southwestern Alaska. In 1930
a band of thirty-four animals, nineteen females and fifteen males, were captured
in Greenland. After shipment to New York, via Oslo, Norway, they were sent
88 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
by railway express to Seattle, by boat to Seward, Alaska, and then by rail to
Fairbanks, a trip of about fourteen thousand miles. Five years later the survivors
of the original herd and their progeny were transferred to Nunivak Island in
Bering Sea. By 1943 a count showed that more than a hundred muskoxen were
roaming over the grassy tundra of the island. Eventually it is planned to remove
the surplus and restock them in suitable places on the species' ancestral range
on the Arctic slope of Alaska.
The time may arrive when some muskoxen will be domesticated as the
reindeer have been. Then they can furnish meat, skins and rich good milk to
the people of the Northland, as does the yak to the dwellers of the high barrens
of central Asia. Their wool, when spun, is said not to shrink, but there is at
present no feasible way of eliminating the many coarse guard hairs mixed with
it. It makes up best when mixed with the wool of domestic sheep.
General description. A large, shaggy, oxlike animal with short neck and legs,
stocky body, slightly humped shoulders, and very short tail. Horns of adult
male are broad, downward curving, and nearly meet over the forehead, while
those of the female are not as long, broad, or expanded. The fine, woolly under-
coat is covered by very long thick hair that is dark brown to black, paler across
the middle of the back and on the feet and lower legs. Total length, 80 to 100
inches; height at shoulder, 56 to 70 inches; weight, 500 to 900 pounds. Females
are about 30 per cent smaller.
Distinguishing characteristics. The oxlike, blocky form, long shaggy coat, and
broad flattened horns.
Range. Northwest Territories from northern Boothia Peninsula south to Ches-
terfield Inlet, west to Great Slave Lake, and north to Coronation Gulf; north
of Great Bear Lake; a number of Arctic islands, especially Prince of Wales,
Melville, Bathhurst, Cornwallis, Axel Heiberg, and Ellesmerc Islands, and
Grinnell Peninsula of Devon Island; the northern and eastern coast of Green-
land as far south as Scoresby Sound. Introduced to Nunivak Island, Alaska.
BIGHORN
OVIS CANADENSIS AND O. DALL1
High on its throne, the bighorn looks down on the vast world that, from
the crags of the bleak mountains, seems deserted. Possibly the white thread of
ORIGINAL AMERICAN LIVESTOCK 89
a highway or a pastel patchwork o ranch fields can be seen on the distant valley
floor. These works of puny man, the earthling who crawls slowly on the flat
places but fears the cliffs, are lost in Nature's immensity. More likely than not,
even these intrusions are lacking. The brown and black mountains, with their
glistening snow patches or bright desert heat reflections, stretch away in wave
after wave to the horizon.
The wild sheep of North America do not have wool like domestic sheep.
Their hairy coats are more like those of the deer. Excepting the white Dall
sheep of Alaska, they are pale brownish to nearly black in color, depending upon
their environment and species. They are usually found in the mountains. At
times they go down to the plains or deserts nearby, but rarely more than a mile
ROCKY MOUNTAIN BIGHORN
90 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
or so from the rocks. Valleys for them are dangerous places that must be crossed
to go from one mountain range to another. Ledges, cliffs and steep slopes of
broken rock mean greater safety from all except man armed with his rifle. They
can easily outclimb every other enemy in such a habitat.
In this world-on-edge, the bighorn is born. Sometimes, perhaps about once
in ten times, it is one of twins. It may be an early arrival. March in the desert
ranges is a pleasant time of warm days that stir the spring flowers, but in the
north, snow and ice may prevent the early lamb from surviving. A late lamb
that is born in July is in an even more precarious position. It may not have time
to build up enough strength and size to fight through the following winter. The
most favorable period for the lamb to arrive is kte March in the south and
around the first of June in Alaska.
When the momentous event is about to take place, the ewe desires solitude.
She leaves the band with which she has been feeding and climbs to a ledge or
foot of a cliff. Here there is shelter from wind and storms, and a lookout that
will easily cover the one approach possible for an enemy. Sometimes she remains
there for several days without moving away to eat or drink.
The newborn lamb does not remain helpless for long. In an hour after birth
the mouse-colored coat with a dark stripe down the back is dry and the young-
ster is standing on tottering legs to nurse. (The Dall sheep lamb is white like
its parents.) The lamb is so small that it can walk under its mother's belly with
several inches clearance, and has to stretch its little neck to reach her udder.
When a month old it has grown so fast that it frequently must kneel to nurse.
During the first week of its life the lamb stays on the nursery ledge. Taking
barely enough time to drink and to snatch a few bites of grass, the ewe spends
most of this period on guard. Even while the lamb sleeps beside her, she stands
alert, watching for any intruder. The threatening whirr and whistle of a golden
eagle's wings will bring her over the baby with one leap. She nurses the infant
frequently, oftener than once every hour, with feedings that last two or three
minutes.
When the lamb is about a week old it follows close to its mother as she
wanders about the mountain in search for food. They may join other families
and yearlings, until there are twenty-five to over sixty animals forming a loose
band. The youngsters begin to nibble at the most tender foliage and flowers. By
the time they are a month old, they are getting substantial nourishment from
this source. Their feedings of milk become less and less frequent, and quite brief.
The mothers try to wean them by walking away quickly after a half-minute's
nursing. Nevertheless, some lambs manage to persuade their mothers into giving
them milk well into their first winter.
ORIGINAL AMERICAN LIVESTOCK pi
Lambs have surprising endurance and speed. Dall sheep only two weeks old
can easily keep up with their mothers that are running at full speed at least
for a while. A Dall lamb at McKinley Park was once picked up by some rangers
when the animal was only a few hours old. It became attached to its "foster
parents" and at the age of two and one-half weeks followed them for thirty miles
over rough slopes and through glacial streams.
While the mother bighorns are grave and watchful, their lambs make merry.
Like human children, they enjoy each other's company and are every bit as
lively. They play games of tag and follow-the-leader, jumping over rocks and
running around pinnacles. Sometimes there are butting matches as two lambs
meet head-on and test out the tiny horns that are sprouting from their foreheads.
Occasionally a ewe will unbend and pky with the lambs.
The site is chosen carefully so that any approaching predatory animal can
be seen at a distance. When the band stops to rest, at least two ewes seem to
still stand guard. A favorite trick of the mischievous lambs is to fake an alarm,
perhaps to enjoy the fright that it gives their elders. Bighorns have extraordinary
sight. They rely on their eyes, almost to the exclusion of their ears and noses,
to warn them of danger.
Frequently, some of the ewes go off to feed and take a respite from their
rambunctious offspring. At this time one of the mothers or possibly a dry ewe
takes charge of the youngsters. Besides keeping some semblance of order, one
of her duties is to chase off yearlings and two-year-old bighorns that want to
pky too roughly with the lambs.
Bighorns ordinarily are silent animals. Ewes and their lambs in summer,
however, are exceptions. There is a good deal of talking back and forth in
"blatts" that are almost indistinguishable from the "baas" of domestic sheep.
But they are not the vapid repetitions of the wooly species.
Usually the calls are rather faint, although they "carry" far in still air. How-
ever, a lost lamb or an excited mother on the search lifts up her bleats loudly
and without restraint. Mothers also raise their voices to call their lambs from
play in order to nurse. It is interesting to see how each lamb recognizes its
mother's voice. After late summer, the bighorns seldom call, although they use
a signal, a combination of snort and sneeze, to warn each other of danger. Rams
rarely if ever make any sound except to grunt or snort. When angry, they gnash
or grind their teeth.
Nonconformists among bighorns, just as among human beings, are inclined
to be solitary and keep all kinds of hours. Most bighorns, however, are highly
sociable and keep a regular daily schedule. During the summer they get up and
start breakfast before daybreak, or about four o'clock. By the middle of 'the
92 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
morning they have eaten their fill, and are ready to lie down, chew their cuds,
and rest. It is amusing to watch the cud, a wad of hastily swallowed food, travel
back up the gullet for a thorough chewing. The movement is plainly visible
along the neck. After the animal has masticated the food for a minute with a
steady rotary movement of the lower jaw, it swallows it again. This time it is
digested. This procedure is continued until the entire breakfast perhaps a peck
of grass and herbs is brought up from the first stomach (the rumen), chewed,
and sent down to the three remaining divisions of the stomach for digestion.
After a brief lunch during early afternoon, the bighorns take another siesta.
Up comes their food again for another proper disposal. From late afternoon to
dusk, they dine long and well. It is then time to retire. All good sheep go to
bed early.
Day beds are quite simple. Some bighorns, standing on a fairly level spot,
paw three or four times with each front hoof and then lie down. Others, par-
ticularly the younger sheep, just flop down anywhere when they feel sleepy,
without any preparation. Night beds, however, are chosen carefully, usually on
the lee side, just under the crest of a ridge where possible enemies may be heard
approaching from any direction. The beds that I have seen in the foothills of the
Alaska Range and elsewhere have been depressions about two feet wide by three
feet long, and as much as six inches deep. Such beds are probably used regularly
for a long time. They smell decidedly "sheepy" from the animals' habit of defe-
cating at each end of the bed, as well as the ram's custom of urinating in it each
morning as he leaves to graze.
Each band of bighorns has a home range within which it moves back and
forth irregularly between bedding and feeding grounds. The size of this range,
as well as its shape, depends on many factors such as the topography, location
of water holes or streams, and amount and distribution of food. In Yellowstone
Park, bighorns in summer were found to live within a circle of a mile radius.
The bighorns are usually grass eaters. But in the dry mountains of our south-
western deserts, the grass is sparse and the bighorns here have adopted a dif-
ferent diet. They have become chiefly browsers and live on shrubs such as
mountain mahogany, Mormon tea, buckbrush and the bark of ocotillo. They
also eat the center and flowering parts of sotol, and the fruits and fleshy portions
of sahuaro, organ pipe and barrel cacti, and prickly pear. In this land of little
rain, the bighorns drink only once every three or four days, or even less often,
and must get moisture from plant pulp. Along the Camino del Diablo in
southern Arizona I have seen where they have chewed as much as six inches
deep into the trunks of sahuaros. How do these tender-nosed bighorns avoid
the wickedly sharp spines with which all the cacti are so heavily armed!
ORIGINAL AMERICAN LIVESTOCK 93
Mountain sheep farther north have a softer diet. Grass makes up ninety-five
per cent of their food. For a fillip, they eat sedges, clover, tender herbs and a
little browse. This latter includes the tender opening buds of aspen, spruce,
Douglas fir, willow, currant, rose and juniper. These bighorns may be very
finicky eaters. Sometimes they take merely the young flowers of some herbs such
as wild buckwheat and smartweed, and leave the rest of the plant untouched.
The Dall sheep of Alaska live principally on grasses, sedges, and willows, with
smaller amounts of mountain avens, woodrush, horsetail, locoweed, cottonwood,
blueberry, raspberry, alder, birch, cinquefoil, lichens, and other plants.
Like other hoofed animals, bighorns eagerly patronize salt licks. They do so
most often in spring and early summer, but sometimes even in winter. I once
visited such a spot on Ewe Creek in central Alaska. The grayish clay was
exposed in a high bluff which was cut, trampled and gouged by the animals
that came there. Many smooth spots and cuplike depressions showed where they
had been licking. As we approached, four rams clambered over the bluff and
disappeared. Following them to the bench above, we found many sheep drop-
pings composed entirely of clay. Narrow trails were beaten three inches deep in
the hard gravel, testimony of the thousands of hoofs that had traveled those
trails for decades.
Sometimes they get salt by eating rock,. decomposed rhyolite to a scientist,
but salted rye crisp to the sheep. They chew down this sulphur-salt-flavored rock
with great enjoyment.
The sure-footedness of the bighorn, while perhaps not as famous as that of
the goat, is the envy of all mountaineers. The bottom of each cloven hoof is
concave and the edge is sharp, enabling the animal to stick to the rocks with
suction cups. One old ram in the Sierra Diablo of west Texas is known to have
gone down a nearly vertical cliff fifty feet high, where only three footrests were
possible.
Another sheep jumped four feet high and covered sixteen and three-quarters
feet all in one leap, probably not an unusual one.
On Sable Mountain in the Alaska Range, I once startled a group of five Dall
sheep rams. After milling around and watching me for several minutes they
suddenly turned and, closely bunched, fled down the fifty-degree slope. As they
raced at full speed, I expected one of them to stumble and the entire band to
roll to the bottom of the gulch, a thousand feet below, in a flying pinwheel of
broken legs and necks. Instead, the rams never faltered. Their white legs moved
like blurred pistons as they sped on down to the very bottom and dashed up a
slope opposite me. Here they stopped and immediately fell to grazing, appar-
ently not even out of breath. Their poise and nonchalance were superb. They
94 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
were neither excited nor flustered. They had merely, and casually, put me at
my proper distance.
Bighorns cannot ordinarily maintain much speed for any length of time.
However, one desert bighorn was found to have run at the rate of thirty miles
per hour for a quarter of a mile.
All summer the rams loaf in their bachelor clubs, taking no part in the
upbringing of the lambs. In late autumn, about the middle of October in the
Rockies, their placid manner vanishes. They become jealous of each other, and
vastly interested in the ewes. By the middle of November they are exceedingly
restless and quarrelsome, and are chasing the ewes almost constantly. The rut
becomes a craze. The ewes take to the cliffs for partial protection. They are
sometimes almost surrounded by overeager admirers whose necks are extended
and whose curled noses are lifted in the air. On the ewe's slightest movement,
they rush at her. To get rest she may be forced to crawl out to the end of a
narrow rock, or to hide under an overhanging tree or ledge. She, too, has horns,
but they are only slender spikes. Sometimes as many as nine rams may chase a
desirable ewe.
Many rams do not bother to make up harems. Those who do are occasionally
quite lenient if a friendly ram comes to enjoy the society of his four to seven
mates. Other harem masters are less generous, especially if a stranger attempts
to intrude. Resulting battles are among the most spectacular in the animal
kingdom.
Sometimes these duels seem to follow a definite routine with certain rules
for position and movements. Two rams may open action by standing side by
side, but facing in opposite directions. With ferocious grunts and snorts, they
strike sideways and upward at each other with a sharp front hoof. For a few
minutes (sometimes up to twenty), they tell each other off in this manner. Then
they each walk away for about twenty feet. Suddenly, as though at a signal, they
turn, rear simultaneously, and charge. Each ram is nearly upright and rushing
forward on stiffened hind legs. Without pausing they drop to all fours, crouch,
and the two heads crash together. The terrific crack of the heavy, hollow horns
can be heard a mile away. The collision causes a ripple or "shock-wave" to roll
the entire length of each muscular body. For a few moments the impact dazes
the rams. Then they back away and crash again. The battle may be over quickly,
or it may last for a couple of hours. It usually ends with both warriors on their
feet. They may even walk away, side by side, in an amiable manner. The dif-
ference of opinion has been settled satisfactorily between one gentleman and
another.
Sometimes a number of rowdies will jump into a free-for-all. This may
ORIGINAL AMERICAN LIVESTOCK 95
become a most exciting battle and continue until the last two contestants are
exhausted. No holds or blows below the belt are barred. Sideswipes with wicked
hoofs cut deep bloody gashes, nosebleeds are common, horn tips splintered and
sometimes entire horns are broken off short. These will never be replaced. Some
rams push their opponents over the cliffs. Others are killed in combat by frac-
tured skulls. By the end of the two-month mating season, many bighorn rams
are battered, bruised, and limping.
Butting matches and, rarely, serious combats may be staged between rams
in winter, spring or summer. As a rule, these are much more genteel arguments
than the vicious fights during the two-month rutting season.
The gestation period of the bighorn has been determined to be one hundred
and eight days, or almost exactly six months. The ram is not sexually mature
until he is three and one-half years old, but the ewe mates for the first time a
year earlier.
On the southern desert mountains the bighorns may frequent the same area
the year round. Or they may migrate to a region of reliable waterholes during
the summer. In the north the animals usually move twice each year between
summer and winter range. This may be a shift in altitude to reach a locality
where snowfall is of moderate depth, or it may be to find an area at a similar
altitude where constant wind keeps the ground somewhat clear of snow. In the
central Rockies, bighorns depend largely on grass in winter. They often paw
through six or eight inches of snow to reach the short tender blades. At times
they browse heavily, eating quantities of the twigs and buds of such shrubs as
sagebrush, rabbitbrush, wild cherry and willow. Dall sheep in the Alaska Range
subsist in winter on grasses, sedges, willows, blueberry, Labrador tea, sage, cran-
berry, and other plants. Their preferences are indicated by the order of listing
the species.
By the beginning of winter the lamb is about three-quarters as tall as its
mother, and weighs in the neighborhood of eighty pounds. Its frowzy baby coat
has been shed and it is dressed in the double winter dress of all adult bighorns.
Next to the skin is a loose layer of very fine fur, while over this extends a dense
layer of coarse hair about two and one-half inches long.
Winter, which crowds the northern bighorns together on restricted ranges,
is likely to test the animals not only with hunger but with disease. Parasites
ticks, scab mites, and lice live on the skin. Internally there are lungworms and
bacteria that cause pneumonia, nematodes that live in the intestines, and sheep
bots that arc found in the nose. Stomach worms cause diarrhea.
A very virulent disease of hoofed mammals, hemorrhagic septicemia, results in
a pneumonic condition and a high death rate. Necrotic stomatitis, another disease
96 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
of big game animals, often brings swift death, especially to the younger sheep.
The organism causing it frequently enters the body through cuts and lesions in
the mouth resulting from eating rough, coarse forage. Older animals that recover
are frequently left with deformed jaw bones and missing teeth, which is a
serious handicap to browsing and grazing animals that must eat huge quantities
of forage.
Although exceedingly sure-footed, the mountain sheep live in a dangerous
home and arc subject to accidents. Bruises, cuts from jagged rocks, and broken
ribs and even legs are more common than is supposed. Bighorns have been
found dead with tough snags penetrating the abdomen and intestines, the result
of a mad dash through a windfall at timber line.
Few bighorns live to be thirteen or fourteen years old. These aged sheep are
unfortunate. (By the time they were ten or eleven, they were already far past
their prime.) Their teeth are worn down, sometimes below the gums, and they
are probably sick and hungry.
Wolves and coyotes hunt sheep of all ages. In the broken rock of the
sheep's real home, these meat-eaters are left hopelessly behind, but out on the
rolling mountain slopes, the foothills, or at valley crossings, they have the
advantage. Among the cliffs, the cougar and possibly a wolverine may wait in
ambush. When the snowshoc hares fail, the desperate lynx may turn to the
bighorn, but he is only an occasional enemy. Both the lynx and the wolf have
learned that the best way to catch a bighorn on a mountain is to climb above
the prospective victim and then chase him downhill. The golden eagle is
thought to be a serious menace to young lambs, but scientific investigations have
cleared it of suspicion in a number of cases.
If the predators had been such important enemies that they controlled the
numbers of bighorns, we might expect that the bighorns would have increased
when the predators were in turn reduced. However, the extermination of the
wolf, cougar and wolverine in several bighorn areas seems to have had no
beneficial effect on the bighorn population.
In Wyoming, several bighorns are known to have perished as a result of
quills from the ubiquitous porcupine. Apparently victims of their own curiosity,
these vegetarian sheep must have poked their faces too close and a swish of a
porcupine tail left the faces of the bighorns stuck full of fiery barbs. Noses and
mouths swollen by the festering sores, the sheep were not able to eat, and
starved to death or died of infection. Quills have been found in bighorn noses
in Nevada, also.
Man has been by far the most destructive enemy of the mountain sheep.
His attack has been indirect, by driving domestic sheep into the mountains to
ORIGINAL AMERICAN LIVESTOCK 97
eat up the bighorn's forage; and direct, by shooting. The great curling horns
of the wild sheep are the most coveted trophy in the world of sport. If fairly
earned, it takes days of hard climbing, exposure to cold, wind and hail, clever
stalking, and marksmanship of the highest order to kill an alert master of
the crags.
The finest head of the Rocky Mountain bighorn on record was taken in
British Columbia. The horns measured forty-nine inches along the front curve,
with a circumference of sixteen inches at the base. Their greatest spread was
twenty-four inches. The biggest head ever taken of the northern bighorn was
a Stone sheep also from British Columbia. It had horns that measured fifty-one
inches along the front curve, fifteen inches around the base, and spread a maxi-
mum of thirty-one inches.
A combination of disease, competition with domestic stock, and overhunting
has decimated the bighorns over the southern half of their range. They have
been extirpated completely from many mountain ranges, especially in the arid
Southwest. Legal hunting for them, except in a few restricted localities in Idaho
and Wyoming, was abolished from the United States years ago. Heavy fines
and jail sentences are meted out to the convicted poacher, yet the magnificent
head of an old ram is so tempting that unscrupulous men still take the risk of
jail and fines.
Building a little rock blind overlooking a spring or seep, a poacher may wait
days for the desert sheep to come in to drink, as they must eventually. Whether
he kills for his own trophy, or to sell the head for money, the poacher of a rare
bighorn is one of the meanest of outlaws. This human should be shot, stuffed
and mounted for all to see.
The bighorn are divided into two species as follows:
1. The Rocky Mountain bighorn (Ovis canadensis) are heavy-bodied ani-
mals. Their massive horns are tightly curled. They live all the way from south-
western Alberta and southeastern British Columbia to northern Mexico. Their
coats vary from the thick, dark grayish brown apparel of the northern mountain
bighorn to the comparatively thin, pale buffy dress of the desert mountain
bighorn.
2. The northern sheep (Ovis dalli) are perhaps more beautiful. They are
somewhat smaller and more lightly built. Their long, slender horns are not as
tightly curled and often flare away from the head. These sheep arc divided
into two kinds:
(a) The Dall or white sheep wear the striking white coats of their snow-
90 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
bound home. They are found over most of Alaska and east in Yukon almost
to the Mackenzie River.
(b) The Stone or black sheep arc less spectacular in their brownish black
coats. They inhabit south-central Yukon south to central British Columbia.
General description. A large, chunky, hoofed animal with dark brown horns,
those of the adult male heavy and curling almost a full circle while those of the
female and young male arc small and only slightly curved. Hair much like that
of the deer. Color varies with the locality upper parts pale grayish brown to
blackish brown or nearly black, darkest along the back line and on legs; large
rump patch and under parts yellowish white. The Dall sheep of Alaska is
completely white, and its dark horns are slender and flaring. Total length, 54
to 70 inches; height at shoulder, 38 to 42 inches; weight, 175 to 225 pounds.
Females are considerably smaller.
Distinguishing characteristics. The combination of distinct rump patch and
simple curved horns.
Range. Mountainous areas of western North America, from Chihuahua and
Baja California, Mexico, north through the Rockies and Sierra Nevada to
Brooks Range and Kenai Peninsula of Alaska.
MOUNTAIN GOAT
OREAMNOS AMERICANUS
The mountain goat is not a true goat; it is an antelope. It looks something
like a goat and acts like one. However, its shoulders and neck are far heavier
and the horns are smaller and do not twist into spirals. Although it goes by
the name of goat, it is more closely related to the European chamois.
White, long-haired and bearded, the mountain goat walks stiffly and with
dignity. Its chunky body with short tail is set on short legs. Ruminatively, it
chews its cud. Its yellow eyes are round and solemn. If it sees something strange,
it is likely to sit up on its haunches to get a better view. With its white beard
waving sedately in the wind, it reminds one of a professor looking over the top
of his spectacles.
From the broken cliffs and almost barren slopes above timber line, it looks
down on the rich, sheltered valleys. It disdains their easy existence. The tall
meadow grass to feast upon is not for it, nor the tall spruce to cut off the biting
winds. It is an ascetic, tough and hard.
MOUNTAIN GOAT
100 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
Strong icy winds and shallow stony soil stunt and flatten the few hardy
plants that manage to survive. The sun shines but the home peaks of the goat
are so high that warmth is radiated off into space and lost.
Living in the Arctic zone of the northern Rockies, the mountain goat keeps
comfortable in a suit of underwear of very fine wool, three or four inches thick,
under the long shaggy overcoat. In the winter the goat's black horns, lips and
hoofs stand out in striking contrast with his white coat. In the summer, at
least in some localities, the horns and hoofs turn grayish white.
The heavy, fleecy coat is not a disadvantage in wet climates. Many goats live
close to the coast from Puget Sound north and west to the Seward Peninsula in
Alaska. Here fog and rain are more usual than fair weather during most of
the year.
Naturalists have much to learn about the goat, especially what it does in
winter. Man can seldom endure the conditions which to the goat are just
everyday winter weather.
During the pleasant days of spring, in late April, May and June, the kids are
born. Usually the nanny has only one, but twins are not rare and at times and
in favorable localities they may occur rather commonly.
A few minutes after birth, the kid stands up and reaches for its first meal
Thus fortified, it may even jump about, in the peculiar stiff-legged goat style,
at the tender age* of half an hour. It weighs about seven pounds, and stands
about thirteen inches high at the shoulders.
Although the kid is so precocious, its mother keeps it hidden in the isolated
birthplace. She goes out to feed, but returns every couple of hours to let it nurse.
If danger appears, the kid "freezes" immediately. After a few days, the pair joins
a mixed band of mothers with kids, other females and young billies. There may
be twenty to thirty or even more goats in a group.
During the summer months the nursery area is surprisingly small. The band
may be found almost any day on a single mountain slope, browsing on the
leaves and succulent new sprouts of dwarf shrubs and other plants, including
grasses, sedges, phacelia, and mountain sorrel. The adult males wander ovei
much larger areas, and are solitary more often than not. Sometimes, however,
a billy may be seen accompanying a nanny with her kid during the summer.
Ordinarily the goat is not quarrelsome with its kind. In the November rut-
ting 'season, however, the billies get pugnacious. They beat the shrubs with their
horns, and rub them against rocks, leaving behind an oily secretion from the
large gland that lies just to the rear of the base of each horn. Perhaps this is an
attraction to the nannies, which have their own scent posts.
A goat is apt to keep his dignity even when angry. He and his rival walk
ORIGINAL AMERICAN LIVESTOCK 101
stiff -leggedly around each other, sparring awkwardly but with grim determina-
tion. Successful thrusts of their daggerlike horns may result in peritonitis, a not
uncommon cause of mortality. After the mating ardor has subsided, the goats
move together in large bands. Only the older males avoid their erstwhile mates.
The goats seem able to subsist on very little forage. They live for long periods
wherever the wind blows the snow from small areas on ridges or slopes where
palatable plants are exposed. Ordinarily, except for this slight shift to wind-
cleaned spots, the animals use the same range throughout the year.
A principal hazard in winter is the avalanche. White goats seem to pay little
heed to the frightful torrents of snow that occasionally thunder down the
mountain sides, sweeping trees and boulders in their path. These snow-slides
may kill more goats than any other single factor.
The mountain goats that have been moved to the Black Hills, South Dakota,
often descend to the bottoms of ravines during the heavy snows of winter.
The goat is a deliberate creature. Ordinarily it walks slowly and with a cer-
tain stiffness due to the relative shortness of the front legs and the weight of
the shoulders. An old animal with arthritic joints walks even more stiffly, and
often has real difficulty in getting up from the ground and hobbling downhill.
It is a careful mountaineer, rarely taking a step until certain about the trail
beyond. If, because of some emergency, the goat chooses a narrow, crooked
ledge that "peters out," it doesn't get panicky. Perhaps it is possible to back
very slowly until it can turn around, but if that is impossible, it cautiously rears
Up on the hind legs. With its weight pressed against the cliff, the goat carefully
turns inward and around and then drops down on all fours, or it may grab a
rock shelf with its short forelegs and pull itself up to a higher level.
An enemy cannot count on setting an ambush for a goat. Although it travels
the same cliffs many times, it does not always pick the same trail. Perhaps it
likes to figure out new routes and combinations of footholds. Several goats climb-
ing together often scatter instead of following a leader.
It is not true that a goat never makes a misstep. Falls sometimes result in
broken bones, and even death.
When frightened, the goat shifts into a slow lumbering gallop. Going up-
hill on good footing, a man has been able to almost catch up with a ffeeing goat.
In spite of his clumsiness, the goat is a good jumper, and one leap may cover
twelve feet at a time.
Sheer cliffs and great heights seem to have no effect on it. It has a cool head,
and probably little imagination. The hoofs are marvelously adapted for rock
work. The sole of each toe is concave so that each one acts as a suction cup
when pressed down hard. The clefts between the two toes on each foot open
IO2 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
toward the front. When descending a smooth rock surface, the weight of the
animal spreads the toes wider and they clamp down even more firmly on the
ground.
A goat can swim, and swim well when it wants to. It probably crosses lakes
and the long coastal bays of southeastern Alaska in this way.
Most mountain men believe that the golden eagles kill large numbers of
kids. The remains of kids are sometimes found on or below eagle nests.
Whether or not these were dead before being picked up by the big birds has
never been determined, as the golden eagle is a notable scavenger. One point
against this theory of kidnapping is that after the first couple of days in hiding
the kid is continuously close to its mother. A wise old nanny has little fear of
an eagle.
On their rocky ramparts, the goats are almost immune from attack by any
four-footed enemy except the big climbing cats, the cougar and the lynx.
Unfortunately there is only a small amount of nourishment there in the form
of lichens and mosses. The goats must graze the smooth slopes of the moun-
tains for the bulk of their food and occasionally descend into the valley to visit
mineral licks. Sometimes they pass through several miles of forest in moving
from one mountain range to another. At these times, they may be attacked by
a grizzly, a black bear, a pack of wolves, or a wolverine. Even the big mountain
coyote, out after ground squirrels, is always glad to take advantage of a goat.
The goat, however, has considerable pugnacity, and an adult buck or doe
can do a lot of damage when cornered and desperate. The slender, slightly
curved horns of the male average about nine inches long, but have been known
to measure twelve and one-half inches. The doe's are smaller, but are also
effective daggers. They have killed black and grizzly bears by thrusts into the
heart, lungs or abdomen.
Some naturalists in northern British Columbia once watched two wolves try
in vain to secure a meal from among a band of eleven goats. Showing little or
no concern, the goats stopped twice to drink at pools of water before going on
to the security of the cliffs. Of course goats would rather run than fight if
given a choice.
When stopping to feed for any length of time, one goat usually appears to
stand guard. Sometimes it will stay in one spot without moving its feet for over
an hour. Looking this way and that, it keeps its feet planted far apart as if
ready for an immediate attack.
The goat is occasionally curious about man, for bipeds are almost unknown
in the high mountains. It is seldom aggressive. In one instance, an over-bold
and inquisitive naturalist followed a goat onto a rock ledge that terminated in
ORIGINAL AMERICAN LIVESTOCK I<>3
empty space. Made desperate, no doubt, the goat charged, bunted its annoyer
over the cliff and walked angrily away. Fortunately for the man, a rock shelf
about ten feet below saved him from anything worse than severe bruises and
a bad scare.
Goats are subject to a number of ailments, including pneumonia and that
notorious plague of the big game, necrotic stomatitis. Heavy infestations of
tapeworms and stomach worms have been found. The thick furry coat may
serve as shelter for great numbers of ticks which sometimes plug the ears so
solidly as to cause deafness. Carcasses are rarely found because the sick animals
crawl into crevices that are almost never penetrated by man.
The Indians of the Northwest Coast once used the goat's fine undcrfur in
making choice blankets. The dyed and natural wool was rolled into yarn by
hand and then woven on looms. The wool was pulled from dead goats, or
gathered from bushes or from the ground where it was shed naturally. I have
seen several places where the wool was so thick that several bushels could have
been raked up from a few square yards.
Goat hunting is a difficult sport, chiefly because the animal lives in such
rugged, inaccessible places. But unless the region is much hunted, the goat is
not wary, nor particularly difficult to approach within rifle range. As a trophy,
the head is unusual but the horns are not impressive.
The mountain goat has been far less adversely affected by man than any
other North American big game. The meat of young goats is good, but that of
older animals is tough and "strong." With very minor exceptions, goats still
inhabit the same range that their ancestors occupied when Captain Cook sailed
his ship into Prince William Sound more than a century and a half ago. Man
has found no use for the home of the mountain goat.
General description. A large goat-like animal with humped shoulders, small,
slender, backward-curving black horns, and bearded chin; tail short. Hair long,
shaggy, white with a slight yellowish tinge. Total length, 60 to 70 inches; height
at shoulder, 35 to 40 inches; weight, 150 to 300 pounds. Females are about 15
per cent smaller.
Distinguishing characteristics. The white, shaggy coat and goat-like appearance.
Range. Mountains of northwestern North America, from south central Idaho,
western Montana, and the Cascade Mountains of southern Washington north
to the Copper River region, Alaska.
5. Survivors of Ancient Orders
OPOSSUM-D/DELPH/S SP.
The opossum is our only native North American mammal that carries her
young in a pouch. Very premature, the little opossums are born just thirteen
days after their conception. Smaller than a bumblebee, each baby weighs one-
fifteenth ounce. Its eyes and ears are still developing in the body covering; the
stomach, heart and other organs can be seen through the transparent body wall,
and the tiny legs are nothing but pegs.
Formerly it was supposed that the newly born opossum was picked up by
the mother and placed in her pouch. Only within comparatively recent years
have biologists learned that it reaches the mother's pouch by dragging itself up
by the front paws.
The first trip in the little opossum's life is a hazardous one. During spring,
the cold may be chilling. In the forest of hairs of the mother's abdomen, the
opening of her pouch is hard to find. Small, it can be almost closed by muscles
to keep the infants from falling out once they are inside.
Feeling its blind way, the little opossum must rely solely on instinct to climb
higher. If it misses the entrance at first, one of its many brothers and sisters may
beat him to the last of the mother's teats. She has about twelve (depending on
the individual), and sometimes as many as eighteen young are born. Six" of
them, being cut off from food, must die.
Crawling into the warm dark pouch, the first dozen offspring feel for a
teat, which is about the diameter of a pin. Taking a firm grip, the infants hang
on for weeks without letting go. Their sole concern is food. In the first week
their weight increases nearly ten times, and at two months of age they are as
big as mice. By this time, accidents and the mother's limitation of milk will have
reduced their number to an average o seven to nine.
Even earlier, at the age of a month, the youngsters start to peek out of the
mother's pouch at a new world. Probably the first glimpse is of the nest a
leafy grass-lined burrow in the ground or a cavity in a tree or fallen log. Or it
may be of the tree tops while the mother is hunting for sleepy birds or a batch
of eggs- The young find it great fun when they are old enough to ride on their
mother's back with their toes firmly grasping her coarse fur. They leave her to
fend for themselves when they are about three months old.
SURVIVORS OF ANCIENT ORDERS
105
OPOSSUM
Most opossums are born during the months of January and February in the
South, somewhat later in the North. However, a few litters may be delayed a
month or even two, if the females do not meet the males at the first opportune
time. Most southern opossums produce a second litter of young, which are born
in May or early June. South of the United States border there may be time for
three families in a season.
The first conscious effort of each young opossum is probably to find a new
home. It is not an expert digger and is glad to take any vacant den. Sometimes
it repairs and adds more leaves to an old squirrel nest in a treetop. It may even
move in with another animal that is too phlegmatic to protest, perhaps an arma-
dillo or a skunk.
Even a half-grown opossum knows how to gather its nesting material. Pick-
ing up mouthf uls of dry grass or leaves, it pushes them under the abdomen to
the prehensile tail which is expectantly curved in a loop. Six or eight mouthfuls
fill the loop. The opossum then moves into its den, dragging the load of leaves
with the tail.
106 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
Although solitary except at mating time, the opossum is not very particular
about its home territory or hunting range. The neighboring opossums wander
over, without causing any ructions, in their search for food. They eat every-
thing: flesh, fruits, vegetables and even carrion, although flesh is preferred.
One opossum is known to have eaten a bat. Whether it actually killed the bat,
or came across the dead body, is not told. Opossums like insects (including
scarab and ground beetles, squash and stink bugs, ants, grasshoppers and
crickets), worms, mice, moles and other small mammals, snakes, lizards and
skinks, frogs and fishes, crayfish, snails, birds and their eggs, mushrooms, fruits
such as pokeberry, hackberry, mulberry, grapes, blackberries, green brier
(Smilax), haws, apples, wild cherries, persimmons and pawpaws. They some-
times eat cultivated grain, particularly field corn.
Life is one gastronomic excitement after another! In the South at least, lack
of food is hardly one of the factors that limit the numbers of opossums. They do
not have to travel far from home, for ordinarily they find plenty to eat on an
area of between fifteen and forty acres. The species seems to have a wanderlust,
however. In the cooler months, most opossums wander about. A forest from
which opossums are hunted out will soon be restocked by immigrants.
Next to the minutes following the birth of the tiny opossum when it must
struggle to its mother's pouch, the days following weaning are the most critical
of its life. Hawks, owls, foxes, dogs, bobcats, coyotes, ocelots, wolves and all
other meat-eaters are looking for it: Minor enemies, ticks and fleas, seem not to
pester it much. Roundworms (nematodes) usually inhabit its stomach and
intestines.
When cornered, the opossum may show its teeth. The traditional protection
is to feign death, "play 'possum." It falls limply on one side, shuts the eyes and
lolls the tongue from partly opened mouth. If picked up, it is limp as a rag.
Pulse and heartbeat are reduced. Presumably this is a state of true shock, but
if the enemy leaves, its "victim" recovers almost immediately. Apparently these
wiles are hot very successful, for the opossum's life expectancy is short.
The opossum likes wooded streams. It is quite adaptable, however, and does
very well in fanning country providing there is enough cover left for shelter
and hunting for food. Even in settled country it is rarely seen, for it sleeps all
day and forages at night
Climbing is second nature, and it hunts as readily in the tree tops as on the
ground. The hind feet arc even better "hands" than the front ones because they
have a very long flexible first toe. This "big toe" can meet any of the other four
toes of the same foot like a kind of superthumb. So the opossum goes around
grabbing things with the. hind feet the way people use their hands. Its naked,
SURVIVORS OF ANCIENT ORDERS I<>7
scaly tail is also prehensile and very useful to carry loads or to hang itself up
on a tree.
Although we usually think of the opossum as an animal of the deep South,
it ventures much farther north. For a retiring animal, the opossum has shown
a surprising tendency in recent years to extend its range. It has been found living
as far north as Warner, New Hampshire; Bellows Falls, Vermont; Albany and
Binghamton, New York. It has also been seen in southern Ontario, central
Michigan and southern Wisconsin. A convenient habit of wrapping up in leaves
in a hole and becoming torpid for several weeks at a time helps it to ignore the
cold winters. During very cold weather, females especially are likely to remain
in their dens. The species does not truly hibernate. At most, the body tempera-
ture does not vary more than three and one-half degrees Fahrenheit between
the hottest and coldest times of the year.
With the help of man, the opossum has become established in California.
Between 1905 and 1910, captive animals escaped or were liberated near Los
Angeles and at Santa Clara. Their descendants are now found at many places
south of Sacramento, and west of the mountains and deserts. At least one has
even climbed up the Sierra to Giant Forest in Sequoia National Park. Other
opossums are known to have become established near Pendleton, Oregon. In
1943, they were also reported in Washington State.
Opossums belong to the "Ancient Order of Marsupials, or Pouched Mam-
mals," whose best known representative is the kangaroo. Theirs is a very old
family which had its beginnings back in the Mesozoic era. They probably
spread over all of the continents. Eons later, but still a very long time ago,
something exterminated all of the opossums in North America. But you can't
stop the opossums from traveling, and in the Pliocene or early Pleistocene they
wandered north across Central America from the southern hemisphere.
Opossums come in three color phases. The normal coat is the well-known
'possum gray, in which the black-tipped under fur is overlaid with long white
guard hairs. "Black" opossums, in which the white hairs are almost lacking,
are rather common in some localities. The cinnamon phase results when brown
pigment occurs instead of the black. White opossums have been seen with fancy
trimmings black-tipped ears and toes and albinos are not rare.
In spite of a large infant mortality and a short life expectancy, the opossum
belongs to a hardy race. He shows an amazing vitality and ability to recover
from injuries that would finish weaker creatures. Of ninety-five skeletons of
animals taken near Lawrence, Kansas, thirty-nine had broken bones that had
completely healed. Many had survived broken ribs and shoulders. They are
extraordinarily careless! One animal had recovered from a total of two broken
108 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
shoulders, eleven ribs (two of which were broken in three places and two others
had two breaks each), and a badly damaged vertebral column. Not being very
intelligent, the opossum must be both prolific and tough to survive.
The fur, while coarse, and seldom worth more than fifty cents a pelt to the
trapper, is always in fashion for trimming inexpensive cloth coats. The better
pelts are made into whole fur wraps. Farmer boys find opossums easy to trap
and the number of skins sold each year is enormous. It has been estimated that,
in Missouri in 1934-5, trappers and night-hunters killed three hundred and
thirty-three thousand. During 1937-8 in Iowa, eleven thousand seven hundred
and fifty-five pelts were sold for a total over three thousand five hundred dollars.
It is said that an opossum usually has enough fat to fire five 37-mm. antiaircraft
shells!
General description. A bushy-furred animal about the size of a house cat, with
long, sharp muzzle, short legs and long, naked scaly tail. Fur grizzled gray
becoming yellowish white on the head. Total length, 2j^ to 3 feet; height at
shoulders, 5% to 6J^ inches; weight, 8 to 15 pounds.
Distinguishing characteristics. The sharp muzzle, generally with many teeth
exposed when the animal is frightened; grizzled fur and long, naked tail.
Range. Central New England to Florida and westward from the Atlantic coast
to Wisconsin, Colorado and Texas; also established in the Pacific Coast states.
ARMADILLO
DASYPUS NOVEMCINCTUS TEXANUS
A Pig in Armor!
Dressed up like a knight of old, this long-snouted, short-legged creature
shuffles about in a coat of "chain and mail." Only the ears are naked. Fore and
aft it is encased in form-fitting bony coverings that are joined over the ribs and
backed by nine flattened hoops. One flat plate covers its head from crown to tip
of nose. The tail is protected by a series of rings. Even the short legs are covered
with many hardened scales.
With all this display of armor, it is astonishing to discover that the front of
the upper and lower jaws are toothless! True, it has molars, but not a pre-molar,
a canine, nor an incisor in its head! Even the molars are mere rootless pegs with
no enamel covering.
SURVIVORS OF ANCIENT ORDERS
109
Nevertheless it is a juggernaut to the woild of insects. Its long sticky tongue
darts back and forth sweeping in its victims. It can lap up sixty or seventy ants,
their eggs or larvae, with a single swipe and practically no effort.
This small armored tank is a "fire eater." At least it devours fire ants, scor-
pions, tarantulas and roaches. It has been widely accused of destroying the eggs
of quail, turkeys and other ground-nesting birds. Proven instances of such
raids, however, are rare, and as a matter of fact, its appetite for the ants that
attack the newly hatched chicks has greatly benefited the quail population. It
actually has little or no interest in eggs unless they belong to insects or snakes.
Only occasionally has it been known to raid a poultry house for eggs. Certain
captive armadillos positively refused to eat hens' eggs until the shells had been
broken for them. A nest of bantam eggs placed in a cage with five armadillos
was ignored although it ky there for three weeks. Possibly only the most
experienced foragers get the egg-eating habit, and they are few and far between.
Ninety per cent of the armadillo's food is of the insect type. Besides those
species already mentioned, the animal eats sugar cane borers, termites, the
larvae and adults of scarab beedes, wireworms, centipedes, grasshoppers and
ARMADILLO
HO MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
other destructive insects. Sometimes it eats a few fungi, especially puff-balls;
and fruits such as blackberries, mulberries, and wild plums. A careless or torpid
salamander, toad or lizard furnish an occasional meal.
Eons ago, an animal belonging to the Ancient Order of Armadillos was as
large as a modern rhinoceros. It roamed the plains of South America. Other
much smaller cousins of this behemoth lived as far north as the present
boundary between Canada and the United States.
Time was not kind to the family. Armadillos now range only from Patagonia
to Texas and Louisiana. The nine-banded armadillo, the only species entering
the United States, is one of the larger members of the present family. It is
scarcely two and one-half feet long and weighs twelve to fifteen pounds. The
smallest of the tribe lives in South America and is only about five inches long.
Nine-banded armadillos of several races inhabit a vast area: all of South America
east of the Andes and from northern Argentina to the southern United States.
In 1870 armadillos were unknown in Texas outside the lower Rio Grande
Valley. As civilization spread, and their natural enemies were reduced, the
armadillos had leisure and opportunity to travel. They pushed their way farther
and farther northeast until by 1895 they had reached the Brazos River. Soon
after 1925 they invaded northeastern Oklahoma and Louisiana. Then, even
before bridges had been built across the Mississippi, they mysteriously appeared
on the east bank. Now they are well across the state on their way to Mississippi
and points east. Colonies have been established in Florida and Mississippi, prob-
ably from escaped or released pets. Alive, or dead with their shells made into
baskets, armadillos have been shipped and sold for years. By natural means, the
species has spread to southwestern Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma.
All goes well for these northern pioneers until an unusual cold spell occurs.
A few frosty days do not matter; the armadillos merely stay in their burrows.
A more extended period may be fatal. Armadillos do not hibernate and eventu-
ally they must seek food. Those that do not freeze to death in their dens come
out. They cannot dig into frozen ground, and their surface-dwelling prey is
destroyed by the cold. The unfortunate creatures starve or succumb to exposure.
There is some reason to believe, therefore, that the armadillo is now near the
northernmost limit at which it can survive. Sooner or later, a succession of cold
winters may shrink the range southward for hundreds of miles.
Heat is not such a serious problem. The armadillo does not like too much
of it, but it can get relief by staying below ground. On very hot days it hunts
only in the cooler night hours. If the ground is baked too hard, the creatures on
which it feeds retreat deeper in the soil, and then the armadillo may starve to
death.
SURVIVORS OF ANCIENT ORDERS III
Do these armored tanks sink or swim? Did they cross the largest river in
the United States under their own power or as hitch-hikers on ferries? In spite
of its armor, the armadillo is a good swimmer, but if the waterway is short, it
walks under the water, on the bottom. When one good deep breath of air is not
enough for the crossing, it must come to the surface. Obviously it has serious
trouble staying afloat at first. Weighed down by the heavy shell, it dog-paddles
furiously with stubby legs and gasps desperately for air. Then, slowly, the heavy
body relaxes. It breathes more slowly and self-assuredly. At last it has swallowed
enough air to inflate the intestinal tract. Buoyed up by this internal life pre-
server, it swims vigorously and well.
On land, the armadillo likes enough cover for protection. But not so much
as to shade out its insect food. It lives in thickets, tall grass, patches of cactus, or
chaparral, and particularly enjoys limestone rock formations where burrows arc
ready-made by leaching water. In one of these, or in a "hand-made" tunnel, the
mother has her young. The home may be seven or eight inches in diameter and
up to twenty-five feet long, but usually is much shorter. The tunnel is straight,
unless it must go around an obstruction, and ranges in depth from a few
inches to four feet. It generally forks two or three times. The enlarged end of
each branch is about one and one-half feet in diameter, and is lined with grass,
leaves of mesquite or other shrubs, or weeds. The nest is merely a bundle into
which the armadillo worms its way.
One animal has several dens, sometimes as many as ten or a dozen. Some
serve only for emergency shelters. Especially shallow tunnels may be most
useful to attract the insects which form so much of its food.
While digging, the armadillo loosens the soil with its forefeet and pointed
snout. When a small pile has accumulated under the belly, it balances on its
forefeet and tail. Arching its back, it brings the hind feet over the pile. Then a
quick kick backward sends the dirt flying a couple of feet and the armadillo is
ready to dig several inches more.
When the excavator is ready to make a nest, it goes to the surface and gathers
the material. With the forefeet it makes a small bundle and pushes it back into
the angle between its raised body and the hind legs. Lowering its shell will
clamp the bedding fast. Then the armadillo slowly shuffles backward into the
tunnel, catching any loosened material with its mouth or front feet.
Apparently this animal does not have a special toilet. The feces are scattered
along the trails. About the size and shape of a marble, they arc made up mosdy
of the hard remains of insects. These are poorly held together by soil which the
armadillo has carelessly eaten while probing for food.
Armadillos are monotonous. An ordinary observer can't tell a male from a
112 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
female. They look alike and act alike. Even when grown, they are the same
size and the same weight. With few exceptions, the mother gives birth to four
babies which are all of the same sex. Neither more nor less, because the original
cell, when fertilized, normally splits into equal quarters and the little quad-
ruplets start on their prenatal development. Not only are they all of the same
sex, but they are identical down to minute details of scales and numbers of
hairs on their bellies. In rare cases five embryos have developed, or one or more
of the normal four have degenerated before birth. Armadillos mate in mid-
summer, July or August. The cells do not start to divide until about fourteen
weeks later. The young require only one hundred and twenty days for actual
development. Born in February, March or April, their eyes are open, and they
are well developed except that the "coat of mail" is soft as fine leather. They
are miniatures of their mother and are able to move about with her a few hours
after birth. Because armadillos do not change shells like lobsters or crabs, their
armor cannot harden completely until they reach their full growth and are sure
of a "perfect fit!" The young are nursed by their mother for about two months.
She has just the right number of breasts four.
Even before they are weaned they join her in foraging for insects. Erratically
the animals move about, now walking, now trotting. The long pointed snout is
pushed into the leaf litter and the loose top soil. Instead of constantly lifting it,
the armadillo roots out a furrow three or four or even six inches deep. When a
buried insect or grub is located, evidently by smell, the armadillo stops and digs
a cone-shaped hole with its front feet. When working especially hard, it is likely
to grunt softly. Quickly chomping down the morsel, it puts its nose "back to the
grindstone" and plows ahead. The course is haphazard and it often goes over an
area twice in a night.
Occasionally the armadillo sits up on its hind legs and, bracing itself with
its tail, sniffs the air for danger. It also uses this stance when examining plants
for insects and berries.
Armadillos are sociable animals. Sometimes as many as fifty may be seen
foraging together. Although adults generally live alone, as many as five have
been found in one den.
The armadillo is a favorite, in a different way, with coyotes, dogs, men and
all other carnivores. Even peccaries eat it. Once you get under that hard shell,
the flesh is delicious. Especially when barbecued with hot chili sauce. The meat
is white and tender, and tastes like pork. In east Texas, the armadillo is often
called "poverty pig" or "poor man's pig."
Its eyesight is bad, and, despite the uncovered mule ears, its hearing is not
much better. Enemies can often creep up closely before the industrious anna-
SURVIVORS OF ANCIENT ORDERS 113
dillo notices anything wrong. In such a dilemma, some of its cousins in South
America roll up tightly in their armor.
Unfortunately our armadillo's suit is not as complete, and it must take to its
heels for safety. With amazing speed, this clumsy-looking little pig-tank races
for its burrow or a thicket. It can outrun a man and outdodge many dogs.
Once in a tangled thicket, its safest refuge, it digs furiously. The two great
middle claws on each front foot slash at the earth and soon it is out of sight.
Here, in this emergency tunnel, it arches its body and the plates of its "mail"
dig into the soil. Pulling it backward only wedges the plates more firmly. An
armadillo once buried itself in two minutes so firmly into the earth that it was
necessary to use a pick to dig it out. If cornered, the animal's only defense is
the raking ckws and the odor. The latter originates in a pair of anal glands
and is objectionable to most people. When captured alive, it is easily tamed and
makes an unusual pet. It seems to be unusually free from external parasites
such as ticks, fleas and lice. Armadillos have been known to share their nests
with cottontails, cotton rats, and opossums. Their abandoned burrows are use-
ful as shelters for many animals, including cottontail rabbits, opossums, skunks,
burrowing owls and even an occasional mink.
General description. About the size of a small house cat but much broader and
more squat. Entire body, except the ears, under parts, chin, throat and base of
tail, covered with a dense hard shell which is mottled dark brown to yellowish
white. Practically hairless except for a sprinkling on the under surfaces. Legs
short, feet with well-developed claws. Total length, 28 to 30 inches; height at
shoulders, 5% to 7 inches; weight, 12 to 17 pounds.
Distinguishing characteristics. Shell covering.
Range. Southwestern Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma and Louisiana, southwest
through Texas, Central and South America.
6. The Insect Hunters
MOLE FAMILY TALPIDAE
Few people have ever seen a mole. Most of the family seldom come abov<
ground. But everyone knows when it travels under a lawn or golf course fair
way. Long meandering ridges mark the roof of its tunnels. They ruin th<
appearance of the lawn and spoil the smoothness of the golf course. Prize tulip:
are felled, and golf balls are interrupted.
The common and western moles are almost blind. Their eyes have nearly
disappeared. The eyelids have grown almost together over degenerate eyeballs
and the animals can only distinguish light from darkness. Many nerve ending
on their nose, and sensory hairs on their hands keep them from bumping int<
the sides of the tunnels. Their hearing is also fairly acute.
A few moles, the hairy-tailed, shrew mole and star-nosed, can see more an<
are more venturesome. Their eyes are open, although very small. They frc
quently leave their burrows and travel about on the surface of the ground, bu
COMMON MOLE
THE INSECT HUNTERS 115
still disliking bright light, they keep under the cover of thick grass, ground
litter and fallen logs.
Each species of mole looks superficially like the others. Built for digging
underground, the animal has heavy shoulders with long-snouted head and short
neck. The short front legs are stout and muscular, with large shovel feet and
toes with big heavy claws. The hind legs and feet are small and the tail short.
Except in the hairy-tailed and the star-nose, the tail is almost naked. Moles have
no external ears to get in the way and the short velvety fur offers no resistance
to their passage either backward or forward thrqugh the tunnel. Depending
on the species, they vary from dark gray to black. Albino moles have been seen,
as well as moles whose color was partly or completely cinnamon yellow.
Although the common and western moles usually prefer open country for
their tunnels, the hairy-tailed mole may burrow in woodland if it is not too
dense. Each of these three moles is quite particular about the quality of the
soil. It must not be too sandy and loose, or the tunnels would collapse. Besides,
its food, insects and worms, would be scarce. The most desirable habitat is soft,
moist soil with considerable humus. The mole may live on hillsides, or on
valley bottoms if these are not subject to regular flooding. Although it can get
through a flooded burrow that is not too long, it would be likely to drown if all
of the tunnels were inundated regularly.
The venturesome star-nosed and shrew moles not only leave their tunnels,
but like water and are good swimmers. Their burrows are in swampy places,
frequently in mucky soils and ending in a stream or pool. A very large part of
the food of these moles consists of aquatic insects. Sometimes a stream bed is
thoroughly plowed up by moles for the annelid worms that live there. The
moles' broad front feet and the smaller hind ones serve as oars, while the tail is
used slightly as a rudder.
Moles caught above ground don't run. They dig down underground and
disappear almost immediately. In the water they try to escape danger by diving
rather than by fleeing to land. Trappers sometimes catch these water-minded
moles in traps- set under water at the entrances to muskrat dens. A hardy
individual, the star-nosed mole is quite likely to travel in water, under the
ice.
The tunnels of all the moles are of two kinds. The deep tunnel, from six
inches to two feet below the surface, is used as "living quarters" in which the
mole spends the winter as well as periods of heat and drought. The surface
tunnel, whose visible roof annoys housewives and golfers, is chiefly a means of
reaching food. If worms are abundant, the mole will return to an old upper
runway again and again. If not, it is used only a few times or perhaps but once.
Il6 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
Sometimes the surface tunnel is quite long and can be traced for more than
half a mile. Perhaps such long passages are highways between nest and feeding
grounds. They may also be the work of more than one mole.
If the soil is soft, surface tunnels are made quite easily. Apparently the mole
uses its snout to find a suitable place to dig. Then it shovels the dirt aside with
the big front feet. Going ahead, it twists the forward part of its body sideways
and pushes upward with the forefeet. Thus the passageway is made by pushing
alternately against the sides and the roof. The little miner seems to have a sense
of location, at least in respect to the surface, for it goes over ridges and across
ravines without breaking through to the top, or varying the thickness of the
tunnel roof. In fairly compact soil it digs at the rate of twelve to fifteen feet an
hour, including halts to feed or rest.
The deep tunnel is made in more compact soil and requires much more time
and labor than the upper system of passages. First the hard soil is clawed loose
with the front feet, thrown back under the body, and kicked to the rear by the
hind feet. When a load has accumulated, the mole must turn around in the ,
narrow passage. It has no turn-out. An able contortionist, it makes a slow half
somersault. Now headed back to the opening, it pushes the dirt ahead of itself
through the tunnel to the surface, where the mole spills it out in what we call
a "molehill."
Even in cold climates, the common mole seems to be active throughout the
winter except during periods of the lowest temperature. It cannot construct new
surface tunnels where the ground is frozen, but the deeper system may be
extended by carrying the excavated dirt into old side passages. Probably its
activity depends upon the activity of its animal food.
I have occasionally seen tunnels that the star-nosed mole has made through
the snow. Sometimes it comes out impatiently, and runs along on top of the icy
crust. One of the peculiarities of some star-nosed moles is the curious enlarge-
ment of their tails in winter. At its greatest thickness, an exceptionally swollen
tail may be as large in cross-section as a ten-cent piece. Nobody knows why the
tail should swell at this time, nor why some star-nosed moles have it, and others
do not.
Our moles are not known to store food, but a European mole is said to
paralyze earthworms by biting them in the head and keeping them in cold
storage for the winter.
Most moles work day and night, probably hardest in the daytime when the
earthworms and insects are stirring. Perhaps because they labor so strenuously,
the moles have an insatiable appetite. They often eat the equivalent of one-third
to two-thirds of their own weight in a day. For a one hundred and eighty pound
THE INSECT HUNTERS 117
man, that would be sixty to one hundred and twenty pounds o meat and
vegetables every day.
Not even the approach of death can destroy their appetities. Mortally
wounded by sharp-pronged traps, they have been known to eat earthworms
when placed within reach.
They prefer worms and insects, including ants, insect larvae, millepeds and
centipedes, also snails, slugs and sowbugs. Occasionally, however, they must fill
up the crannies with small amounts of vegetable matter such as seeds of corn,
wheat and oats.
Apparently the eastern mole does not eat tulip bulbs, or any roots or tubers.
It is likely to cut through them on its endless journey for other food, and the
mice, that follow, finish them. The western mole, however, often devours tulip
and iris bulbs as well as many other garden plants even when more usual food
is abundant.
Earthworms are grasped in the mouth by one end and chewed down like
spaghetti. The mole makes no effort to wipe off the dirt. As the two front
paws slide down the worm's length, however, they occasionally dean the worm
inside and out. The mole often kills beetles and other active prey by crushing
them against the side of the burrow with front paws. At other times it piles
earth on them and bites off their heads while they are thus imprisoned.
Do moles live together? Morose, underground creatures, most of them do
not. Occasionally two or three common moles have been known to use the
same tunnel in summer. Apparently the males live together more amicably
than do females. In one case two females actually occupied a tunnel together
for some time. But the inevitable quarrel took place. Plugging up a passageway
with a wall they isolated themselves into separate tunnels.
The star-nosed and hairy-tailed are probably the only moles that really like
a bit of company. It is not uncommon to find some numbers of them using a
community system of runways.
Moles propagate only once a year. Mating in March, or earlier in the South,
the one to five young are born six weeks later. This low replacement rate is an
indication that the mole has comparatively few enemies. Many of the other small
mammals have three or four or even more litters a year.
The birth chamber is in the lower tunnel. About eight inches in diameter
and five inches deep, it may be lined with dead leaves, dry grass, or not at all.
It may be located under a stump, boulder or bush for added protection, and
lve several entrances from as many tunnels.
The young are comparatively well developed when born. The fleshy nose
fringe of the star-nosed mole is conspicuous at birth, and in fact can be dis-
Il8 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
cerned in a half-grown embryo. The youngsters grow rapidly. At the age of
two months they are nearly as big as their parents and are demolishing lawns
and golf courses with almost equal skill. They are ready to mate the next spring
at the age of ten months.
Three years later, if accidents have not overtaken them, they are in their
dotage. The common mole and western mole lead such subterranean lives that
they are free from many troubles that beset the moles that venture on the
surface. Most of the carnivores, such as the skunk, fox, and coyote, and the birds
of prey such as the barn, barred and great-horned owls and the broad-winged
and red-tailed hawks, will eat moles when they have an opportunity. The strong
musky odor is some protection, however. Snakes sometimes pursue moles in
their own runways. The star-nosed mole, while swimming, is in danger from
rapacious fish like the pike.
Lice, fleas and mites may live in the fur, and threadworms in the stomach.
Man kills great numbers of moles when they invade his premises, disfiguring
lawns and gardens. Most commercial mole fur is imported from Great Britain
and Canada. Once worth thirty-five cents each, the pelt of our own western mole
is now seldom traded. It is good-sized but does not take dye satisfactorily.
The western mole at times feeds on flower bulbs and farm crops. It is also
accused of spreading plant pests and diseases, and of providing easy access via
its runways for mice to reach and destroy garden and orchard plants. In such
cases, it can be caught and killed by traps set in the runways.
It should be accepted with enthusiasm in many other areas. It is one of the
important soil-forming organisms, for it works over and aerates the soil, and
destroys important crop enemies, such as cut-worms and Japanese beetles. It is
interesting because of its peculiar way of life.
The North American moles are divided into two groups eastern and
western. The former range from the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, between Labrador
and northern Tamaulipas, Mexico, west to Manitoba and eastern Colorado.
These eastern moles arc divided into three groups or genera:
1. The common mole (Scalopui) has a naked tail and is best known and
most widely distributed. It is found from Massachusetts west to central Minne-
sota and western Nebraska, and from Florida to southern Texas. It is between
5J^ and 8 inches long.
2. The hairy-tailed mole (Parascdops) which lives from New Brunswick
and southern Ontario south to the mountains of 1 western North Carolina!
Length 6 inches.
3. The star-nosed mole (Condylura) has a peculiar fleshy fringe around the
THE INSECT HUNTERS
nose and lives from southern Labrador west to Manitoba and south to Georgia
and northern Illinois. Length 7 to 8 inches.
The western moles are divided into two groups:
1. The western mole (Scapanus) is much like the common mole of the
East, but larger. It is abundant from the west coast to the high mountains
between British Columbia and northern Baja California. Length 6 to 9 inches.
The Oregon member of this group is the largest and has the handsomest coat
of all the moles. Nearly black, it brings a higher price than other skins.
2. The shrew mole (Netirotrichus) is the smallest of all the moles, about
4j^ inches long. It is found on higher ground west of the Sierra Nevada from
southern British Columbia to Monterey County, California.
General description. A small, stout-bodied, burrowing animal with pointed
nose, short legs, and large flattened front feet; eyes and ears very small (hardly
visible without close examination) ; tail short. Fur soft, brushing in any direc-
tion like velvet, gray to black in color. Total length, 4^ to 9 inches; height at
shoulder, about 2 inches; weight, 2 to 4 ounces.
Distinguishing characteristics. Larger than the shrews and mice, which spend at
least part of their lives on the surface of the ground; different from the pocket
gopher in that the latter, although a burrowing mammal, has a rounded nose
and small but readily discernible eyes and ears.
Range. Labrador to Florida and Tamaulipas, Mexico, west to Manitoba and
northeastern Colorado; also west of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada from
southern British Columbia to northern Baja California.
SHREW
FAMILY SORICIDAE
The smallest of all our North American mammals is the shrew, and it is
also one of the fiercest. Even when it is only three inches long, it is as ferocious
as a small tiger. It does not hesitate to leap upon a mouse that may be twice
its weight. Almost anything smaller than a weasel that crawls, runs, or flies is
tempting to 'this insatiable little assassin.
Most of its victims do not have a chance. If it is the short-tailed shrew, it
poisons them when it snaps its tiny jaws. The secretion from the salivary glands,
flowing into the wounds made by the long lower incisor teeth, slows the heart
120
MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
action and breathing of the victims. Then it easily tears them limb from limb
and devours skin, bones, and all.
Several centuries ago, our European ancestors knew that the bite of the
shrew was poisonous. Gradually this knowledge was lost until it was regarded
as an old wives' tale. Very recently it was found that our forebears were not so
stupid. Saliva from the glands in the lower jaw of the short-tailed shrew was
injected into captive mice. They quickly lost their alertness and began to breathe
heavily. Soon their hind legs became partly paralyzed, and they moved with
.great difficulty. Larger doses of the saliva brought on convulsions and finally
death from failure of the lungs. The effect of the poison in the mouth juices of
the shrew is very similar to that of snake venom especially cobra.
Tn experiments, six milligrams of ground-up salivary glands of the short-
tailed shrew proved sufficient to kill a mouse weighing twenty grams (almost
four-fifths ounce), or about the same size as the shrew. The entire glands con-
tained enough poison to kill two hundred mice! A naturalist bitten by a shrew
COMMON SHREW
THE INSECT HUNTERS 121
reported an instant burning sensation, followed by shooting pains in his arm.
Considerable discomfort lasted for over a week.
Not all species of shrews can depend upon poison. The saliva of the long-
tailed shrew (Sorac), for instance, seems to have only a slightly crippling effect
on its victims.
When the shrew is not butchering its almost continuous meals, it is fighting
with other shrews. If it lives to be a year old, it is likely to have lost a tail, a toe,
a finger, or all three, and the hide may be badly scarred.
Some trap records seem to indicate that males are twice as numerous as
female shrews, which may explain why they are such savage fighters.
Extremely nervous, the shrew is the most high-strung of all our animals.
Every movement is quick and jerky. First a little dash forward, then a quick
turn and a lunge at right angles. All this action is accompanied by a twittering
series of short exclamations. When fighting, it fills the air with continuous high-
pitched squeaks. Its feints and passes are almost too swift for the human eye
to follow.
Even during the rare intervals when it is standing still, its nose is working
and the tiny ears seem to be strained to catch the slightest sound. Frequently a
movement or sound will send it scurrying for shelter. Sometimes, however, it
will come to a stop completely in the open, quite unlike most small animqls
that rush from one shelter to another.
Repeatedly I have found shrews dead in my "catch-'em-alive" mouse traps.
They were apparently uninjured and had been provided with plenty of food
Because they were so high-strung, they had fretted themselves to death in a few
hours or even minutes after being caught. If bedding is not provided in traps,
they die quickly of exposure unless the weather is quite warm.
The appetite of the little shrew is enormous, much greater than that of the
hungry mole. It burns up a terrific amount of energy, and can eat the equiva-
lent of its own weight in meat on an average of every three hours.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam once placed three shrews under a glass tumbler.
"Almost immediately they commenced fighting, and in a few minutes one was
slaughtered and eaten by the other two. . . . One of these then killed and ate
his only surviving companion." Having eaten two companions of its own size
within eight hours "its abdomen was much distended," Dr. Merriam staidly
concluded.
Though the shrew is not limited to a special ration, it is at times reduced
to eating vegetables. Berries and nuts are the least objectionable. I have trapped
many hungry shrews in winter with oatmeal as bait. During this season when
meat is scarce, oatmeal seems to be as effective a lure as bacon. In the summer,
122 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
however, nothing less than odoriferous bacon will attract them to a trap. In the
Northwest they eat quantities of Douglas fir seeds. Because the animals are
abundant, they may be one of the natural checks on the reproduction of this
important forest tree.
In spite of its passion to get somewhere, anywhere, always in a great hurry,
the shrew finds an opportunity to be well groomed. First it may clean its face
with its hind feet. Then it washes its fur with its tongue and combs it with the
toes. When kept in a cage, it fastidiously uses only one corner for a toilet.
The only other animal with whom the shrew can get along is his mate. He
may live with her peaceably, even devotedly, for some time before and during
the mating season, and until the young arc born. Although he is found once
in a while with as many as five or six adults in one nest or covert, the others
are probably his mate and grown offspring. Usually the young are thrown out
on their own resources by the time they are a month old. At this age they have
become competitors for food and ordinarily are no more friendly than total,
strangers.
The typical little shrew is born in a covered leaf and grass nest in a hollow
stump, under a log, or in a burrow near the surface of the ground. The outside
diameter of this bundle of loose material is six to eight inches, but that of the
interior is only two or three inches. The entrance is a small opening in the
side of this ball-shaped nest.
There may be three to ten, usually six or seven, young in the nest. Tiny,
pink and wrinkled, they are about the size of honey bees.. Their combined
weight is less than that of a twenty-five-cent piece, but is nearly or quite half o
their mother's weight. She is very busy trying to satisfy her appetite which has
now become voracious, and receives no help from her mate. In fact, just before
the young are born, she takes the precaution of chasing him out of the nest.
At the age of a week, the little shrew begins to acquire its coat of fur, and
can crawl about in the nest. In another week the body is well furred, the ears are
open, and a few days later the first teeth appear. Within three or four weeks
the eyes open. Its mother now feels that it is old enough to be weaned, and it is
put out on its own for the rest of its short life. Meanwhile the mother gets
ready for the next bumper crop of babies as she has two or three litters each
summer.
The young shrew becomes wise to the ways of the world in a hurry.
Although it is thrust into the world of competitors and enemies without experi-
ence, it learns quickly to be a successful hunter. Instead of the mother's milk,
it gulps down crickets, ants, beetles, the larvae of flies, butterflies, moths, grass-
hoppers, slugs and centipedes. With the strong, hooked incisor teeth, it bites off
THE INSECT HUNTERS
the apex and spire of shells and pulls out snails and other mollusks. Earthworms
and small salamanders furnish easy prey. Lizards are nabbed by their tails, but
occasionally escape if the tail breaks off. The young shrew philosophically eats
the tail and tries to work faster with the next one. Any carrion, no matter how
rank, is a find. If maggots are working in it, so much the better!
Young mice are readily killed. An animal as active as a grown mouse has a
good chance to elude the killer because of the shrew's poor eyesight. In a cage,
where it cannot get away, it is a different matter. Even if the mouse were able
to fight back before being affected by the poison, it has little chance to kill its
smaller attacker. The shrew's skin is thick and tough, especially on the neck,
and even a large mouse is unable to bite through it.
In captivity, the shrew appears to be playful. Or maybe it is just keeping
in practice. Captives have frequently pretended to have a hard struggle to kill
small insects put in their cage. Throwing them into the air, they worry and tug,
rush and jump, as a cat may play with a mouse.
Just as these fierce little shrews leap upon and devour insects, so are they in
turn leaped upon and devoured by many larger meat-caters. Their skulls and
bits of their bones are often found in owl pellets. Hawks and shrikes pounce
upon them, and snakes, weasels, foxes, bobcats and coyotes hunt them. If it is
hungry enough, even the great timber wolf may not disdain the tiny, strong-
flavored creature. A pair of glands, one on each flank of the shrew, secretes such
a strong-smelling musk that some predators do not relish their flesh. When not
hungry, they will occasionally leave the little carcasses untouched. House cats
especially are apt to kill and play with the remains of shrews, but are not hungry
enough to overcome their repugnance to the rank odor.
You might think the water shrew would be comparatively safe from the
usual enemies. It swims, dives, and walks on the stream bottom, catching small
fishes and sometimes eating fish eggs which it digs from the gravelly spawning
beds. The fur holds many tiny globules of air, so that under water it appears
to be covered with a silvery sheath of little bubbles, but the inner fur does not
absorb any of the moisture.
It walks on the water! Holding air bubbles in the feet, it runs blithely across
the surface of a quiet pool. But this astonishing feat is no great protection, for
the species is captured by fish, herons, and even mergansers.
Every shrew leads a fast life and a short one. It has no time to hibernate!
Propagating two or three families of three to ten offspring a season, it has
finished its mission in life at the age of fourteen or sixteen months. It has lived
and eaten too hastily and too much. Rather frequently it is found dead without
any mark of violence, dead of old age at sixteen months!
124 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
Don't ever think a shrew is a mouse. It is an insectivore, like the mole, and
in a general way has many mole characteristics. Its body is more slender, but
like the mole's is covered with dark gray, velvetlike fur that brushes easily
either way and never sticks up. Occasionally it has white patches on its flanks,
and one shrew is recorded to have had a white belt around the middle. Only
one in many thousands is an albino.
The shrew has short legs, tiny feet, insignificant tail, and a long head drawn
out into a probing snout. It can see better than the mole, but the eyes are very
sub-normal perhaps 2/20 on an optician's scale. Because it is far quicker and
more active than the mole, its diet is more varied.
Some of the Indian tribes distinguished shrews from mice. The Eskimos
knew that a shrew that chanced to stray onto the sea ice was a distinct species,
and they believed it to be a veritable demon. If disturbed, they thought the
little creature would dart at the intruder, burrow into him and kill him by
entering the heart. E. W. Nelson tells of an Eskimo hunter who, meeting such
a shrew, stood like a stone for several hours until it disappeared. On reaching
home, his friends all congratulated him on a very narrow escape.
Shrews inhabit most of North America. They are classified in five groups,
several of which are difficult to distinguish except on skull and teeth characters.
1. The common, long-tailed, and water shrews (genus Sorex) have rather
long tails and, with the exception of (2) and (3) below, are the smallest North
American mammals. They live in damp places all the way across the northern
part of the continent, and from the Arctic Ocean south to northern Florida,
Illinois, Nebraska, central California and in the western mountains south to
Guatemala. Length, $ l /2 to 6 l /2 inches; weight, l / 3 to % ounce.
2. The pigmy shrew (Microsorex) is very tiny and has a short tail. It is
found in dry open woods from northeastern Quebec to west central Alaska, and
south to the District of Columbia, Ohio, and northwestern Washington. Length,
3 to 4 inches; weight, about 1/14 ounce.
3. The "little" shrew (Cryptotis) is much like the short-tailed shrew but is
smaller and is brownish instead of gray. It occurs in swamps from southern
New York to the tip of Florida, westward to eastern Nebraska, Texas, and into
northern South America. The shortest American mammal: length, 3 inches.
4. The short-tailed shrew (Blarina) is a rather stocky, dark gray animal with
a short tail. It lives from southeastern Canada south to southern Florida and
west to Oklahoma and Manitoba. Length, 4 to 5 inches.
5. The Crawford or gray shrew (Notiosorex) is a slender animal about 4
inches long with a rather short tail and large ears. It is very rare within its
THE INSECT HUNTERS 125
range: eastern Texas to southern California and south into Mexico for an
unknown distance. Length, $ l /2 inches.
General description. A very small, darting mammal with pointed muzzle,
minute or hidden eyes and ears, slender body, and small delicate feet; tail varies
from short to long. Fur soft, brownish or grayish. Total length, 3 to 6 l /2 inches;
height at shoulder, % to 1^2 inches; weight, 2 to 20 grams, or 1/15 to 4/5 ounce.
Distinguishing characteristics. Usually seen briefly only while darting across the
surface of the ground, when it may be confused with mice. The latter are usually
proportionately "fatter" and their pelage is coarser and grizzled or more fawn-
colored. Although similar in color, moles are much larger and normally live
underground. The shrews are not only much smaller, but more slender, quicker
of movement, and spend a portion of their time on the surface of the ground.
Range. Practically all of North America.
1. The Flyer
BAT SUBORDER MICROCHIROPTERA
The bat is the only mammal that has wings. It is covered with fur, and has
big ears and a tail. It suckles its mother's breast for milk. It bites, has the face
of a tiny bull dog, the body of a mouse, and the wings of a miniature airplane.
Of the nearly 2,000 kinds of bats in the world, it may be the demure little
pipistrelle only two inches long, or the great flying fox of the East Indies with
a wingspread of more than four feet which cats fruits and flowers.
The bat does not try to get into women's hair. If it does, by chance, it does
not result in death or a disastrous love affair within a year, as some writers
would have you believe. Some bats vampires are said to suck human blood,
but these bats do not live in the United States or Canada.
What is this mysterious flying mammal? Its furred face, the little eyes almost
buried in wrinkles, pug nose, determined chin, and wings have erroneously
symbolized evil for centuries.
Probably its ancestor began life like any other mammal. Perhaps it was a
little shrewlike creature living in the tree tops. But see what determination can
dol For countless ages, each new generation spent much of its energy trying to
fly. Each bat even went to sleep hanging upside down. At last the little creature's
legs and arms became stiff and sticklike. Slowly the hands and fingers grew
fantastically long. A membrane of hairless skin covered and connected them,
and they became the ribs of wings. It took many millions of years for the bats
to learn to fly. The flying squirrels are still trying!
Since the bat's legs and arms have been imprisoned by a wing-membrane
and its knees and elbows bend only backward, its feet and hands are of little
use except to hang itself up when it goes to sleep. On the end of each free,
short thumb is a long claw which helps the bat when alighting and when
crawling over the ground. The female uses it in giving birth as is shown later.
Bat ears are leathery and usually are bare of hair. Some are small, while
others are so large that they have to be supported by thickened ribs. The ears
of the pale bat, for instance, are twice as long as its face.
You wouldn't think there would be anything very remarkable about a bat's
pug nose. A strange erect membrane or "leaf' rises on the nose of our leaf-
126
THE FLYER 12.J
nosed bat. This fellow has numerous relatives outside this country whose
"leaves" take many different forms.
Is there a purpose for this leaf? One supposition is that it is a sensitive
recorder of air vibrations set up by insect wings or reflected from stationary
objects, or the echoes of supersonic shouts made exploratively by the bats them-
selves. Proceeding upon this assumption, it is said, Sir Hiram Maxim invented
the echo sounder for finding obstacles hidden from a ship by darkness or fog.
This device and the related depth finder, which determines the ocean depths
by "bouncing" sound off the bottom, are among the most useful aids to naviga-
tion. Radar, the device by which the pilots of World War II found enemy
aircraft and other targets on the blackest of nights, utilized a similar adaptation,
this time of electrical waves.
A bat cannot compete with falcons, doves or many of the waterfowl in a
race against time and distance. Nevertheless the bats which migrate south for
the winter travel many hundreds of miles each autumn. While pursuing prey,
BROWN BAT
128 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
many a bat can twist, turn and dodge in full flight with much greater agility
than almost any bird.
Different bats have different techniques of flying. The little brown bat is
extremely erratic, dodging and twisting with great speed. The pipistrelle flutters
irregularly and slowly as if it couldn't make up its mind. The leaf-nosed bat
swoops in long, very swift, apparently purposeful arcs. Although most bats'
wings describe almost a half -circle in making each beat, the free-tailed bat flies
like a bird with short, swift beats.
These marvellous fliers usually drink while flying. I have often watched
them passing back and forth just above a pool. On each pass they scooped up a
tiny tongue-full of water. Silver-haired bats falling into swiftly-flowing streams
have proved to be excellent swimmers.
"Blind as a bat" is not completely blind. They can sec well enough and are
not dazzled by sunlight. Apparently, however, they depend largely on their
"hearing."
Experiments were carried out with bats flying in a room hung with criss-
crossing silk threads. The bats had been blinded but they flew about without
touching the threads. Other blinded bats have been able to fly under chairs and
other furniture to escape capture. Although not infallible when flying through
an experimental maze of wires, blinded bats have been fairly successful The
little brown bats hit wires only about once in every four or five flights.
When the bats had their ears stopped with plaster, they blundered into
obstacles two-thirds of the time. Apparently they guide themselves by the
echoes of vibrations thrown back from objects. In this way they can chase their
food at full speed through the darkness and dodge all sorts of obstacles.
Bats have voices which cover a wide register. In the upper range, the fre-
quency of the sounds is in the neighborhood of fifty kilocycles, or fifty thousand
sound waves a second. This is within the band used by commercial radio, and
of course is far beyond the perception of the human ear. The bats listen for the
echoes of their high-pitched cries to locate objects which they cannot see as they
fly through darkness. In their ordinary conversations, and when expressing fear
or pain, bats use "deep bass" tones which are audible to our ears as shrill squeaks.
As a race, bats eat a great variety of food. As families, they have highly
specialized diets. The vampires are famous, or infamous, for living on blood.
Some bats prey on frogs, mice, small birds, and lesser bats. These are all tropical
animals, and none of them ever come to the United States except in the cages
of collectors for zoos. Other bats, including the flying foxes of Australia, subsist
on a fruit diet. There are even fish-eating bats! They catch fish -by scooping
them up in their tail membrane, or grasping them with their sharp-nailed feet,
THE FLYER I2p
or both. Our own bats, as well as a host of others throughout the world, live
almost entirely on insects.
At times bats may look for food on the ground. They have been known to
feed on scorpions, and on Jerusalem crickets and their flightless relatives. Most
of the time they capture their insect prey while flying. The click of their sharp
white teeth snapping shut on a hapless moth can be heard for twenty feet.
Sometimes they catch their meals in their mouth, sometimes in their tail
membrane. When this membrane is dropped so that it curves back of the hind
legs, it forms a net or pocket. If the captured prey is too large and powerful the
bat takes it to a tree, where it bites the victim in the head several times and
then devours it. The bat eats moths head-first and discards their wings.
The tiny bat has a big appetite. It will eat a quarter of its weight at one
meal and more than half its weight every night. We owe it a debt of gratitude
for its share in keeping the insect world in its place. The hordes of bats at
Carlsbad Caverns eat several tons of insects in a single night. Estimates of the
number in this colony range from one-half million to nine million. Most of
them live in one vast room, a quarter of a mile long and up to one hundred and
fifty feet high. It is located in what is probably the greatest and most thrilling
chain of caves in the world. On summer evenings about sundown, on -a signal
that perhaps is given by a change in the air currents, the bats stream forth from
the mouth of the cave to feed in the Pecos River Valley. For fifteen to twenty
minutes the crowded column of bats pours upward and away until it seems to
be a mile long. The clicking of wings as they strike accidentally, the squeaking
protests of the animals, and the draft of air stirred into movement can be heard
and felt a hundred feet away.
The deposit of their guano in the Caverns was at one time about one-quarter
mile long, over one hundred feet wide and up to one hundred feet deep. Over
one hundred thousand tons have been shipped for commercial fertilizer. At
present, this valuable deposit is being replaced at the rate of a little less than an
inch per year.
The value of guano, ranging from $60 to $90 per ton in the past, led oppor-
tunists to build artificial roosts to attract the animals. These towers, most of
which are in Texas, are about twenty feet high, twelve feet square at the base
and six feet square at the top. Only a few of them have been occupied by large
numbers of free-tailed bats. The guano that accumulates on the floor of the
tower is emptied by a chute. Ardent bat-fans claim that these animals control
malarial mosquitoes but this has not been proven. We do know that they eat
vast quantities of insects that are injurious to crops.
Most bats spend five-sixths of their life hanging upside down in the dark.
130 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
The bats that sleep through the summer days in caves, hollow trees or similar
dark places usually spend the cold weather in caverns in the same general
region. Brown bats and long-eared bats have been found hibernating in caves
as far north as Port Arthur, Ontario, on the noith shore of Lake Superior where
the outside temperature frequently is colder than twenty degrees below zero.
The winter homes of all cool-climate bats must be deep enough to maintain
their temperature above the freezing point. Sometimes they put up in buildings
at the risk that the human owners will shut off the heat and migrate
south.
If the temperature of their winter retreat stays between thirty-four and forty
degrees above zero the bats go into a sound sleep. They breathe at five-minute
intervals and stir only occasionally. Their body temperature becomes only slightly
higher than that of the surrounding air. If necessary, they can arouse them-
selves, may move a bit, and if water is available drink a little. Sometimes bats
choose poor hibernating pkces. In such cases they have been known to fly as
far as one hundred and twenty-five miles between caves during cold weather.
When spring brings out the early insects, all the bats rouse, and start flying and
feeding.
A few species, such as the red, the hoary, and the silver-haired bats, migrate
south in autumn and return in spring. These bats roost in treetops or against
tree trunks. They do not like to enter caves and they winter luxuriously in the
southeastern states. Most of them migrate over land, largely at night, but several
great flights in the daytime, usually in cloudy weather, have been recorded.
Sometimes the travelers take short cuts over the ocean. Flights of several
hundred bats have passed ships that were ten to twenty miles off the Atlantic
coast, or have alighted wearily for a rest and free ride. Others have taken refuge
on ships or lighthouses from twenty to one hundred and fifty miles from land.
Red bats sometimes reach Bermuda, but probably these are wanderers that have
lost their way or have been blown off their course by winds.
The bat often can find its way home after being kidnapped. In one experi-
ment, little brown bats were taken from their colonies in southern Ontario and,
after being banded, were released at distances of sixty-eight and seventy-six
miles. Six nights later, some of these bats were found back at home. In another
instance, bats of the same species were taken from their roost on an island in
Lake Winnepesaukee, New Hampshire. Some were released seventy miles away
to the northwest, at Lyndonville, Vermont. Others were set free at New Haven,
Connecticut, one hundred and eighty miles to the south and west. A check of
the colony about a year later revealed some of these tagged bats.
Most females have but one young; a few species may have two, three, or
THE FLYER 13!
four in a litter. The embryos develop very slowly after the August, September,
or October mating. In fact their growth is suspended completely through the
winter while the mother can get little or no food. Little brown bats (Myotis)
have been seen mating in winter during the hibernating period. The gestation
time of this species has been estimated at fifty to sixty days. Dr. H. B. Sherman
has learned that development in the Florida free-tailed bat (Tadarida) requires
between eleven and twelve weeks.
When it comes time to give birth in May, June or July, bat mothers usually
retire to "maternity wards." In most species the prospective fathers live for the
time in bachelor clubs.
Hanging from a wall or tree by her feet and thumb hooks, the mother
spreads herself into an apron to catch the new baby. Like human babies, most
bats are born head first and crying at the top of their squeaky voices. Others
come feet or knees first. The mother efficiently cuts the umbilical cord and eats
the after-birth.
The new baby is tiny, blind and naked. Nevertheless, it is one-eighth to
one-third the size of the mother. Singlets are larger, of course, than twins,
triplets or quadruplets. The bat mother is most affectionate and devoted. Hang-
ing head downward during the day, she partly holds the babies in her folded
wings as they cling to her breasts. When she flies out in the evening, she may
at times carry her family along. This is a tremendous load for such a small
animal. A hoary bat has been known to carry two young that totaled twenty-five
per cent more than her own weight. Other females have flown some distance
with even heavier burdens. By the time such a mother has eaten half her weight
in food, she really has a load. No small bird could equal this feat. It is possible
only because of the bat's comparatively great wings.
The mother bat will brave considerable danger to protect her children. One
bat is known to have fought off a blue jay with teeth, wings and hisses. Others
have even been known to alight on human beings who were carrying off their
babies.
By the time the young bats are two weeks old, they are half-grown and too
heavy for their mother to carry any great distance. The young of some species
are precocious and reach this stage in about three or four days. Since the
youngsters now support themselves on the roost the mother no longer has
qualms about leaving them home at night. At the age of three weeks they
begin to practice flying and in a few days are out every night hunting their
own meals.
Bats have comparatively few enemies and often die of old age, which is not
very long in coming. Old World fruit bats in captivity have lived to the advanced
132 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
age of almost twenty years. Most bats in the wild are probably worn out in a
few years.
Owls capture some bats, probably by luck rather than by skill because, if
given warning, most bats can easily avoid any predatory bird. The bats are
subject to the usual run of accidents. Wind storms may beat an unlucky bat to
the ground or against a tree trunk, or blow it too far out at sea. Migrating bats,
like birds, are sometimes fatally attracted to lighthouses. Hail is a hazard to tree-
roosting species, and sudden snows may overtake cave bats before they can
reach shelter. In 1940 a storm in Minnesota closed a cave entrance with drifted
snow. Afterward more than a hundred dead bats were found outside the
blocked entrance. Bats have been found inextricably caught in burdock burrs,
other spiny plants, and barbed wire fences, but such accidents are probably
rare.
Most unjustly, the bat has the reputation of being unclean and of harboring
bedbugs and all manner of crawling things. It is actually one of the cleanest of
animals, including man. It spends much time preparing its toilet while hanging
upside down. It licks and cleans thoroughly every bit of the body and wings
that it can reach with its long red tongue. Moistening the hind foot, the bat
runs it through the hair on the back, the top of the head and other spots that
are out of reach of the tongue. To clean its valuable ears, it licks a thumb and,
sticking it into the ear, twists and shakes it. Little brown bats have been seen
to spend a half-hour on their baths.
Of course some bats are parasitized, but this is true of almost all animals
. and birds. I have seldom found more than two or three fleas or lice on a bat,
and many that I have examined have been entirely free of parasites.
A few bats have been kept successfully as pets in captivity on a diet of finely
chopped raw or cooked meat, honey bees, hard-boiled eggs, bananas, bread or
crackers, cottage cheese and similar protein-rich foods, all slightly moistened
with milk. Plenty of drinking water is essential At first the little animals are
resentful of handling, but soon will permit it, and even seem to like to have
their heads stroked gently. Bats are edible but strong in taste.
Scientists have named almost two thousand different kinds of bats in the
entire world and grouped them in seventeen families. These in turn are divided
into slightly over two hundred genera. Our North American bats that range
north of Mexico belong to one of three families:
A. The leaf-nosed bat (Macrotus) has a tall growth or "leaf" on its nose.
It is a medium-sized brownish bat of the arid Southwest.
B. The "Molossids" are narrow-winged, fast-flying bats whose tails project
THE FLYER 133
beyond the interfemoral membrane. Most of the family inhabits the tropics and
only two genera reach the United States. These are:
1. The free-tailed bat (Tadarida). This is a medium-sized brown bat found
across the southern United States occasionally as far north as Iowa.
2. The mastiff bat (Eumops) is the largest bat found in this country
(southern Texas to southern California). It is sooty brown and has such long
ears that they droop over the face.
C. All of our other bats belong to the family of "Vespertilionids/' which
contains ten principal subdivisions or genera.
1. The little brown bat (Myotis) is small, dull-brown, and is found over most
of North America.
2. The silver-baked bat (Lasionycteris) is medium-sized and dark with a
"frosting" of white. It occurs throughout the United States.
3. The pipistrelle (Pipistrellus) is very small, pale yellowish brown, and
lives in the eastern and southwestern states.
4. The big brown bat (Eptesicus) is found over most of North America.
5. The red bat (Nycteris), medium-sized and bright rufous, lives in south-
eastern Canada and all except the northwestern quarter of the United States.
6. The yellow bat (Dasypterus) is quite like the preceding, but is pale
yellowish brown instead of red. It is uncommon and ranges into the United
States only in the Southeast.
7. The Rafinesque bat (Nycticeius) is small, dull brown, and is found
uncommonly in the southeastern states.
8. The spotted bat (Euderma), a rather large dark brown animal with a
large white spot on each shoulder and on the rump, is very rare. Only eight have
been recorded, in California, Arizona and New Mexico.
9. The lump-nosed bat (Corynorhinus), which takes its name from a wart-
like growth on the muzzle, is fairly large and brown. It lives throughout the
United States except the Northeast.
10. The pale bat (Antrozous) is large, pale gray, and has big ears. It is
common in our western states, especially in the arid Southwest
General description. A mouselike, brownish or grayish mammal with large
"leathery" wings. Total length, 3 to 5 inches; wing expanse, 6 to 12 inches;
weight, 1/5 ounce to 2 ounces.
Distinguishing characteristics. The wings, and power of flight, distinguish the
bat from all other mammals.
Range. Practically all of North America.
8. The Bears
BLACK BEAR EUARCTOS AMERICANUS
AND RELATIVES
The bkck bear resembles man more than any other North American mam-
mal. Ordinarily it is an independent creature that works hard for a living and
generally minds its own business. It can climb trees and shake down apples as
well as anyone. If it wants a better view, or wind, or to wrestle with a rival, it
stands erect on the hind legs. It may even take a few shuffling steps with this
human posture. Its mate is a good mother that trains her children with affection
and severe discipline.
The Indians noticed the bear's resemblance to a big, shaggy, short-legged
man, a similarity which became startling when the dead creature's enormous fur
coat was removed. They respected this fellow-denizen of the woods. Sometimes
they killed it for food and for warm bedding, but they were careful to apologize
and to speed its spirit to the Happy Hunting Grounds with prayerful chants
and propitiatory offerings. Among the ghosts that peopled the spirit world, the
bear was too powerful not to be appeased. After cleaning the flesh from the
skull, they placed it at the top of a tall pole where it was taboo. In Athabaska,
northern Canada, such skulls have been seen with a fringe of skin and hair
remaining in place around the back of the head, giving an eerie look to the face.
With leisure and opportunity, the black bear becomes very sociable, some-
times too sociable. It acquires a taste for apple pie, chocolate cake, and coca cola.
If refused, it may take these delicacies by force. It loves applause and will down
and squint up its eyes with pleasure when admired.
It has some of our best traits, and some of our worst. It succumbs easily to
temptations that have little appeal to a grizzly bear. When it discovers that a
little acting will bring forth food, it becomes an inveterate cadger. No human
beggar with tin cup and whining voice was ever more ingratiating or obse-
quious than a panhandling black bear. It stands up on its hind legs some seven
feet into the air, scratches itself, looks around and holds out one or both hands.
When being a panhandler fails, it may become a robber. It breaks into cars
and cabins, smashing doors and windows. It tears open tin cans, and goes off
with sacks of sugar, flour, hams and bacon. It has clawed and wounded
numerous persons, and killed some of them. In the national parks where some
134
BLACK BEAK
136 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
of the thousands of visitors have taught bears disrespect for man, all artificial
feeding, including the popular garbage pits, has been discontinued. The Park
Service hopes that these bears can be induced to give up their tourists, ham
sandwiches and apple peelings, and to earn their own living again.
Black bears are quite individualistic about their clothes. A black bear may be
really black or may be any shade of brown, from yellowish and silvery to red-
dish cinnamon. A very black mother may have a blond, redhead, and brunette
in the same litter. And a "blue" bear may occur in southeastern Alaska or an
albino in British Columbia. All this diversification caused the original describer
of the genus to call them "short-clawed American bears." This is really accurate
because the grizzlies have much longer toe nails.
You seldom see a dirty bear. It may be faded and ragged when its seasonal
coat is wearing out. In summer it sometimes takes mud and dust baths to get
relief from insects that burrow deep into its heavy fur coat. But ordinarily it
keeps clean. It scrubs itself on the grass, and licks and grooms the corners and
creases of its coat. It has even been seen taking a warm tub bath in a hot spring
pool that was only eighteen inches deep and four feet in diameter. It seems to
manicure its nails. The result is an amazing amount of sartorial finish consider-
ing the thick coat it has to wear.
The male and female adults have nothing to do with each other except
during mating season in early summer. At this time they are quite affectionate.
Sometimes they stand upright and hug and paw each other fondly. It is all very
pleasant while it lasts, but the idyl is usually over in less than a month. For the
next two years or more the female is interested only in making a living for
herself and young. The male is ignored, or driven off if he dares to make a
threatening gesture at his offspring.
Cold weather makes the bears drowsy and they very sensibly hole up for
varying periods of time, depending upon the climate in which they live. A
pregnant female takes more pains with her winter dwelling. The male bear
just turns in almost anywhere. Of course there are exceptions. Some females are
more slovenly about their housekeeping and some males are inclined to be
fussy. These latter are very particular about leaves for their bed, the draughts
and so forth. In regions where the winds come from the north the bears select
their bedrooms with a southern exposure. The winds then accommodatingly
pile the snow around them and they are well insulated.
The winter home may be a den, a cave in a ledge or among broken rocks,
or a hollow in a large tree or fallen log. Sometimes they have to dig it out
themselves. In Yellowstone Park, fortunate bears may spend the cold season in
steam-heated rooms among the hot spring formations. More careless bears just
THE BEARS 137
go to sleep in a windfall, in the lee of fallen tree trunks, under an especially
dense and drooping crown of a conifer, or in a thicket. Bears have been known
to spend weeks of cold winter in the open, among small trees in a swamp. In
these cases, perhaps natural dens are scarce and are already taken by early
hibernators. Even with a thick fur coat and a three- to four-inch blanket of fat,
these bears must get chilled in extreme weather.
In the south, the bear retires for merely a few days or a week at a time.
In the far north, the bear may disappear in October and never poke his nose
outside until the following April or early May. This period of inactivity in the
northern or colder parts of the United States occurs from about the middle of
November to early April, but much depends on the weather, snowfall, sex,
abundance of food, and probably other factors. A pregnant female, for example,
retires earlier and is more apt to stay inside longer than a restless male without
responsibilities.
Even the most soundly sleeping bear docs not hibernate in the true sense.
Its temperature remains normal and the breathing, which has been timed at
four to five complete respirations a minute, is about that of a person in very
deep slumber. At times the animal is semi-conscious and aware, but not dis-
turbed by movements and sounds around it Sometimes it is wide awake and
resentful of intrusion. Then it may bite or send flying an investigator who
thinks it is "hibernating." Even in the northern states and Canada, bkck bears
occasionally come outside the snuggest dens in the middle of winter, generally
during warmer spells, and wander about for a while before turning in again.
During this winter "twilight sleep," the mother brings her cubs into the
world, perhaps about January. The gestation period therefore is seven to seven
and one-half months. At her first delivery when she is three years old, she usually
has only one young. Thereafter she ordinarily has twins and occasionally trip-
lets. In a few instances, litters of four have arrived. Superintendent J. A. Wood
of Prince Albert Park, Saskatchewan, once saw a bear cross a road through the
woods followed by fiv c cubs, all of the same size and presumably brothers and
sisters.
At birth the cubs of a bkck bear are actually smaller than those of a Canada
porcupine. About nine inches long, they weigh six to eight ounces each, only
one five-hundredth of the weight of their mother. Blind, hairless, toothless and
squealing, they resemble miniature bull dogs whose legs and ears are just barely
indicated. But they know where to find milk, and the mother dozes on. Mother-
hood at this stage is very easy. She has no hunting to do, and the youngsters
cannot wander off. Her small, warm bed is made of grasses, pine needles, leaves
and bark, and may not be more than thirty inches across.
138 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
After about forty days and nights, the cubs open their eyes and begin to cut
their teeth. They are then twelve inches long, weigh about two pounds, and
are covered with soft black down.
When spring arrives, the mother takes her brood out for their first airing.
Although she has drawn on her layers of fat for nourishment during the whole
winter, she still seems to be as bulky as when she finished her last full meal of
beechnuts. It is generally presumed that her fatty layer is spongy and that the
cells are mere shells. According to this theory she shrinks rapidly and two or
three weeks later is lean and ravenously hungry again.
All bears do not use up their fat in a winter's sleep. The famous biologist,
O. J. Murie, tells me that he has killed bears in April whose fat was very oily
and yielded large quantities of grease for cooking. These were not mother bears,
however.
Like any bear that first comes out in the spring, the mother bear may merely
nibble at cedar twigs or the early sprouting grass. But she will hardly refuse a
big chunk of a winter-killed elk if she sees one. Her old coat, so sleek and
glossy the September before, begins to shed. The itching drives her to rub
against trees and rocks, until she is ragged and her dark skin shows through
in spots.
The cubs weigh about four pounds when they first leave their nest. They
can walk, but unsteadily like toddling human children. They climb much
better. At the first sign of trouble, the mother sends them sprinting up into the
tree tops. If they do not obey her hoarse grunt immediately, she cuffs them hard
and they know better the next time. She does not permit them to come down
until the danger is over, or, if she has errands to do, not until her return.
The new world is an interesting big place, but it is also a potentially dan-
gerous one. Almost any meat-eater, down to and probably including the fox,
would be glad to make a meal of a tender young cub. The devoted mother is
the good reason that they don't. Only bigger and stronger bears dare to face
her and usually they have sense enough to leave her alone. Once in a tree, the
cubs can retreat to the ends of branches where heavy adults arc unable to follow.
On the ground, however, large renegade male bears have been known to kill
and eat cubs despite valiant attempts of the mother to defend them.
Some mother bears have apparently adopted orphan cubs, but other mothers
will drive them away. A hungry cub that had been taken from his mother in
Yellowstone was chased up a tree continuously by a large female. After several
days, the cub's own mother found him in a tree. Attracted to the foot of the
tree by food, she had immediately recognized his scent on the bark. Rising up
on her hind feet, she grunted urgently and affectionately to him to come down.
THE BEARS 139
The reunion was very touching. She fondled him and talked to him with com-
forting sounds. Then she cleaned him and sat down to nurse him and his sister
at her breasts.
The young of most mammals play with evident enjoyment, but none of
them romp and get into as much mischief as black bear cubs. If one cub tires
and goes to sleep, the other will bite its ear or jump on it. Every trick practiced
by human children on their elders was tried out ages ago by young bears on
their mothers. The bear mother is an indulgent parent and often enters into
the games of tag and wrestling, but she is also a stern disciplinarian. By example
and by help, she teaches the youngsters to hunt mice and ground squirrels, to
dig for wild parsnips and dther roots, and to swim. Too much foolery or rank
disobedience makes her lose her temper. Biff! A quick swat from her strong
arm lands on the little rascal's ear and he flattens out howling.
Bears are silent animals ordinarily, although the mother and her cubs con-
verse by low indeterminate sounds that range 'from grunts to mumbles and
squeaks. In times of stress, however, there is nothing more vocal than a bear. An
angry male can be heard half a mile away. Hoarse, panting roars broken by
snarls and violent "Woofs!" vent his rage. A bear in pain will bawl and sob
like a human. Cubs that have become separated from their mother cry for hours
with a peculiar whimpering, high-pitched moan that rises and falls and stops
only from sheer exhaustion.
Once the bears leave their den, they do not return to it, at least before
autumn. Within a range perhaps ten miles in radius they are nomads for the
next half year. The solitary male has a home range of about fifteen miles. The
mother and her cubs sleep where fatigue overtakes them, sometimes in the
trees, sometimes on the ground. As bulky as she is, a two hundred-pound female
can relax completely when sprawled lengthwise on a limb only four inches in
diameter. Her legs hang down on each side and she sleeps soundly without
falling off. On the ground where most of the real resting is done she selects a
sheltered place in a thicket and scoops out a shallow bed from a few inches
to a foot deep. If abundant food is found in the neighborhood, she and
her family will probably use the same beds for a number of days before
moving on.
All bears swim readily, occasionally five miles at a time. Sometimes in hot
weather they do so just to cool off.
Viewed from the rear, the bear's hindquarters don't appear to belong to him
they look different, and seem to be going in a different direction from his
forequarters. But this mass of muscle and fat and hair gets along, as fast as
twenty-five miles an hour if the distance is short and the need is urgent.
140 MAMMALS OF. NORTH AMERICA
Once again the cold winds whip the last leaves from the maples and the
first real snow of winter begins to cover the ground. The mother, and her cubs
which now weigh about forty pounds apiece, look for a place to spend the
winter. They may sleep together as before, or in dens that are within a few
yards of each other.
The following spring, when the young bears are about sixteen months old,
they are husky fellows that know a good deal about the woods. Their mother
usually feels that she can now disregard them. Occasionally she will go on
nursing them for another season, but she is less likely to do this than the
grizzly bear. By the middle or end of June, she will probably be too interested
in a big male bear in the vicinity to bother with them. Maternal indifference
and the intimidation of the newcomer at last break the family bonds, and the
yearling cubs move on. They travel together another year, until they are about
two and one-half years old, then disperse, mate briefly and become hermits like
their elders. As with humans, sdme bears remain spinsters, or perhaps bachelors,
possibly by preference.
When the bear is not asleep, it spends most of its time looking for food.
This usually comes in small packages for such a big creature. Although it pre-
fers meat, it is too clumsy and comparatively slow to catch a healthy big-game
animal. It digs out burrows and eats mice, chipmunks, ground squirrels, pocket
gophers and marmots or woodchucks. Occasionally it overtakes a porcupine. A
quick flip of the huge black paw, and the porcupine is on its back. With one
blow, the unprotected under parts are torn open, and the victim is scooped out
of its skin. Once in a while the bear is careless or clumsy and gets its face full
of burning quills. Weeks after its death, the porcupine may be avenged a life
for a life.
During fawning time, the bear spends a good many hours looking for young
deer, elk, or antelope. Many hunters think that it gets quite a few, but this is
yet to be proven. The young fawns give off little scent and blend so perfecdy
with the ground that it takes better sight than the bear's to pick them out. It
probably gets some by chance and by srnelL After the first few days of their
lives, the fawns run with their mothers and can easily outspeed the black
monster. Even where both bears and deer are abundant, practically all of the
supposed "kills" are carrion. The bear is not particular; it likes rank meat just
as well as fresh, and may even roll in it.
Largely by accident, the bear finds some eggs and young of low-nesting
birds. Perhaps a brooding bird may be gobbled as well. It has been known to
rip open the whole side of a dead tree when it smelled a brood of fledglings
inside.
THE BEARS 14!
The long, pink tongue busily laps up thousands o carpenter ants as they
swarm over their broken walls. Earth-dwelling species are licked off the mighty
forearms when they boil angrily out of their tunnels to bite the intruder. The
bear is impervious to their tiny stabs and is very fond of their piquant acid
flavor. When crickets and grasshoppers are abundant, it fills its stomach with
them for days at a time.
As a class, black bears are not noted fishermen like the grizzlies and big
brown bears. In the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, however, where hordes of
fish still swarm up the rivers to spawn, the black bears gorge on fish as much
as their larger relatives. Over the rest of America, bears will quickly gobble
down a dead fish but only an occasional one finds it worth while to try to
catch the elusive morsels that dart through the water.
Most of the time the bear is forced to be a vegetarian. Throughout the part
of the year that it is active, especially soon after emerging from its winter den,
it eats quantities of grasses, tender sedges and clover. In the northern Rockies
I have seen places where it has torn great hunks of bark out of lodgepole pines.
The inner bark of this and other conifers is an excellent spring tonic. Some-
times one tree in every ten is scarred in this way. A little later it digs over
acres of ground for roots: starchy thistles and camas, the tiny but tasty bulbs of
dog-toothed violets, avalanche lilies, spring beauties, and wild onions.
The list of fruits includes everything he can find. Manzanita berries, buffalo-
berries, snowberries, elderberries, kinnikinnik-berries, hackbjrries, serviceber-
ries, blueberries, strawberries, wild cherries, the fruits of poison oak, thornapple,
crabapple, pawpaw, and persimmon. In the far south, the bear breaks open
and eats the big central bud from the top of the cabbage palm.
All bears take the easy way of storing food for the long winter. They gorge
and become fat. It seems as if the longer and colder the winter is to be, the
fetter they become. At this time, the black bear devours the later seasonal fruits,
including mountain ash and grapes, and the mast of oaks, pines, beech and
tupelo. Frequently its stomach is filled with acorns or beechnuts. It may even
rob the stores of pine and fir seeds that the red squirrel has laboriously gathered.
If frost does not bring the nuts to the ground fast enough, the bear climbs the
trees and shakes them vigorously. Then it returns to the groQftd to pick up and
swallow the nuts, shells and all, with swift "champs" of the heavy jaws. If the
nuts arc too tight to be shaken off, it may tear off entire branches. Then, sitting
comfortably on the ground, the bear chews off its dinner.
With its sensitive nose and lips, it can select very small berries and eat them
without the leaves. When feeding on fruits such as huckleberries or raspberries,
however, it may run the whole top of the plant through its mouth, swallowing
142 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
a mixture of berries, leaves, twigs and a generous assortment of insects for
seasoning.
The black bear has a sweet-tooth. With great delight it robs the nectar-storing
wasps and wild bees, and eats their larvae. "Honeydew" from plant scales and
from aphids, along with the insects and the foliage on which it is deposited, is
a delicious dessert.
It will overturn and mash bee hives, clean out the honeycomb and devour
the bees themselves for a final fillip. The bee stings cause little discomfort and
of course result in the deaths of the angry insects. In the mountains of California,
where bee colonies are frequently established during the summer months,
apiaries are often placed on high platforms so built that bears cannot climb
their supports, or they are protected by electrically charged fences.
Occasionally, a bkck bear discovers that sheep, goats, calves, or even cattle
are helpless, easy victims. Then it proceeds to banquet regularly at the expense
of the stockmen. One twenty-seven-year-old bear killed twenty-six sheep in one
day. Practically toothless, it kept fat on its easy prey.
Another bear became an epicure. It dined continuously on the udders of
nursing ewes. Although the sheep were not killed, they died later of infection.
Sometimes the predator ate the heart and liver of a victim, but would not touch
the rest of the meat.
There is only one thing to do with such a bear. It must be destroyed. It is
too intelligent and too stubborn to be frightened back to normal food habits.
Unfortunately such stockkillers ruin the reputations of all bears. They don't
deserve it Sometimes the herder himself is responsible for starting a bear on
the downward path. If he fails to bury deeply or burn the carcasses of his
animals that die of disease or trampling, the bear finds them and acquiresa new
appetite. Stock interests frequently urge that all bears be placed on the predator
list, and that rewards be paid for their destruction.
A full-grown bear, that is four or five years old, may get tapeworms from
raw fish and sometimes have abscessed teeth. But it has little to fear from other
mammals. It is doubtful that a cougar (the next largest predator) would tackle
a black bear unless the latter were crippled or sick. In times of winter or spring
famine, a wolf pack probably would attack a bear that was not well protected
in a den with a small, easily defended entrance. Bears may be a menace to each
other at any time. Fights begin over mates, food, or more trivial causes. Usually
they are brief, and the damage is no more serious than a torn nose or ear. Occa-
sionally, however, they continue until one of the warriors is fatally wounded. I
have known of several cases when one of the battlers was killed outright.
Bears are cannibals and the meat of their own kind appears to be just as
THE BEARS 143
appetizing as that of deer or elk. A bear in Yellowstone once lumbered across
a meadow with the carcass of a slightly smaller bear slung across its shoulder
and the throat gripped in its teeth. The black bear has a deep-rooted respect
for the grizzly. As many as eight or nine have been seen to climb trees when
a grizzly arrived.
Modern man, with his pack of trailing, dogs and heavy rifle, is a deadly
enemy. Nevertheless, black bears still live in every state of the union except
Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, and Kansas. This is a tribute to their
adaptability, persistence, and crafty intelligence.
The pelt is valued chiefly as a trophy, although it made a popular coat before
the days of closed, heated automobiles. The meat of the young bear is very fine
eating. Because of its cunning and elusive habits under natural conditions, the
bear is most prized for sport-hunting, and is usually trailed with packs of dogs.
In the western half of the continent, the brown phase of the black bear is
common, in many places outnumbering the black. The so-called glacier or blue
bear of Alaska, which is found from Lynn Canal to the Malespina Glacier and
Mt. St. Elias, is a very rare variant of the black. A skin that I once examined in
Dundas Bay was a beautiful gray-blue. Its hair was short, crisply waved, and
curled. Kermode's bear, comparatively small, found on the coast of British
Columbia, is an albino of the common black bear.
General description. A medium-sized bear with long soft fur. Color: blade,
blackish rusty, or dark brown to pale cinnamon; muzzle brownish; large white
spot on chest. Total length, 4^ to 6J4 feet; height at shoulder, 25 to 40 inches;
weight, usually 200 to 300 pounds, up to an exceptional 500 pounds. Females
are usually about 20 per cent smaller than males.
Distinguishing characteristics. Can be confused only with the grizzly, which has
high humped shoulders, larger, heavier and blunter head, usually a dished face,
and long, broad, slightly curved front claws that generally are rather light-
colored. The black bear has a smaller, more pointed head with a straight face
profile; lacks a permanent shoulder hump; and its front claws are short, narrow,
markedly curved, and black or (in the cinnamon phase) dark brown. Black
bears are smaller than grizzlies on the average, but a large old black bear may
be more bulky than a small adult female grizzly.
Range. Practically all of wooded North America, including the Mexican Pla-
teau north of Mexico City. Not found, however, in the Great Basin, western
Arizona, southern California and eastern Oregon.
144 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
GRIZZLY BEAR
URSUS SP.
The legend of the great, humpbacked, dish-faced grizzly has come down
through the history of western America. In low tones, probably with backward
glances into the blackness beyond the campfire, Indian warriors told early white
explorers of the frightfulness and matchless strength of the King of Bears.
Civilization has almost exterminated this mighty monarch. There are less
than six hundred survivors in the entire United States. Except in Yellowstone,
Teton and Glacier National Parks, and the Flathead-Sun River region of north-
western Montana, it is next to impossible to find a grizzly in the entire length
of the American Rockies. Only in British Columbia, Yukon, and Alaska have
they continued to roam, uninterrupted by the white man.
The grizzly bear is the largest carnivore on the earth. Its family includes the
big brown, giant Alaska ("kodiak") and the Barren Ground ("white," not
Polar) bears. The very largest of these grizzlies are found in southwestern.
Alaska, on Kodiak Island and the Alaska Peninsula. Bears have been killed
there that measured as much as nine feet two inches from tip of nose to end
of the absurdly short tail. The distance between claw tips of the front feet after
the hide had been removed and laid flat was another nine feet. The heaviest
wild bear weighed one thousand six hundred and fifty-six pounds. (Fat zoo
specimens have scaled much more.) The skull of such an animal would be
between eighteen and nineteen inches long. When standing on the hind legs, it
could probably reach twelve feet into the air.
This enormous creature fears nothing that walks or flies, unless it be man
or another grizzly. It has been seen walking off with the carcass of a great bull
elk and even other loads that weigh the better part of a ton. If a grizzly is
especially disagreeable, black bears will rush up into the tree tops when it
appears.
During the early Spanish days in California, reckless vaqueros made a prac-
tice of ambushing and lassoing a grizzly for the fiestas. After being tied up and
transported to the Mission, the bear was turned loose in an arena with the
wildest and most dangerous bull that could be obtained. Frequently the fun
was not worth the trouble, for the first blow from the bear's paw might break
the neck of the charging bull and end the spectacle abruptly.
Despite its enormous bulk, the grizzly is surprisingly agile. I have spent
many hours watching big brownies fishing on Alaskan salmon streams, and
have never ceased to marvel at their success. The bear wades the gravel bars
146 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
and bottom where the water is not more than two feet deep, and the frightened
salmon dash wildly up or down like dark shadows. With great leaps and twists
that send the water flying in spray, the bear tries to land on them with its front
paws. Perhaps it makes four or five vain lunges. Then, in a flash, its open jaws
with the four great fangs are around the salmon. Triumphantly, with water
dripping from the fur, the monster lumbers ashore with the gleaming three-
foot fish slowly waving its last.
Once when I was waiting for some of these bears to appear, I tried lying
at the edge of the river to test my own skill. After lying motionless with arm
poised for a few minutes, a salmon would move under my hand and hang there
in the current about a foot below the surface. My quickest grab never even
touched the watchful, lightning-fast fish. Yet these clumsy-looking giants catch
many more than they can eat.
On the straight-away, these bears are also fast and have great endurance,
compared to man. A grizzly in Yellowstone Park, running ahead of an auto-
mobile, was found to travel at a speed of thirty miles an hour.
I once startled two adult brown bears and two yearlings on the slopes of
Mount Katolinat on the Alaska Peninsula. The rank grass, sagging under the
autumn frosts from its original height of about five feet, formed a loose tangle
about eighteen inches deep. It was a struggle for me to get through. I had to
stop and gasp for breath every hundred yards. But not the bears! Probably
never having seen a man before, they fled up the slope, then along the contour,
crossing gulches and brushing through the alders as though they were straws.
The animals' light, bounding gallop never faltered. When they disappeared
from sight, more than a mile away, they were still running as if pursued by the
devil and without any sign of slackening speed or of weariness.
When it is accustomed to humans and protected from shooting, the grizzly
minds its own business and proceeds about it in a direct, purposeful manner.
There is none of the easy-going nature of the black bear, that takes time to
stop and observe the doings of the world about. This directness of purpose is
never better illustrated than by the bear trails that lead across the open moun-
tains of the Aleutian Range. I have seen bear paths that were so straight they
might have been laid out with a surveyor's transit. Regardless of slope, many
of them continue for a half-mile without the slightest deviation, through the
tall grass, and across the water courses with their dense thickets of willows and
alders. Some of these trails on Kodiak Island ran squarely up grades of fifty
per cent or even steeper for two thousand to three thousand feet. Such trails
can be seen from a great distance.
The grizzly, or brown bear, is a methodical animal. Once a good route is
VHK BFAKS 147
selected, every one of these bears going in that direction uses it. Furthermore,
each one steps in the footprints of the one that went before. The great circular
footholes may become ten to twelve inches deep. In time the rows of holes may
merge into two parallel ruts. Trails laid out by humans and then abandoned are
sometimes kept open for decades by traveling bears.
Along the bear trails, where the animals pass through timber, one often sees
trees that are deeply scarred by bites and scratches. Frequently the deepest
gouge, where more of the bears have bitten, is about six feet above the ground.
The deepest scratches may be about twelve feet high. It looks as if every bear
tried to stretch and leave its mark higher than anyone else. Some hunters
believe that these trees are sign posts showing who has passed. Others think
that the bears use them merely to stretch and relax their muscles.
As a rule most grizzlies are cautious and even timid. While their eyesight
is very ppor, especially for stationary objects, their hearing is excellent and their
sense of smell unsurpassed. One has only to watch a black or grizzly bfcar to
determine that it puts most reliance on its nose when it makes an investi-
gation.
The fact that this plodding giant is not troublesome is no reason for pressing
an acquaintance. It might be resentful and attack. Many persons ask how they
may always tell a black from a grizzly. The distinguishing characteristics are
given on page 143. Color is not a true sign by any means, although one can be
sure that a glossy black animal is not a grizzly. The cinnamon phase of the
black bear is very similar to the brownish or tan grizzlies.
Grizzlies often differ widely from each other in exterior appearance, and
even in the shape of their skulls and teeth which are the basis of most mammal
classification. These various grizzlies may occupy the same valley or mountain-
side, and perhaps even mate. Yet a bear with an identically shaped head, or claws,
or colored coat, may be found a thousand miles away. The grizzly's coat may
be anywhere from blackish gray through any number of browns to a pale
yellowish.
One scientist has described no less than eighty-four species and subspecies of
grizzlies and big brown bears in North America, including five distinct species
on one island only one hundred miles long and twenty miles wide. Probably
no other piece of research has brought dignified mammalogists nearer to name-
calling and nose-punching than the question of correctly classifying the grizzly
bears.
If the over-rash amateur naturalist takes refuge in a tree and finds an angry
bear climbing upward with the agility of a squirrel, he can be almost sure,
belatedly, that his pursuer is a black bear. The grizzly rarely climbs, even as a
148 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
cub. After it is a year or two old, the claws lose so much of their curvature that
they are not efficient hooks for digging into the tree trunks.
However, there are always exceptions to every rule. Ranger Rudolph Grimm
once looked out of his window in Yellowstone to see a mother grizzly
and two cubs clambering about in an apple tree, busily shaking down the
apples.
The grizzly's life is much like that of the black bear's. The female enjoys
adult male society only once in every two or three years. At this time they may
be very affectionate. A fond couple will often graze with noses close together.
They wrestle in fun, hug and paw each other. The romance may last a month.
If another male comes around to interfere, the female is likely to run away from
him. However, if he is powerful enough and persistent enough, he may finally
be permitted to join the couple and share the female's favor.
The cubs, generally two, sometimes three or one, and very rarely as many
as four, are born in the winter den during January or February. They are about
the same size at birth as the little black bears, but grow somewhat more slowly
in size and self-reliance. Their mother not only takes care of them until their
second June, but usually longer. Barring accidents, the cubs will be long-lived.
They require eight to ten years to reach full size and weight, and in zoological
parks have attained the age of twenty-five to thirty years.
Temperamentally, the grizzlies are even more solitary than the black bears.
When two or more grizzlies chance to meet in a berry patch or on a salmon
stream, they either ignore each other or snarl automatically.
The grizzly's menu is about the same as that of the black bear. It may eat
almost anything that grows, but has definite preferences. On coming out of
hibernation, it dines on the usual early vegetation and decaying flesh of winter-
killed animals. It digs roots, and crops huge quantities of grass in early summer,
grazing it by the mouthful much like a cow. Eating its way across a blueberry-
covered flat, it strips the bushes as it goes and champs down fruit, leaves, twigs
and all.
Its great strength and long, heavy claws enable the grizzly to dig deeper and
faster than the black bear and it turns over great quantities of soil in .its hunt
for burrowing animals. I have crossed vast grassy slopes in southwestern Alaska
that have been pitted with holes, each big enough to bury a piano, where
hibernating ground squirrels had been rooted out and devoured. However, this
is hard work, and many holes have no occupants.
Great strength and an aggressive intelligence have enabled grizzlies to make
forays on sheep, hogs, cattle and even horses. Individual bears have gained wide-
spread notoriety for their raids and eventually have been destroyed. These mis-
THE BEARS 149
deeds of the few have resulted in the complete extirpation of all grizzlies from
vast areas of the old range in the western states.
Caching surplus meat is practiced more commonly by the grizzly than by
the black bear, although both species are thrifty. The larger bear quite often
picks up its prize, even an elk or a moose carcass, and carries it bodily to a
likely place. There the grizzly covers it with branches, rocks, dirt or leaf litter.
Woe to any animal caught robbing this store!
To the sick or crippled elk, moose and deer, the grizzly is more dangerous
than the black bear. It is more likely to ambush and kill them, or try to surprise
them with an unexpected, swift dash. A fisherman in Yellowstone Park was
astonished one summer day to see a bull moose dash out of the forest with a
gray grizzly clinging and tearing at his hip. At the edge of the stream the moose
succeeded in shaking off his attacker and escaped into deep water. The frus-
trated bear raged up and down the bank for hours, but finally left. The moose
then came ashore but was so badly injured that he died a little later.
Even grizzly bears have to be vegetarians most of the time. It would take
too long to find and dig out as many ground squirrels and mice as they would
like. Carrion and some calves and fawns, their largest source of meat, are not
frequent. Often the grizzly's stomach is filled only with grass.
In Alaska and much of northwestern Canada, the grizzly, including the big
brown bear, is carefully conserved by authorities as a valuable wilderness asset.
Bear hunting is the sport par excellence. A single trophy skin often represents
an expenditure of several thousand dollars in traveling expenses (airplane), a
guide, equipment and fees.
How dangerous is the grizzly to man? Occasionally human beings are
terribly mauled and killed by grizzly bears. The bodies are seldom eaten. The
bears seem to regard man as an antagonist, but not good to eat. Sometimes we
learn the complete details of these tragedies, and almost always they reveal the
possibility that the bear was not entirely at fault. Usually, after being wounded,
it was defending itself. In other instances, the bear may have survived old
hunting wounds and, crippled and crochety, had vented an understandable
hatred against mankind. Sometimes the man had approached so quietly that
the startled and frightened bear had reacted in supposed self-defense.
I have met quite a number of grizzlies and big brown bears. Not one ever
offered to attack. With one exception, they were interested only in avoiding me,
and fled in great haste. The sole exception, a grumpy old grizzly, merely con-
tinued on its course and expected me to do the same. That is good advice.
Plenty of noise, to advertise one's presence and lack of evil intentions, is also a
sensible courtesy. It is better protection than a gun in inexpert hands.
150 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
General description. A large, heavy bear with big head and long dished face;
front claws are long, broad, little curved, and usually light brown in color. Fur
long, varying in color with the individual: blackish-gray, brown, buffy or pale
yellowish upper parts, often sprinkled with white hairs. Total length, 5 to 9
feet; height at shoulder, 2j^ to 4 feet; weight, 300 to 1000, up to a maximum
of 1,656 pounds. Females generally are considerably smaller than males.
Distinguishing characteristics. For differences between the grizzly and the
bkck bear, see this section under "black bear" (page 143). In the tundra of
extreme northern Alaska and Canada, a very pale, faded grizzly or brown bear
may be told from a wandering polar bear by the heavy, deep head, humped
shoulders, shorter neck and shorter legs.
Range. Western North America from the northern portion of the Mexican
Plateau through the Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada, and Cascade Range to
Northwest Territories (Great Bear Lake, Coronation Gulf, Great Slave Lake,
and western half of Keewatin), all of interior Alaska and Umiak Island. Now
extinct in the eastern portion of this range and south of the Canadian-United
States boundary with the exception of a few isolated areas and national parks.
POLAR BEAR
THALARCTOS MARITIMUS
The muskox, the mountain goat and the tundra bear live in lands of sun-
shine 2nd flowers compared to the polar bear. Their homes burst into bloom
and green grass for two months out of a long, cold, barren year. But many a
polar bear never sees a blade of grass during its whole life. It often lives by
choice on the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean. The edge of the pack, where the
icebergs and broken pan ice alternate with stretches of open water, may be a
favorite hunting ground.
This indefinite boundary between the polar cap on the north and the open
ocean to the south is ever shifting with the seasons and the winds. So the great
white bear wanders southward in winter, back north in summer, and erratically
according to the breaks and leads in the ice.
Almost as big as the Kodiak brown bear, the polar bear does not mate until
he is about five years old. After a brief courtship in June or early July he
resumes his solitary way.
152 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
Early in the winter, the pregnant female looks for an area of "pressure ice,"
where the ice has been forced into great confused piles. Here she digs down into
the deeply drifted snow. The wind promptly covers the shaft and she lies
drowsily in a snug white bed completely surrounded by packed snow. The sun
finally sinks below the .horizon for the last time that year and the long night
settles down.
In the dark January world of sub-zero cold below swirling snow, two cubs
are born. Like the other bear young, they are little, blind, naked creatures,
hardly well formed. While the mother may be a seven hundred pounder, the
hairless cubs weigh less than two pounds, and are but ten inches long. It is only
by snuggling into the soft fur of their mother's abdomen and between her
front legs that they keep warm. Within a few days their wooly coats begin to
grow and in six weeks their eyes open.
On the diet of their mother's milk the cubs grow rapidly. Aroused and
made uneasy by the daylight that seeps dimly through the snow for a little
longer each day, the family finally breaks out of its den in March.
By watching their mother, and eventually practising clumsily, the young
bears learn to hunt. First they find out where to look. The whole chain of life
in the Arctic is pegged to die litde sea organisms of many species that are
known as "krill." These shrimplike creatures swarm in greatest abundance in
waters of low salinity. They find such places where icebergs, the cast-off chunks
of glaciers, are melting and diluting the sea water. Here the fish live on the
krill, the seals feed on the fish, and the bear stalks the seals.
Seal hunting requires real skill. It can be done only on the ice, for once in the
water the seal is too fast to catch. For all its blank expression, the seal is watch-
ful and cautious. It rarely moves far from the lead or blow hole, into which it
will pop at the first hint of danger.
The polar bear must use every trick and take advantage of any hummock or
drift to make an approach. Its year-round coat of white, slightly yellowish, is the
best possible camouflage. If shelter is scant it lies flat on the ice. As its long,
snaky neck and head thrust forward, the rear legs trail behind its body. Slowly
it pulls itself along with the front paws. When dose enough, it rushes and with
one blow crushes the skull or breaks the back of the unfortunate seal.
It has another method of sealing if the blowhole is not too far from the edge
of the ice pan. Taking a deep breath, the polar bear slips into th.e water and
swims under the ice. Once at the hole, which is much too small to admit its
shoulders, it probably makes a scratching sound. At any rate the seal is alarmed
and dives headlong for supposed safety, and lands in the crushing embrace of
the two mighty forearms of the enemy.
THE BEARS 153
Young walrus is equally delicious to the polar bear. This hunt, however, is
a hazardous one. The mother walrus keeps a close watch on her ponderous
offspring. At the sight of her traditional foe, she screams for help and charges to
the rescue. The whole herd of clumsy giants responds and the bear may have
to abandon its injured victim before the menace of a row of flashing tusks.
On the ice it can outdodge the walruses but sometimes the concentration of
so many tons of flesh breaks the ice or overbalances the floe. Then the whole
controversy is thrown into the sea where the walruses are much better swim-
mers than the bear.
Any of the numerous birds of the Arctic Sea, if injured or careless, may be
captured by the watchful bear. It may find fish washed up or stranded on the
ice, while an occasional bear will go ashore to catch spawning fish in the
tundra streams. This bear will discover an exciting change of diet in the vegeta-
tion. A polar bear that is stranded on northern islands grazes great quantities of
grass, just like its cousins, the grizzlies, brownies and black bears. If a whale or
walrus becomes stranded or washed ashore dead, the bears may gather from
miles around for a free banquet. In one instance, at Pitt Point on the Arctic
coast of Alaska, twenty polar bears and nearly one hundred foxes were counted
around a whale carcass.
The polar bear must be a tireless traveler in its perpetual search for food.
Unlike the other bears, it has fur overshoes that protect the soles of the feet.
Its sight is better than that of any of the other bears, and it has an extraordinary
sense of smell. It can see an object a mile away and smell it even farther. Arctic
travelers say that it pays little attention to sounds, perhaps due to the fact that
the polar sea is frequently a noisy place. Great icebergs grind together in the
waves and the ice floes crash and crack with thunderous reports.
The males and the females which are not pregnant do not hibernate as
other bears of the cold north do. They hunt for their living throughout the
entire winter night. Thus the mother bear and her family stay out all during
the cubs' second winter. When they are about seventeen months old, they may
weigh two hundred pounds and can take fairly good care of themselves. At this
time, unless their mother is unusually doting, she drives them off. It is time to
mate again and take on another two-year cycle of family rearing.
Either because of extreme hunger or total ignorance of man, or both, polar
bears have been known to stalk and kill humans in winter. During the summer
season, they are usually inoffensive and even gentle. Hunters who have wounded
polar bears, however, have found them to be as savage and even mortal
antagonists, as other wounded bears. In that treeless waste a person is easily
overtaken, for the bear can run as fast as twenty-five miles per hour for a short
154 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
distance. In the old days the Eskimos had to hunt bears with only short spears.
A white bear pelt was and still is a prize, and its possession indicates that the
owner is a mighty hunter. Even with dogs and a modern rifle, a polar bear hunt
is a dangerous undertaking.
The polar bear has to be a good swimmer to live on such an unstable,
fragile platform as floating ice. Another of its several names is "water bear."
It is streamlined for easy swimming and the legs are jointed so that they can
be swung in a wide circle. In the water, it swims with all four feet or by dog-
paddling with only the front legs. It seems to think nothing of striking off out
of sight of land across the rolling ocean. If distant icebergs seem to promise
better sealing, it jumps from its perch and swims away, perhaps fifteen or
twenty miles. In its lighter moments it dives, twists, and turns in the water
exuberantly. It is a graceful, strong swimmer, although it cannot keep up with
the swift seals and walruses.
The range of the polar bear extends all the way around the northern world.
It has no relatives in the Antarctic. The population at any one place may vary
considerably. Bears are plentiful west of Point Barrow and in the general region
of Franklin Bay on the Canadian coast. A ship captain who was frozen in, east
of the Mackenzie River, amused himself by shooting thirty-five polar bears in
an afternoon. Between Barrow and Cape Bathhurst the bears are not as com-
mon, and they are rare in Coronation Gulf. East of Victoria Strait toward
Greenland, they become more numerous.
Although most of the "ice bears" spend their entire lives on the ocean, many
come ashore at times and for varying periods. These animals rarely travel far
inland, but there have been notable exceptions. One of these was a bear that
was seen northeast of Great Slave Lake about seventy-five miles from the
nearest salt water. In another case, a bear traveled up the Mackenzie River to
Fort MacPherson, one hundred and fifty miles from the ocean.
Sometimes a polar bear will float southward far below the Arctic Circle, and
even reach the southern end of Hudson Bay. Iris more likely to ride the ice-
bergs down the Labrador coast to Newfoundland, following the great herds of
harp seals. As the ice melts, it may go ashore to start the long hike overland
back to the Polar Ocean. On the return trip, it is apt to astonish and terrorize
the Indians by its white strangeness. Persistent, exploring bears have been
known to pass through the Strait of Belle Isle, between Newfoundland and
Quebec, and follow the tidal currents along the north shore ot the Gulf of
St. Lawrence. One venturesome bear was killed by hunters at Lake St. John,
Quebec, about one hundred miles up the Saguenay River from the Gulf.
On the western side of America, polar bears rather frequently drift through
THE BEARS 155
Bering Strait. They may land on one of the large islands in Bering Sea and,
after climbing to the higher peaks, stay for the summer. There they dig puffins
out of their burrows, and eat grass and any carrion that can be found.
At times and in certain places, polar bears are so numerous as to be a sub-
stantial source of food for the Eskimos. Their hides make excellent mukluks,
other small articles of clothing, and sleeping robes. Their teeth and claws are
favorite ornaments and are frequently strung for necklaces. In the days of big
houses when the Arctic was being explored, Americans paid as high as one
thousand dollars for one of the enormous white pelts to be used as a rug, or
wall hanging. Now that small apartments are more popular, the skin of the
ice bear is worth about forty dollars. An average of sixty-five pelts are exported
each year from Alaska. Somewhat fewer are traded in Canada..
Except for the liver, the meat of the polar bear is wholesome. Although it
is delicious, the liver is said to cause nausea, dizziness, a splitting headache, and
sometimes peeling of the skin.
Few people have ever been within hundreds of miles of the home of the
polar bear and their sole acquaintance with it is through the bars of the city
zoo. There it is, like a freak from another world, a huge white animal with a
black tongue. Strangely, it takes to captivity and even summer heat better than
many of our temperate zone animals. All it requires is food, a bathtub and
plenty of cool water.
General description. A very large, elongated bear with a long neck, small,
slender head and small ears. Fur very dense, uniformly yellowish white. Total
length, 7 to 9^ feet; height at shoulder, 4 to 4]^ feet; weight, 700 to 1000, up
to 1600 pounds as the extreme. Females about 25 per cent smaller.
Distinguishing characteristics. Slender but bearlike form and uniform whitish
color.
Range. Arctic North America, from the northwestern coast of Alaska to
northern Labrador, and the islands and pack ice of the Arctic ocean.
9. The Bear s Small Cousins
RACCOON PROCYON LOTOR
This intelligent little animal with a black mask and ringed, furry tail is
astonishingly plucky. Unaided, it will beat off and cripple two or three husky
hounds although they may have bitten and torn it badly. It has also been known
to lead a pursuing dog into water, climb on its tormentor's head and drown it.
Frosty autumn and moonlight nights bring serious peril to the raccoon.
Men with pistols, clubs and flashlights or lanterns, move into the woods. Their
trained hounds pick up the coon's warm scent on the stream bank and baying
with excitement take up the chase. Then the raccoon, -especially a mother
burdened with inexperienced youngsters, needs great craftiness and knowledge
of the woods.
A wise old coon is as clever as a fox, and uses every trick of the trade. It
wades along creeks or lake margins, walks fallen logs, employs adjacent trees
as bridges to break the trail, and may even dive into the water. If it can finally
enter its den without being overtaken, it is likely to be safe, at least until another
night, when it must venture out for food. When it is deep in a rocky ledge or
the hollow of a tree, the dogs apparently cannot smell it.
The aim of the hunting pack is to chase the raccoon and its companions into
a tree top. This is the first place that an inexperienced coon will go. Led by the
sound of the dogs' barking, the hunters arrive. The raccoons* eyes reflect the
light so that shooting is possible. No matter how scared they are, the treed
coons are too curious not to look out from behind the branches to see what is
going on. The light of the stars and lanterns is reflected in their eyes and makes
them easy targets. If the hunters wish to save the hides, they may shake or prod
the animals to the ground. While all this is going on, somebody has to hold back
the dogs to keep -them from being hurt by their frightened quarry. Not until
each' adult coon is clubbed to death, are the dogs safe. Since the coon is a native
of every state, this sport is widespread. Hunters gather around a blazing fire
enjoying hot drinks and hunting tales, while the hounds chase down the
raccoons. ?
Even more valuable than their roasted flesh, are the coons' popular and
durable fur coats. The coats of the northern raccoons are much heavier than
156
RACCOON
158 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
those of the South. They are made into overcoats, collars, muffs and trimmings.
Prime pelts bring an average of three dollars each, and as much as fifteen
dollars in years of peak prices.
Raccoons thrive in captivity. Only their big appetites and the comparatively
low return from their skins discourage raccoon farming.
In country districts raccoon oil is used to keep leather in good condition.
During pioneer days it was a principal oil for many farm and home uses and,
although very light, was used also for lubricating machinery. In those days the
skins were used as money.
The raccoon's Latin name Lotor means "the washer." It is noted for wash-
ing its food when near water. Away from streams or lakes, it downs its rations
as it finds them. If water is near, however, pieces of meat are washed and
rewashed until there would seem to be no flavor left. It meticulously rolls
berries between its long-fingered "hands" under water. Even a frog or crayfish
that has just had its aquatic existence terminated may be sloshed repeatedly
before it goes into the coon's mouth.
Why does Lotor wash so much of its food? Many naturalists believe that it
does not wash but that it dun\s, and derives pleasure from feeling the food
under water through its sensitive hands. Perhaps this sensitivity has become an
obsession, just as some beavers seemingly hope to flood the world.
The male raccoons are polygamous. However, their affection for mates is
stronger than that of most polygamous animals. The female won't mate with
just any male. He must be. acceptable. After she has made her choice, she refuses
to have anything to do with any other male that season. She may go out at night,
but doesn't go far. The male travels much farther and may make several calls.
The mating season is in December in the far South and in February in the
North.
Nine weeks later the three to six, usually four or five, young are born. They
come into the world with the family masks and warm fuzzy coats, but are still
blind. The mother prefers a home in a hollow tree but will occupy a rock ledge
or even an abandoned burrow if necessary.
One mother' coon that could net find a conventional home along her chosen
creek near Denver, Colorado, appropriated a magpie nest about twelve feet from
the ground in a scrub oak. Another mother in Texas brought up her family in
a nail keg that had been placed in a tree as a nest box for wood ducks. In
this case, the tree was surrounded by water and it was necessc- y for the coon to
swim about twenty feet when leaving or returning home.
Generally raccoons are not as amphibious as the female from Texas. They
definitely like moist places, and their homes are usually located near water
THE BEAR'S SMALL COUSINS 159
courses and along the margins of lakes or swamps. Forests or at least groves of
trees are ordinarily a requirement. On the plains of central Texas raccoons are
found far from trees and even water. In such places, if rocky breaks are not at
hand, they depend on skunk and badger dens for shelter. In New Mexico and
Arizona, they enjoy the water and shelter in the cliffs of canyons.
Although perfectly foot-sure in the trees, the raccoon uses them mostly as
living quarters or places of refuge. Coming down either tail-first, or head-down-
ward like a squirrel, it obtains most of its food on the ground/
The eyes of the little coons open when they are about three weeks old. By
the time they are two months of age they are making short foraging trips with
their mother. Although she may have three or four pairs of breast nipples, she
is already weaning the youngsters.
It is very seldom that the journeys for food begin before dusk. At this time
the coon family descends to the side of the stream. Here they hunt in the
shallow pools for their favorite food, the crayfish. Rocks, when turned over,
yield tasty water-insects, mussels and snails. These are cracked open and the
meat devoured. As they grow more adept, the young coons learn to catch frogs
and to trap the slower fishes. Their dexterous long black fingers are well suited
to hold these slippery, wriggling creatures. Earthworms are dug up from the
black loam, or are gathered easily when they come cut of their burrows after
summer rains. Rotten logs are pulled apart to get the white grubs that live there.
Crickets are hunted in the grass. Turtle nests are found and their white paper-
shelled eggs are dug out and eaten. Eggs of ground-nesting birds are gobbled
whenever luck puts them in the coons' path. Even grown birds, the sick or
unwary, may be captured occasionally. Mice are appetizing too.
Corn from farmers' fields is a summer and fall luxury. As fall approaches,
other grains and fruits ripen. Persimmons, pecans, pokeweed berries, grapes,
haws, plums, cherries, hackberries, raspberries, and dogwood and manzanita
berries arc relished. In fact, the animal's diet includes almost everything edible,
although it runs more heavily to vegetables than to meat.
Travels of the coon family gradually lengthen until by late fall they may
extend over a wide range. They often leave footprints that look astonishingly
like those of small human children. The mother takes full responsibility and her
progeny follow without question. Such slow, generally ambling animals cover
surprising distances, from a half-mile to a mile from the den almost every night,
and sometimes up to five miles. Unattached males, or females without young,
may wander for many miles, investigating possible sources of food, and finding
shelter en route just before daybreak.
Arkansas coons that were live-trapped and released in country that evidently
l6o MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
was not to their liking, broke all records of coon traveling. They were recap-
tured twenty-seven, thirty-three and seventy-five miles away.
Young raccoons are usually safe from natural enemies as long as their
mother is near. A large and powerful defender, she brings them up without
any help from their absent father. When cornered by dogs, she will attack,
injure and rout them, although she may be badly wounded herself. Sometimes
she takes her progeny up the nearest tree, and then dashes away. The dogs
follow her until she is able to throw them off and return to her family. She
has been known to add an orphan to her brood. The cubs do not reach their
full growth until two years old. Nevertheless, perhaps fifty per cent of the
females mate when only ten months old. The males wait another year.
Coons are quite vocal in a surprisingly birdlike way. Although they growl
in a deep voice when angry, their normal talk is a churring sound with many
variations. One call is a long-drawn tremulo much like the cry of the screech owl.
All coons begin changing their clothes in April. They put on lighter under-
wear, and their coats of guard hairs are much thinner. By late August signs of
the winter coat first appear.
When food gets too scarce in northern winters, they just give up and go to
sleep. Several families may den together for warmth and for sociability. Their
slumber is not real hibernation, since their respiration, heartbeat, temperature
and metabolism are not lowered, as are the ground squirrels'. Any bungling
intruder will awaken the animals and receive an inhospitable greeting. During
milder spells, even in mid-winter, the coons often leave the den at night to
satisfy reviving appetites on mice, rabbits, or any other prey that may be above
ground.
The mothers keep their young with them for the first winter, including the
pregnant daughters. The wandering fathers are more likely to live alone.
The winter mating season brings most of the adults out of their dozing.
Once in a while a female mates, not in mid-winter, but in early summer. These
young, born "in August, weigh only about three pounds at the onset of cold
weather. Probably their chances for survival are poor in the North, but the
southern coons are active the year round.
Albino raccoons are beautiful animals with pink eyes, white claws, and
whitish-cream fur faintly marked with the family pattern. They are not
uncommon. The melanistic animals, almost black in color, are less numerous.
Economically, the raccoon is mainly beneficial. Occasionally one gets into a
poultry house and slaughters the chickens, but this seldom occurs. In California
it is accused of being the most destructive of native furbearers to waterfowl. It
is said that in swampy regions the coon wades or swims to procure eggs and
THE BEAR'S SMALL COUSINS 161
ducklings. It regularly explores cavities in willows and cottomvoods along
rivers, perhaps in hope of 'finding wood duck eggs or young. A coon was once
known to climb sixty feet to the nest of a red-tailed hawk. It devoured the eggs
and then nonchalantly took a siesta in the raided nest. Perhaps the coon's
fondness for corn and melons gets it into more trouble than any other appetite.
Nevertheless, because of his great consumption of insects, and because of the
value of his coat, it is generally a real asset.
Wild coons, if captured while still in the nest, make affectionate and intelli-
gent, although mischievous, pets. As pet coons grow old, unfortunately, they
are likely to become cranky.
General description. A stocky, bushy-haired animal with a pointed "masked"
face and furry, banded tail. Ears large; toes long. General color grizzled gray,
brownish and blackish; head grayish with a black band running across the"
cheeks and eyes, with a streak extending from nose to forehead; yellowish-gray
tail banded with six or seven black rings. Total length, 30 to 36 inches; height
at shoulder, 12 inches; weight, 10 to 25 pounds; reportedly up to 49 pounds for
an extraordinarily large individual.
*
Distinguishing characteristics. The combination of stocky build, black face
mask, and black-banded furry tail. The only other mammals north of Mexico
having black-banded tails are the coati and the ringtail, but theirs are long and
slender.
Range. The entire United States except northern Maine, the Rocky Mountain
region south to southwestern Colorado, and the Great Basin; also found across
southern Canada from Nova Scotia to southern Manitoba, and in southwestern
British Columbia; thence south into South America.
COATI
NASUA NARICA
Looking like caricatured raccoons, a band of coatis scamper up an arroyo.
They have short brownish hair and long snouts. Their long, thin tails with
many black rings are waving high in the air,. All told, they measure -about four
and one-half feet long. Hunting for insects, fruits, nuts, or nesting birds -and
their eggs, the animals run this way and that, pattering on their erratic course.
A strange sound startles them! They dash up into the branches of the palo
verde trees like a band of monkeys.
162
MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
Leaping from tree to tree they hiss and spit and lash their long tails excitedly.
If forced to the ground and cornered, their protruding canine teeth are as dan-
gerous as a pair of little sabres.
A cowboy in Arizona reported a coati hanging down from a mesquite tree,
gnashing at his pack of dogs, and severely injuring one of them. In the excite-
ment the cowboy thought the animal swung by its tail. Although a coati usually
comes down a tree head first and can hang from a tree by the hind legs, I have
never known one to be able to suspend itself by the tail.
As long as the body and head together, the tail is apparently of no use except
as a balance in the trees. Rather like a tabby cat's, it is slender and has many
dark rings. You often see it before you see the coati. Waving above its body, the
tail announces that the animal is from the house of Coati and no other. Held
straight up while it is eating, the tail is often carried at an angle of forty-five to
ninety degrees (or horizontal) at other times.
The male coati is almost twice as big as the female. He wants no society but
his own, except during mating season. The female likes company and often
COATI
THE BEAR'S SMALL COUSINS 163
travels in bands with her offspring. No one has found out yet whether the
courting season is long or short. About eleven weeks after mating the four or
five young are born.
Young coatis make intelligent and gentle pets. Like their northern relatives,
the 'coons, they are inquisitive and mischievous. In the tropics, they are common
household pets, but must be held on leashes to avoid trouble. In keeping with
their natural arboreal lives, coatis have shrill almost birdlike screams.
Coatis wear grizzled coats of harsh, rather coarse hair. There are two dis-
tinct color phases, brown and gray. They vary greatly in pattern and color from
dark to faded shades according to whether their homes are in the humid jungle
or the dry open desert, and depending somewhat on the individual.
Tropical America is the coatis' real home, from central South America
northward. The hardiest coatis brave the comparative chills of the southern half
of Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. During the past twenty years there
have been enough records in those regions to demonstrate that coatis are resident
in some numbers, not merely stragglers from Mexico. They are rather common
in southeastern Arizona, where in 1939 a hunter reported seeing a troop of
twelve or fifteen coatis. It is quite probable that they are extending their range
northward.
The tribe is divided into numerous species. Several kinds in southern Mexico
are much larger than our coati, while in South America most of them are
smaller.
Because it is a strange-looking creature, the coati is more likely to be killed
on sight than would be the case with a well-known game animal during the
closed season. I was once directed to the remains of a coati about twenty miles
north of Douglas, Arizona. The animal had been wandering over the mesquite
flats along the highway when it was seen by a cowboy. The man promptly killed
it "because he didn't know what it was!.' The coati should have year-long legal
protection in this country.
During the last seventy years, only four coatis have been found on the north
side of the Rio Grande in Texas. At least two and perhaps three of them had
escaped from captivity. Coatis arc often shipped from farther south to the
Mexican border towns for sale to American tourists.
Very little is known about the coatis in the wild in the United States or
elsewhere, for that matter. In northeastern Mexico they live on the plains and
foothills in the vicinity of rocky ledges, but not on the heavily forested moun-
tains. Farther west in the mountains of Coahuila, they like the wanner, humid
canyons.
Hungry creatures, they hunt day and night, and eat everything. They sleep
164 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
during part of the night and through the midday heat. Curled up, they nap
peacefully on the branch of a tree or on the ground. Their snouts have a keen
sense of smell and are used frequently to dig out juicy grubs and insects. The
rest of the time when digging, the animals use one forepaw after the other,
arching their backs and letting their tails down to an angle of forty-five
degrees.
Because they are as much at home aloft as on the ground, they pick many
nuts and fruits from the trees. Sometimes when a band is leaping through the
branches, another band will run below picking up the nuts that are shaken
down from above. Perhaps because they are highly arboreal, coatis don't turn
around like most other animals. Instead of turning on all fours, they usually
pivot on their hind legs.
Lizards are a favorite food. In the tropics coatis expend much energy in
climbing about the trees in search of sleeping iguanas. These big lizards are
wary and usually drop to the ground and escape. Nevertheless the furry hunters
are persistent and eventually surprise a sleeping or unwary animal for a meal.
Many predator-prey relationships are of this kind. No hunter is omniscient
and no prey species is helpless. Only the capable predators make a living; while
the watchful, fleet prey-animals survive, and the stupid, sick, and otherwise
abnoimal and unlucky individuals perish.
The coati is fond of birds' eggs. Not long ago, near Gila Bend, Arizona, a
rancher stepped into his yard one morning to find one of his ducks protesting
about the robbery of her nest. Broken eggshells lay about. Looking up in a
nearby shade tree, the rancher saw the culprit and his first coati.
In spite of its omnivorous tastes, the coati can be fastidious. One coati is
known to have carefully cut out the stomach of a spiny rat and discarded it
with the intestines, some skin, and the foot by which the rat had been caught
in the trap.
Another name for the coati that is widely used by naturalists is coatimundi.
In Mexico a common name is choluga or cholla, while in Central and South
America pisote is the vernacular term. Pisote solo for the male who travels
alone, and pisote de manada for the sociable female.
The fur of the coati is so coarse and sparse that it has little or no commercial
value.
General description. A long, rather slender animal with long tail and harsh
fur; head elongated, with a long movable snout that projects well beyond the
lower jaw; legs fairly long; feet provided with long, rather straight, blunt
claws. Color variable: grizzled brown, gray, black and yellowish, shading into
THE BEAR'S SMALL COUSINS 165
white on chin and throat; a mask of pale brown across the eyes; tail not heavily
furred, yellowish brown with, in young animals, dark brown rings. These
become less distinct with age. Total length, 4 to 4^ feet; height at shoulder,
about 10 inches; weight, 10 to 20 pounds. Females are much smaller.
Distinguishing characteristics. The only other animal north of Mexico having a
long, slender, distinctly banded tail is the ringtail or cacomistle. The latter has
soft, fluffy, rather thick fur. The larger coati has sparse, harsh fur, a much
longer head and muzzle, a longer, more slender tail, and is found in the United
States only in a restricted range in the Southwest.
Range. Southwestern New Mexico, southern Arizona, south through Mexico
and Central America into South America.
RINGTAIL
BASSARISCUS ASTUTUS
The ringtail is the most appealing of all the furry mammals. Its delicate
pointed face seems to be all eyes. Although the head is shaped somewhat like
that of the marten or the gray fox, it does not have their sharp, sly expression.
Instead, its great dark eyes surrounded by whitish circles, look out at the world
with gentle wonder. The gorgeous, black-ringed tail, for which it is named, is
as long as the head and body combined.
Although it is a common resident over a great area of the southwestern
United States and southward to Costa Rica, few persons have ever seen it.
Normally it is exceedingly shy, keeps to the dark caves, and does nearly all of
its hunting at night.
Once in a great while the ringtail has been found in a "tree almost out of
sight, taking a sun bath. On one occasion I found a lone male inquisitively
pulling up one of my cougar traps about four o'clock on a bright sunny after-
noon. I had made the set the day before on his favorite promenade at the foot of
a cliff. Fortunately for him, he pulled up the big trap with a delicate touch
and escaped.
Only extreme drowsiness dulls the ringtail's vivid curiosity about everything
going on around it. I once kept several ringtails in a large cage. The removable
cover of their nest box was perpetually ajar, or even thrown off entirely, in spite
of my pains to replace it each time that I entered the cage. Apparcndy the ani-
mals pushed their roof off deliberately in order to keep watch on their sur-
i66
MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
RINGTAIL
roundings. At any time of day or night that I entered the room except near the
middle of the day, pairs of liquid black eyes were watching curiously. Even in
full daylight at least one sleepy head would rise and the eyes, filmed with
drowsiness, would open.
Few animals that are so little known have acquired as many names. Modern
Mexicans frequently have used the Aztec tide: cacomixtle, although in Baja
California, babisuri is preferred. "Civet cat," a term often used in the South-
west, should be discarded because our ringtail is a very different animal from
the civet of the Old World. Bassaris is better, because it comes from the Greek
word for "little fox." The scientific tide that we use today, Bassariscus astutus,
means "clever little fox." The other common names arose from the bicolored
tail: coon cat, band-tailed cat, and ringtail. To the last, "cat" is also frequently
added, although the animal is not at all closely related to our tabby, which
originated in Europe and Africa.
Broken ledges well supplied with caves and large crevices and a supply of
drinking water are required by the ringtail. In this "rimrock" at the base of
THE BEAR'S SMALL COUSINS 167
the cliffs that fringe the southwestern canyons, in ruins of ancient Indian dwell-
ings, or sometimes in the pine forests, it lives with others of its kind.
Ringtails are congenial. My captive animals were kept in one cage and got
along well from their first minute together. Their only disputes, which never
lasted long, arose over a single piece of food. However, I have known of several
male ringtails that apparently lived alone. Fathers are driven out of the nest
three or four days before the young are born, but they probably move just
around the corner until their progeny are a few weeks old. At least one ringtail
father is known to have returned to the fold after three days, where he helped to
raise the family.
The youngsters, from one to five, usually three or four in number, are born
during May or early June in a nest in a rocky crevice or perhaps in a hollow
tree. Sometimes the mass of sticks and other litter of a defunct woodrat's nest
forms a barrier, and helps to keep out intruders. The blunt-nosed young are
abcut the size of new-born kittens. They are blind, toothless, and their ears
are closed. Their pink skin is covered.with scant, fine, whitish fuzz. Black rings
are faintly pigmented on the skin of their stubby tails.
When hungry, the young ringtails squeak like rusty door hinges. The
mother may lie on her side to allow them to nurse, or may squat on her spread
hind legs with her front legs propping up her forequarters. If she wishes to
move the young to a safer place, she picks them up one at a time in her mouth.
Usually she takes hold of the entire shoulder, or even the back, or the head,
but rarely copies the "cat-carry" by the skin of the neck.
When the young are three weeks old, one, or both parents, brings them
meat. A week and a half later their eyes open and in a few days they are
crawling about by pulling-strokes of the front feet and then by staggering on all
fours. They soon learn not to soil the nest. At two months they are allowed to
travel on hunting trips. They have almost ceased their squeaking, and express
emotion by a spitting bark instead. At four months, they are weaned and sent
out into the world to make their own living.
Ringtails eat a great deal of meat, but they also like fruits and vegetables,
and love sweets. Ringtails climb easily and hunt in the trees as well as on the
ground. They enjoy lizards and any small rodents available such as mice, wood-
rats, chipmunks, ground squirrels, and perhaps even a pocket gopher surprised
while cutting down forage.
When I was collecting specimens in the Southwest, Arizona ranchers ad-
vised me: "If you don't find fresh woodrat work, look somewhere else for
ringtails." In that region I found that these "packrats" were the ringtail's staff
of life. Abandoned mine ttmnels and prospect shafts are favorite, hunting
l68 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
grounds for ringtails, and here they are probably able to pick up occasional
bats. Insects and their larvae, and centipedes are also eaten. Sleeping birds may
be killed or their nests robbed of young. The birds most often eaten are the
brush-dwellers such as the towhees, varied thrush, and some of the sparrows.
Ringtails like a great variety of fruits, including figs, the fruit of many low-
growing cacti, madrone, yew, cascara, manzanita, and blackberry. My captive
animals were fond of oranges. They would clean out all the pulp, leaving the
rind clean and dry. Not a drop would they spill on their immaculate white
vests. Then they would split open the orange seeds along one side, peel back the
husks and eat the contents. From these actions, it seems that in their native
canyons they may eat nuts such as pinyon, ponderosa pine and oak mast. They
especially like green corn.
Like the rest of the musk-bearers, the ringtail's anal glands secrete a charac-
teristic liquid. It is a clear amber color and has a sweetish musky odor. Fright
causes the glands to function; the two or three drops of secretion that appear
are not thrown but merely spread over the rear-
Wild ringtails that I caught in traps uttered a succession of piercing screams
when I first approached. As I worked to release them, their great eyes regarded
me with such seeming reproach, suffering, and appeal that I was utterly
ashamed. Trying in vain to make amends later, I always spent too much time
bringing them special fruits, juicy mice, and changing their cages.
The intelligent ringtails make delightful pets if caught when young. I once
knew of an ingenious man who, having been sent to Arizona for his health,
conceived the idea of catching and selling ringtails to eastern city pet shops. He
had collected forty-two animals in a big wire enclosure when his doctor an-
nounced his cure. Forgetting his gct-rich-quick scheme, he packed his bags,
departed, and the ringtails were left imprisoned. Fortunately a tree fell across
the fence shortly afterward and the animals escaped.
Ringtails that take up their residence in cabins generally are protected by the
human owners, for there is no mammal more capable of ridding the premises of
rats and mice. For this reason it has earned another name: "miner's cat." Two
ringtails at Grand Canyon once moved into the garret of the El Tovar Hotel.
Every night they dined fashionably and well at eight o'clock. Pretty waitresses
served them luscious scraps, while admiring tourists watched.
Such quick, alert animals that normally move only at night probably have
few enemies. The great horned owl may sometimes swoop on adults. Snakes,
especially big rattlers, may crawl into the rocky crevices and swallow helpless
young.
Only in "boom times" on the fur market, is the ringtail trapped intentionally
THE BEAR'S SMALL COUSINS 169
on a large scale. Frequently, its curiosity gets it into traps set for more valuable
f urbearers. In 1927, good ringtail pelts brought up to three dollars, but ordinarily
the price is about fifty cents. The fur, which on the living animal is fluffy and
beautiful, mats down and loses its "life" and color and is used as trimming only
on the cheapest cloth coats.
General description. A small, slender, cat-like animal with small pointed head,
large ears, short legs and very long bushy, ringed taiL Color brownish-yellowish
gray, much paler below; cheeks and lips whitish, with a black spot around the
front portion of the eye; tail brownish bkck with 7 whitish bands. Total length,
25 to 30 inches; height at shoulder, 6 inches; weight, 2 to 2j^ pounds.
Distinguishing characteristics. See this section under "Raccoon" (p. 161) and
"Coati" (p. 165). As a further guide, it should be noted that the black bands on
the tail of the ringtail do not meet on the under side; the bkck bands on the
raccoon's much thicker tail are complete rings.
Range. Southwestern Oregon, California, southeastern Utah, western Colorado
and eastern Texas south into South America.
10. The Musk-Carriers
MARTEN MARTES SP.
Public Enemy No. i in the red squirrel world is the marten. It streaks
through the treetops like a brown flash. It does the panic-stricken squirrel no
good to retreat to the end of the highest branch for the marten will either rush
the squirrel out of its refuge or shake it loose. The wildest leaps from tree to
tree are of no avail for the marten can jump farther than the squirrel. Unless
the little red rodent can quickly reach a den in rocks, or a hollow tree trunk
where the entrance is too small for the marten to follow, it is lost. The long
white canine teeth of the marten will speedily put an end to it.
The marten (also called pine-marten) is a tree-minded weasel. Large and
golden-brown, it has a misleading, big-eyed squirrel expression. The ears are
broad and rounded and the tail very bushy for a weasel. Constantly alert, it
travels with swift, airy grace.
It is very wild. You almost never catch it robbing the farmer's poultry yard.
Instead it is racing through the northern spruce and balsam forests catching its
own food. Although it prefers to hunt in the tree tops, it is equally adept on
the ground. Its prey includes the following:
Fish (if thrown on to
the land when dead
so that it doesn't have
to go into the water
after them)
Insects
Reptiles
Carrion
Berries and other fruits
(occasionally)
Nuts (occasionally)
Honey
The marten docs not kill more than it needs as do the weasel and mink at
times. What it doesn't eat immediately, it buries under the ground. If you set
170
Red squirrels
Gray squirrels
(when present)
Conies
Chipmunks
Rabbits
Young woodchucks
Woodrats
Shrews
Mice
Birds including
grouse, ducks
Nestlings
Eggs
Frogs (when it can
catch them without
getting wet feet)
THE MUSK-CARRIERS
171
MARTEN
a trap there, you will catch it for it always returns. Hunting day and night, it
sleeps whenever it feels like it.
Although a full-grown, husky marmot is probably able to defend itself from
a marten, a tender youngster provides a delectable meal. While a mother mar-
mot was out gathering food, a marten once was seen to enter her den. A moment
later it emerged with a squeaking, kicking, two-weeks-old young one about the
size of a ground squirrel. After running some distance, the marten bit its prey
through the neck to end its struggles. Not being satisfied with one kidnapping,
the marten hurried back to the den. This time it was caught in the act by the
mother marmot. It tore out of the burrow with a rush, ran to pick up the one
victim, and fled.
At least one mallard duck took a marten "for a ride." He had been captured
by the marten and dragged about forty feet toward a clump of firs. But the
drake didn't give up. Struggling valiantly, he carried the marten off the ground
and into the air several times. Each time the marten pulled him back to
earth. Once the mallard carried it thirty feet. But at Jast the duck was
172 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
killed, and the marten carried him into a hole under the trees and devoured
him.
A savage soul, the marten usually hates everyone, including the members of
its family. The only exceptions are man, when curiosity gets the upper hand,
and its mate or mates. During pairing season, its spirit mellows as far as the
latter are concerned, but it is more ferocious than ever if any possible rivals
appear.
Imagine the surprise of a Yellowstone camper who woke up one morning
to find a marten in his bed. Probably only one marten in a million will crawl
into bed with a human! Another marten, however, could be persuaded to
accept tidbits from a ranger's hand, and even to have its picture taken, provid-
ing a victrola was playing music records. The moment the music stopped, off
the visitor would go.
Martens have very definite personalities. In captivity, males fight viciously
whenever they meet, and are likely to bite off a female's head at the first
opportunity. Nevertheless, if an introduction is made properly and carefully, at
the right time, the relationship may be quite amicable. Some females show
special liking for certain males. Others will accept several mates during a season.
Smaller than the males, the females are equally warlike. They are more nervous
and more on the qui vivc.
Summer, from the middle of July through the third week of August, is the
time of marten mating. As with several of the musk-bearers, marten gestation
is suspended for a considerable length of time. The one to five, usually two or
three, young do not arrive until nearly nine months later, during the following
ApriL
The young are born in a decaying snag or hollow tree, very rarely in a
burrow. Sometimes the mother usurps a woodpecker's nest, or that of a squirrel
that she has eaten. It is comfortably lined with moss or grass. The infants are
blind, with only a covering of very fine dun-colored hair. Their eyes do not
open for a month or six weeks. In about three months they achieve adult'
weight and by fall leave their mother and become solitary hunters.
In spite of their natural ferocity, they can be entertaining pets if captured
young enough. Young martens in the wild play like squirrels. Squealing with
excitement, they chase each other up and down tree trunks. If the fun quiets
down, one mischievous marten will slap at another, and the rough-and-tumble
will begin all over again. Even an occasional adult may have moments of grim
frivolity. It has been known to lead a coyote on a "merry" chase. Darting into
a bush, and then through a hollow log, it would reappear seemingly just to
tantalize the coyote into continuing the futile pursuit.
THE MUSK-CARRIERS 173
When angry, the marten doesn't hesitate to express itself. Snarls, hisses and
growls assail the air. Trapped martens have screamed loud enough to be heard
one hundred and fifty yards away. A female that wishes to attract a male will
ut:tr low clucking notes. All this sounds as if the marten were very loquacious,
'out actually it is a silent creature under ordinary circumstances.
The marten is consumed with curiosity. Where it is protected, as in our
national parks, it pokes its elfin face into any business th^: :cmes its way. Sorne-
cirnes it \vanders into campgrounds, appearing absolutely unafraid, and watches
tourists at their housekeeping. Any food left unguarded will be grabbed and
hustled away into the trees.
In Yosemite, a. ranger watched a marten which regularly examined a gar-
Dage can for left-overs. Instead of descending into the can it stretched across
the opening and held on with three feet. Then it reached into the depths with
its head and the remaining front paw. Once it lost its hold and tumbled in.
Scrambling out with a rush, it looked around accusingly, evidendy believing
that someone had sneaked up from behind and pushed it in.
Another marten at Old Faithful ranger station in Yellowstone used to raid
the refuse pile. Any discarded tin cans that offered promise were lugged to the
roof of the cabin. Here it licked them out happily. Those that were only partly
opened were shaken savagely. Sometimes the impatient animal lost its hold
of the can in the shaking process, and would look utterly astonished as the can
flew into space and disappeared in the soft snow.
The marten is rugged. It does not migrate to lower elevations during winter,
nor does it hibernate. It stays inside during the most severe storms and picks up
what game it can afterward. The hair on the soles of the feet grows long and
completely covers the pads and toes so that even in soft snow its tracks are mere
outlines. They show that it bounds along in the manner of the mink and fisher,
making an average of thirty-two inches to the jump. It slows down to a walk
when investigating something. Much of the hunting is done in the treetops and
it may not descend to the ground for several miles if the forest canopy is com-
plete enough to permit such travel. It may cover as much as ten to fifteen miles
airline, on the ground and in the trees, in a single night. Much of this running
is done apparently haphazardly. The trail crosses, circles and crisscrosses
aimlessly.
A sun bath in the tree branches is gready enjoyed, but not a water bath.
It even hates to go out in the rain for food, and hustles back as soon as it can.
No normal marten would think of going fishing. The water soaks and mats its
fur and it will travel a long way to find a log or a bridge rather than swim
across a stream. It carries this dislike of water to such an extent that in moun-
174 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
tainous country it follows the ridge tops and descends into canyons only to
cross from ridge to ridge.
Like the majority of the musk-carriers, the marten has a pair of anal glands
filled with vile scent. It is not as objectionable as that of the weasel or mink, and
cannot be thrown like that of the skunk.
In addition, it has a gland, about three inches long and one inch wide,
between the skin and the muscular wall on the center of its abdomen. Through
openings in the skin, scent is deposited on logs, stones and other objects over
which it may rub its under surface. These scents are picked up by any marten
following the same run or "trail."
Such a lightning-quick animal, well provided with intelligence, strength,
sharp teeth and claws, does not have many serious enemies. The fisher is said
to run down the marten in the same way that the marten runs down the
squirrel. The lynx may make an occasional meal of a marten. In California,
trappers believe that the golden eagle is an important enemy. In one instance in
Yellowstone, tracks on the snow showed where a large bird, probably an owl
or a raven, had attacked a marten. But the feathered hunter gave it up as a
bad job and the marten ran off unscathed.
Very likely famine does much to keep down the marten population in the
wild. On Anticosti Island, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, this carnivore became
nearly or quite extinct, apparently when rabbit disease decimated the once-
abundant snowshoe hares. Tree squirrels do not exist on this island.
Overtrapping, and burning and lumbering of the marten's forest home have
made great inroads on the population. A closed season has been found necessary
to conserve the martens in Alaska. The same protection must be invoked eventu-
ally in the United States if the animals are not to be wiped out from most of
their remaining habitat.
For durability, softness and beauty, the fur of the marten ranks very high.
It is frequently called the American sable. The famous sable is only a larger
marten that lives in the pine-fir forests of Siberia.
Over twenty thousand martens are trapped each winter in Canada, and per-
haps ten thousand more are taken in the United States. About eight thousand
of these come from Alaska. The total value of the catch exceeds a half-million
dollars. Under ordinary market conditions the better pelts bring from twenty-
five to fifty dollars.
Because of its curiosity, the marten is one of the easiest animals to catch.
Bird feathers for bait will attract it, and a bird's head is irresistible. Trappers
use ordinary small steel traps or a special device like an over-sized rat trap of
the snap or deadfall type. This can be nailed to a tree where it will not be buried
THE MUSK-CARRIERS 175
by snow. It also has the advantage of killing the victim instantly by a blow on
the head or neck. A marten caught in an ordinary steel trap may twist or chew
its foot off and escape.
Some success in marten fur-farming has been attained. The Fish and Wild-
life Service is continuing experimental work on the best methods of manage-
ment and it seems probable that eventually the industry will become important.
Incidentally, two captive martens kept under electric light day and night pro-
duced a litter in four and a half months instead of the usual nine. This practice
may greatly hasten the production of fur coats in the future!
General description. A large, tree-dwelling weasel with soft, rich yellowish or
deep brown fur and a buffy patch on the chest. Head small, ears broad and
rounded; legs short, and tail bushy. Total length, 22 to 30 inches; height at
shoulder, 7}^ inches; weight, i l /2 to 3 pounds. Females weigh 30 per cent less.
Distinguishing characteristics. Resembles a large mink but has more prominent
ears, bushier tail, a buffy spot on the chest, and displays great dexterity in climb-
ing trees. The fisher is much larger, darker in color, and has very short ears.
Range. Coniferous forests from Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and
northern New England and the Adirondacks west to western Alaska and British
Columbia. In the western mountains, south to extreme northern New Mexico
and the southern Sierra Nevada.
FISHER
MARTES PENNANTI
Who named the fisher? It does not fish! It will eat fish if somebody else will
catch it. The fisher may even go into the water after a spawned-out salmon, or
pick up a dead fish on shore. But it makes no vocation or avocation of fishing.
Instead of pulling its meals out of water, it snatches them from the treetops. It
is the fastest tree-traveler of any mammal. The marten can overtake the nimble
red squirrel, but the fisher can overtake the marten, and can even outrun the
snowshoe hare on the ground.
About the size of a fox, with dark, long, silky hair, the fisher lives mostly
in low, damp forests, and sometimes in wooded swamps if necessary. Unlike
the marten, it does not mind if its feet get wet. In fact it swims across lakes or
any other body of water that is in the way.
176 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
It has the face of a weasel and the tail of a fox. With grandiloquence, it
swishes this bushy appendage back and forth to express displeasure. When really
angry, it arches its back and plunges furiously into battle.
Bounding along the ground like the big weasel that it is, the fisher covers
four feet at a jump. It hunts by night, or if hungry, in daylight. No meat in any
form is overlooked: squirrels, rabbits, marmots, woodrats, mice, mountain
beavers, chipmunks, porcupines, and spawned-out, dead or dying fish. Even
foxes, raccoons and an occasional lynx may be run down, for the fisher has all
the persistent endurance of the weasel tribe, and is swifter and much more
powerful than any of the others. It is said to kill deer by biting their jugular
veins. If this is true, young bighorns and even mountain goats would
be vulnerable prey. It will also eat fruit, vegetables and nuts when hard
pressed.
The fisher is one of the mammals smart enough to eat a porcupine without
getting hurt. With flashing paw or snapping jaws, it turns the quill pig over on
its back. Ripping open the defenseless soft belly, it then proceeds to eat out the
FISHER
THE MUSK-CARRIERS 177
carcass from the inside. During many encounters, the fisher of course acquires
some quills. Apparently the porcupine quills seldom injure this hardy killer.
They often go through the outer hide without piercing the second layer of skin,
or the muscles. Instead, they turn until they are flat against the skin and work
their way out again. This usually occurs without causing any inflammation or
festering sores. Quills have been known to pass through its digestive tract with-
out piercing the delicate lining. Fishers are not always invulnerable, however.
A number of them have been found with faces studded with quills and dying
of starvation.
Here is a member of the weasel family that will not offend your nostrils
nor your sense of economy. The odor is distinctive, but not at all offensive com-
pared with that of the wolverine or mink. It stores all surplus food and invari-
ably goes back to eat it.
April is mating time for the fishers. The young are born from eleven months
to almost a year later. This very long gestation period results from what is
termed "discontinuous development." The growth of the embryo is halted at a
very early stage and is not resumed for months.
The mother fisher has to leave her blind, helpless young when they are only
about a week old to hurry off to find a new mate. Because of the long gestation
period, she must find a father for the next set of young while still occupied with
the present set. She cannot afford to have a mate hanging arourid who might
take a notion to eat up the young. So she goes out of an April night and then
returns to her nursing and housekeeping. One night out may be enough, for
she stays in heat only two or three days.
In British Columbia young fishers are born the last of March or first of April.
The number in a litter varies from one to four, usually three. Their eyes open
at the age of about seven weeks, and they are ready to leave the den and hunt
with their mother when about three months old. The family breaks up in the
late fall and each fisher goes its own way. The young ones look for mates when
one or two years of age.
Winter is not a period of slumber for the fisher. It waits out the storms in
a den in a hollow tree or log, or in a broken rock ledge, and emerges hungry
"as a bear." Deep soft snow slows it down so that it must travel at a walk
instead of the usual bounding weasel lope. It must also look more carefully, for
food is scarce. The fisher that lives in the mountains usually descends to lower
elevations for the winter in order to avoid the heaviest snowfalls. Here it hunts
chiefly along the wooded ridges.
The fisher comes down a tree head first. When angry, it arches its back and
gives a peculiar growl that ends in a snarl or hiss. It has been seen to defy a dog
178 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
leaping around the base of its tree by pounding on the trunk with its forefeet
used alternately.
Ordinarily the fisher will not stand and pick a fight with too formidable
opponents. If cornered, however, it can whip any dog, even an experienced bear
dog, and make an escape. In the ordinary run of events it has little to fear from
any of the native neighbors. Such a swift climber could escape from an enemy
of superior strength such as a cougar, a wolverine, or a wolf pack. A grizzly or
black bear is probably too slow and clumsy. A coyote would be too wise.
Man, however, is an opponent from whom even the tallest trees are not a
refuge. His traps seem to be everywhere. If given time, and not too badly
wounded, the fisher will chew off its imprisoned foot and hobble away, badly
handicapped for the rest of its shortened life.
The soft long silky fur of the fisher always brings a good price, for which
trappers are willing to plod many freezing miles on the winter trapline. Excep-
tional pelts have brought as much as three hundred forty-five dollars. An
average skin is worth fifty dollars in almost any market, or five times that of
a red fox. The small, finely furred pelt of the female is most valuable and is
valued at seventy-five to one hundred dollars, while the coarse skin of an old
male may bring only twelve to fifteen dollars. Fishers are now kept in captivity,
but the pelts produced by fur farms are numerically insignificant as yet. Being
very timid and nervous, the animals seldom produce or bring up young unless
great care is taken to provide the best of living conditions.
The fisher has become alarmingly scarce in the United States during the
past twenty years. It must have complete protection if it is not to vanish entirely.
In Canada, the average annual catch has decreased from five thousand six hun-
dred and twenty-two in the decade 1920-1930 to only three thousand five hun-
dred and ten in the period 1930-1940. This is a serious matter commercially, for
fisher pelts represent about one per cent of the total value of furs taken in the
Dominion, and almost as much as that of all the otters trapped.
We once had fishers in our eastern highlands the Appalachians as far
south as North Carolina. Now the southern outpost of the species in the East
is the Adirondack Mountains. In that wilderness island, fishers seem to be quite
"numerous." That term is relative, as even under original conditions fishers
were sparsely distributed. Throughout the nineteenth century the average catch
each year in all North America was only eight thousand six hundred. Northeast
to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Nova Scotia, a very few fishers may still persist
in the wildest, most inaccessible areas. About three-quarters of all the pelts taken
in Canada come from Ontario and Quebec, with British Columbia contribut-
ing most of the remainder. Professor A. L. Rand has estimated that the total
THE MUSK-CARRIERS 179
population of fishers in the Dominion is about ten thousand five hundred, or
one to each one hundred and ten square miles of suitable habitat.
Fishers have a far-flung range, clear across Canada to the coast of British
Columbia and south, in the mountains only, to Wyoming and east central Cali-
fornia. Over this vast expanse of the continent, fishers, unlike most other mam-
mals, are remarkably unchanged by their environment, and there is only one
species.
Nevertheless, this species has many vagaries. It may weigh anywhere from
eight to eighteen pounds. Its coat is slightly different from every other fisher's
coat. Even the skull is different. One fisher may feel, think and act one way;
another, the opposite. The variations are individual. California fishers as a group
are not markedly different from those of Canada. Perhaps the uniformity of the
fisher's chosen habitat, in cool coniferous forests, and the absence of insur-
mountable barriers have tended to prevent group variations from developing.
Also, since the fisher is a great wanderer, there has been little inbreeding.
The fisher has many other names, equally inappropriate: fisher cat, black
cat, Pennant's cat (after the Welsh naturalist), fisher marten, and pekan. It is
not a fisherman and it has no close relationship to any cat. Perhaps these names
originated to distinguish it from the marten. Many kinds of animals will eat
fish with gusto, although they never went fishing in their lives. Thus the fisher
has been caught in traps baited with fish. Since it often lives nearer water than
the marten of the pine woods, it was assumed that since the fisher ate fish in
traps, it customarily went after fish in the water. The Chippewa Indians were
the most discerning naturalists. They named the animal "tha-cho," meaning big
marten. This gives its description in one sneeze.
General description. A rather slender animal about the size of a gray fox. Head
broad at rear, tapering to a sharp muzzle; eyes small; ears broad, low and
rounded; tail long and bushy, tapering from the base; legs short. The long soft
fur is dark brown to grayish brown, becoming grayer on the head and neck and
black on rump, tail and legs. Total length, 36 to 40 inches; height at shoulder,
10 inches; weight, up to 18 pounds, although rarely over 12. Females are con-
siderably smaller, weighing one-half as much as males.
Distinguishing characteristics. Much like the marten, but considerably larger
and darker. Distinguished from the gray fox by darker coloration, shorter legs,
and shorter, rounded (not pointed) ears.
Range. From southeastern Canada, northern New England and New York
State, northwest to the lower Mackenzie River; south in the Rockies to north-
l8o MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
western Wyoming, in the Sierras to Sequoia National Park, and in the Coast
Range almost to San Francisco Bay-
WEASEL
MUSTELA SP.
The weasel is the most bloodthirsty of all the mammals. Its favorite drink
is warm blood sucked from the base of the skull or neck of its prey. It fills up
on meat, bones, skins and feathers.
Apparently it kills for sheer lust of killing. Because it has sometimes slaugh-
tered forty chickens in one night, people have believed that it lived only on
blood. That was before naturalists began examining weasels' stomachs to find
out what they really did eat.
The weasel has a superlative equipment for the profession of murder. The
long supple body is a perfectly coordinated bundle of nerves and muscles. It is
so strong that it can overcome animals several times its size, and so slender that
it can follow even meadow mice into their burrows. In one flash, it can out-
maneuver a garter snake. It is almost too quick for a bullet. I once saw cowboys
in Arizona release a weasel from a trap to use as a target. There they stood,
staring foolishly at a distant woodpile. It had vanished into the pile before they
could cock their revolvers.
The weasel's long sharp canine teeth make its jaws as fearsome as those of
WEASEL
THE MUSK-CARRIERS l8l
a tiger on a small scale. Back of them is a brain that is keen, quick, intelligent,
and courageous. It fears no man, bird, nor beast. It does not hesitate to attack a
creature thirty times its size. When a friend of mine stepped between a weasel
and a chicken, the weasel, scarcely three inches high, flew at him in rage. Only
repeated kicks saved the man from being severely bitten. Another weasel
grabbed a man by the hand and bit so deeply that it could not be dislodged.
The man was a naturalist and stubborn. He wanted the weasel alive. As the
weasel bit deeper and deeper, the man kept trying to pry it off. At last he walked
one-half mile to a creek, where he dunked the weasel loose.
The little brown terrorist uses its nose more than its eyes in stalking. When
it is within a few feet of its prey, it rushes. The long neck waves back and forth.
The eyes glitter, the serpentine body wraps around the victim, and the forelegs
hug it tightly. In less than a split second, it has bitten the poor creature in the
back of the neck or the jugular vein. The one or more bites are so swift that
the eye can hardly see them.
Many a larger animal becomes uneasy when it sights a weasel. Cottontails
in cages sometimes have died of fright. However, a smart snowshoe hare in
Minnesota once made a new maze of tracks to keep the weasel busy each time
that the weasel almost caught up with it. Patiently and accurately the weasel
galloped up and down each cross and crisscross. The rabbit sat down and
watched it, seemingly amused. Several times the weasel passed within a few feet
of its prey, but the hare did not move. Intent on accurately following the tracks,
the weasel did not look up. With its nose close to the footprints, it pushed on,
tracing out the intricate pattern. When the weasel got almost to the end of the
trail, the rabbit dashed off through the woods. The weasel followed in eager
pursuit. About ten minutes later the rabbit would reappear and make another
set of tracks in the little clearing. Back would come the weasel, its tongue prac-
tically hanging out. The whole procedure began again. Twice the rabbit dashed
off, the weasel following after. After the third time, the weasel gave up, dis-
gusted. The rabbit bounded off, with a big laugh, no doubt. Loudest and
longest laughed Dr. Adolph Murie who had watched the whole procedure.
Although it can twist and dodge with great dexterity, the weasel is not a fast
runner. In a foot race, even a short-winded person can overtake it.
Human hunters condemn the weasel as a game hog, an assassin, a mass
murderer. They do not give it credit for courage. They usually forget that the
weasel does not kill with a gun from a safe distance. It comes to close quarters
and takes chances that it may be crippled or perhaps killed* by bites from the
sharp teeth of the desperate victims.
A male California weasel once tackled a king snake about three and one-
l82 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
half feet long. He secured a firm grip on the snake's head, but the violent writh-
ings of the reptile threw the little killer off his feet. At last the convulsions of
the snake ceased. Frightened by shots from a spectator's pistol, the weasel
released his hold and slowly dragged himself into the grass, where he died.'
There was no evidence of a bullet hole. The snake had bitten entirely through
the weasel's tough skin in six places, on the head, neck and body. The snake
died first, but had achieved its revenge.
By some unknown psychological or physical methods, the Kennicott's ground
squirrels of Yellowstone Park seem to have settled their weasel problem. Many
times they chase the weasel into a den or cranny and do not even bother to
follow. Wrestling matches, to the accompaniment of weasel growls and ground
squirrel chattering, have ended in utter rout of the fierce little meat eater.
Under favorable circumstances the weasel can and does kill full-grown
cottontails. Often, however, the rabbits are able to defend themselves success-
fully. Even in a cage where the prey is unable to get away, a weasel usually has
a hard struggle to subdue a healthy rabbit. It may be thrown off violently or
kicked away several times by the frightened animal before it is able to get its
teeth fixed in a lethal spot in the throat.
Why don't the weasels multiply faster? In spite of their agility and fearless
courage, they have many enemies. The black snake searches out young weasels
and eats them. Sometimes it gets an adult. Birds of prey kill numbers of weasels,
and remains have also been found in the stomach of the goshawk, rough-legged
hawk, barred owl, great horned owl, and snowy owl. Undoubtedly the great
gray owl of the Arctic captures a weasel occasionally. The hunting house-cat
accounts for weasel losses also. My successive cats in New Hampshire frequently
brought home weasels. Each time my pet had to be shut out of the house until a
several days' airing had reduced the potency of the weasel odor. It is much more
nauseating (to me) than that of the skunk.
A great many weasels are destroyed on sight by farmers, poultrymen, and
just plain people. Answers to a questionnaire that was distributed by the Michi-
gan Department of Conservation indicated that seven out of ten weasels seen on
farms in the southern part of that state were killed on the spot.
Weasels have been found with short porcupine quills embedded in their
necks, heads and shoulders. Fleas and ticks live on their skins. Roundworms
and flatworms reduce their vitality from within. Weasels also prey on each other.
Abundance of food certainly exercises a rigid control. When mice are plen-
tiful, weasels increase in numbers. When the mice die off, weasels become rare.
These quick-living little animals are easily killed by excitement. A least
weasel captured in a house near Chicago exhausted itself in a few desperate
THE MUSK-CARRIERS 183
dashes about its cage, and died. While helping a photographer to take pictures
of another weasel, I saw the little mammal become unsteady from excitement
(not fear) and the heat of our floodlights. The weasel never takes sunbaths like
many other animals. If it is in a cage and left in the sun, it will almost imme-
diately go into convulsions.
The male is much larger than the female, sometimes weighing twice as
much. They probably mate in early summer. There is a delayed gestation period,
and the young are not born until April of the following year.
The weasel has no penchant nor claws for digging. It picks out one of its
victim's homes for occupation. If the nest is large enough, the weasel lines it
with the remains of its former occupants and other prey. Or perhaps it builds a
new bed. Rat and mouse fur and bird feathers provide downy comfort. Here
it curls up, its nose under its tail, and takes a good sleep. As a rule, it uses only
one den, although it often visits other holes and crevices in search of food or
out of curiosity.
Having sanitary inclinations, the weasel deposits its scats in the entrance to
its tunnel. Often it retains a separate room in the burrow or ledge for a toilet
and for garbage. Much food is left or stored in the nest, however, and of course
spoils.
In spite of their bloodthirsty pursuits, a number of weasel fathers are domes-
tically inclined and devoted to their offspring. They work hard, helping to bring
food to the little ones, disciplining them when necessary, and teaching them to
support themselves.
The one to twelve young come into the world pink, wrinkled, toothless,
practically naked and squeaking lustily. At three weeks they are still blind, but
housebrokenl At least, they will toddle several feet away from their nest to
relieve themselves, and then find their way back.
When their eyes open about the fifth week, the mother feels that they are
old enough to be entirely weaned. The males at seven months are much larger
than their mother. No doubt the father has to discipline them thereafter.
The weasels eat whatever flesh is handy. But they prefer it alive and quiver-
ing. Carrion is less interesting unless it is some they have cached in their nest
or storeroom themselves. Small mammals comprise the greatest part of their
menu, and mice are the most common. Their food list runs as follows, being
affected by location of their home:
Mice (meadow, white-footed, etc.) Cottontails
Shrews Snowshoe hares
Rats (house, cotton, wood) Squirrels
184 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
Moles Many insects
Pikas Earthworms (when other food is
Young birds scarce)
Small snakes Prairie dogs (by the largest weasel
Frogs the black-footed ferret)
Lizards
Their fondness for small rodents should make the weasels more welcome on
farms. It was found that, in winter in southern Michigan, sixty-five to seventy
per cent of their food consisted of white-footed mice and twenty-three to thirty-
three per cent of meadow mice. They killed a few birds song sparrows, j uncos,
and other ground-frequenting speciesand sometimes they climbed into bushes
and low trees in apparent search of such tidbits. The total number of songbirds
eaten, however, was insignificant. One quail was killed out of a flock of ten, but
ring-necked pheasants were not molested.
Less hungry than the shrew for its size, the weasel will still eat about one-
third of its weight each twenty-four hours. Young and growing weasels with
healthy appetites, however, will down more than half their own weight in meat
every twenty-four hours.
Imagine having a thirty-pound baby son who demands fifteen pounds of
meat every day! Weasel parents may have to feed eight or ten such babies on
the same ratio at one time. When food is scarce, they may come home empty-
handed. Weary with fruitless travel, they must face the cries of all these hungry
youngsters.
The parents may travel several miles each night to secure meat, but accord-
ing to some naturalists they do not go far from home. Probably not more than
one hundred and seventy-five feet in a straight line. However, four New York
weasels that were watched in southern Michigan seemed to have more extensive
hunting grounds. The travels of each animal blanketed about three hundred
acres, or an average distance of three-tenths of a mile from the den. (Of course
they did not cover all of their territories each night.) The distance that each of
these weasels traveled in a night averaged one and twenty-seven-hundredths
miles. Once the hunting trail was only about sixty feet long, while the longest
trip was three and forty-three-hundredths miles.
Cold weather alone does not keep the weasel indoors, for it is often out on
nights that are well below zero. It does stay in sometimes as long as forty-eight
hours at a stretch. Probably it decides occasionally that a stored carcass and the
comforts of home will be more satisfying than a long and uncertain quest in
the cold. Or it may just not be as ravenous as usual.
THE MUSK-CARRIERS 185
Bounding or loping around with their tails held out stiffly parallel to the
ground or raised somewhat, weasels explore every corner and grass tuft* They
slow to a walk only when the trail becomes complicated or the prey near enough
to stalk. When food is abundant, they may go berserk and kill until nothing
within reach remains alive. As many as seventy chickens have been killed in a
poultry run in one night of such orgy. Evidently they cannot bear to sit down
and eat with a lot of live meat running around beside them.
The weasel sometimes stores excess food, mice and shrews, in a room of the
burrow. The seeming rapacity of the weasel in killing more than he can pos-
sibly eat may be an instinctive precaution to provide for a future famine. He
has often been seen running off with corpses that weighed twice as much as he
did. RunningI
Strangely enough, the weasels do not exterminate everything in their door-
yards. Seven Michigan cottontails lived all winter on an area that was inhabited
by four weasels. All was tranquillity outwardly at least. In California, chip-
munks have been seen inhabiting the vicinity of dens occupied by families of
weasels. Juncoes and russet-backed thrushes have reared their young within a
few feet of a weasel's home without being molested. Whether these particular
hereditary enemies had reached an understanding and agreement to let bygones
be bygones, we shall never know.
Pursuit of prey sometimes leads the weasel into water. In Sequoia National
Park, a golden-mantled ground squirrel, desperately trying to escape from a
weasel, rushed into a river. Hot after it dove the weasel. About four feet from
shore, each animal suddenly forgot the other. Their one aim was to get back to
dry land. I have seen weasels enter water merely to make shortcuts across the
pool instead of walking around. They can climb trees, where they have been
seen plundering birds' nests, but they arc not interested in staying up in them.
In the north, or at high altitudes, the weasel puts on a royal white ermine
coat with black-tipped tail every winter. (Only the least weasel is completely
white.) Each brown hair is replaced by a white one. This does not happen all
at once. For three to five weeks, the weasel appears in a kind of pepper-and-salt
suit, followed by a piebald uniform. In the south, where snow rarely falls or
quickly melts, the weasels wear plain brown suits throughout the year. Light
ones for summer, somewhat heavier ones for winter. In the intermediate part of
the range, some weasels manage to have white coats, but others do not.
On many occasions the weasel has been slow in getting around to making
its seasonal change of clothes. It has been seen wearing its brown coat until the
snow was deep. I know of at least one weasel that wore its white coat until July.
Such dilatory behavior may mean that the animal is not in good health, or that
l86 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
some gland has failed to function properly. It has been suggested that the general
factor causing the color change is heredity. Clearly, neither temperature nor the
presence of snow is the immediate cause.
Curiosity is one of the strong family characteristics, and weasels will often
disregard apparent danger to satisfy it. An Alaskan weasel barked at me and
then followed for several minutes as I picked my way across a partially burned
dock of a deserted cannery. It stayed within eight feet of me. Black eyes shining,
it twisted and craned its neck so as not to miss a single movement.
This curiosity makes it easy to catch the first time, but it is difficult to keep
it caged. After five months of captivity, an adult female at the University of
Michigan managed to push out her water bottle and escape through the one-
inch hole.
The weasel is quick to learn a lesson. Having been caught once, it is more
wary. It took twenty-one days and thirty-two traps to recapture one weasel
which apparently had been quite happy in captivity. Sometimes it even got away
with the bait. Its footprints recorded its escapades.
There are many kinds of weasels thirty-six species and subspecies, all the
way from the big weasel to the least weasel. This does not include the
larger weasel cousins, the wolverine, skunks, land and sea otters, badger, and
mink.
Although small, the weasel pelt is soft and durable, and the skin is tough.
In medieval times, common people were prohibited from wearing the white
winter pelts, for this "ermine" was a badge of royalty. In these democratic times,
it is highly fashionable. Fifty thousand ermine pelts are said to have been used
in preparing for the coronation of King George VI of Great Britain in 1937.
Although the average price is low, running from twenty-five to fifty cents, a
good skin may bring a dollar. "Gray-backs," those changing from brown to
white, arc almost worthless.
It must be acknowledged that in a chicken yard a weasel is a dangerous
guest. In a southern Michigan township, weasels killed nearly sixty per cent of
the four hundred and seventy-eight poultry that were destroyed in twelve months
by all four-footed enemies. During that time, most of the fowl were killed be-
tween early April and August. It seemed likely that under the stress of finding
food for their young, mother weasels were looking for the easiest kind of prey.
Not that all weasels kill chickens, for they don't! But some night, rather, than
go hungry, a weasel may try it and find out how exhilaratingly easy it is. At the
same time, he is America's best native ratter and he may be an asset to the
poultry yard. One rat alone can kill one hundred and ninety chicks in a single
night. The weasel is one of the principal factors in helping to check the up-
THE MUSK-CARRIERS 187
surges of the small rodent population. It is a desirable citizen under most
circumstances.
One of the rarest of American mammals, the black-footed ferret (Mustcla
nigripcs), is a specifes of the weasel tribe. The largest of them, it wears black
goggles and neat black socks. Its shoulders are heavier and it is about two feet
long. The closest relative is actually the Siberian ferret.
Audubon described the black-footed ferret in 1851. Then, for almost twenty-
five years, not another specimen was found. Audubon was called many hard
names. Some naturalists accused him of inventing the species from a faked skin
or just out of thin air. Even now, museums in the whole country contain very
few skins, and living ferrets are extremely rare.
The ferret's habits are largely wrapped in mystery. Like the rest of the
weasels, it is very inquisitive and will often stand up on its hind legs to see
what is going on. This graceful animal preys on mice, rabbits, ground squirrels,
and ground-nesting birds and their eggs. Its favorite meat is the prairie dog,
but the near-extermination of this once numerous rodent has deprived the ferret
of food and den shelter. Although it has been trapped in the mountains as high
as ten thousand feet, its real home is the Great Plains from northern Montana
to Texas and west to the Grand Canyon in Arizona.
Three species of weasels occur in North America. Each has several subspecies:
1. The ermine (Mustcla crminca) varies in length from fifteen inches in the
far north to nine inches in Colorado and New Mexico. Its tail is rarely more
than two-fifths as long as the head and body combined, and is usually shorter.
Chocolate brown above in summer, it turns white in winter throughout its
range, except on the humid northwest coast from southern British Columbia to
California. There it remains brown for the entire year.
2. The least weasel (M . rixosa) is the smallest of the tribe. The male is about
nine inches long and the female only se^jpn. Their tails are less than one and
one-half inches in length, or approximately one-fifth as long as the head and
body. The dark brown upper parts turn white in winter, except in the southern
part of the range. At all seasons the tail-tip contains only a few black hairs
among the brown or white ones. The end of the tails of other species o weasels
is distinctly black throughout the year. The least weasel occurs from the Alle-
ghenies to Alaska.
3. The common or long-tailed weasel (M. frenata) varies in length from
twelve to twenty-four inches, depending on the subspecies and sex. The tail is
two-fifths to seven-tenths as long as the head and body. The species ranges clear
across the continent, and from southern Canada into South America. In the
l88 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
northern part o this range the coat turns white in winter, but elsewhere the
brown upper parts become only a little paler at that season. The subspecies of
M. frenata in the southwestern United States has contrasting black-and-white
markings on the face and so is named the bridled weasel. The subspecies on the
Great Plains has a much longer tail than the species in the East and is called
the long-tailed weasel.
General description. A very slender, short-legged small carnivore having a small
flattened head with beady eyes and low rounded ears. Neck and body very long,
and tail comparatively short. Underf ur soft and close, overlaid with long glisten-
ing guard hairs. Colors: in summer, yellowish to dark chocolate brown above,
with under parts and feet yellowish white; except in the least weasel, the ter-
minal quarter of tail is black. In winter, in country where snow stays on the
ground consistently, the weasel is white or slightly yellowish white except for
the tail-tip which remains black. Size varies greatly with the species: total length,
6 to 20 inches; height at shoulder, 2 to 4 inches; weight, 6 to 12 ounces. Females
are 20 per cent to as much as 50 per cent smaller than males.
Distinguishing characteristics. The greatly elongated form and short legs; rich
brown coat in summer and (in the north) white color in winter. The other
mustelids (mink, marten and fisher) having even a superficial resemblance are
larger than the biggest of the weasels.
Range. Practically all of North America.
MINK
MUSTELA VISON
The mink is an aggressive, crafty killer. Although not as speedy in its move-
ments as the weasel, it is fast by our standards. Its rapierlike thrusts have
accounted for many small mammals. A versatile hunter, it can chase down and
catch fish right in their own streams.
Its fondness for fresh muskrat is well known. The mink pursues these large
rodents into their bank burrows and cattail lodges and kills them in short order.
The big muskrats are able, vicious scrappers, but they are slow. In vain they
stir up the muddy water so that their attacker cannot see them. They can dive
deeper than the mink, but after all, they can't stay down forever.
When the muskrat mother is away, the mink may tear open the house and
THE MUSK-CARRIERS Ic>9
eat up the young. Like as not, it will then take possession of the house as one
of its several homes. Sometimes a few minks will clean out a whole muskrat
colony. On the other hand, there are many places where the two species are both
numerous and seem to be mildly tolerant of each other.
One old, experienced mother muskrat near Hampton Falls, New Hampshire,
could stand her own ground. She not only drove a marauding mink away from
her family, but chased it away upstream. An occasional marmot can also get the
best of a mink, or at least hold its own.
The mink seems to prefer to lug its meat home and eat it comfortably in
bed. As a result the nest is always littered with scraps or even whole carcasses.
A famous naturalist snooping around found that one mink had carted almost a
month's supply to its den in a hollow ash stub six feet above ground. Stored in
a corner were:
13 freshly-killed muskrats
2 mallard ducks
i coot
Except for muskrats, crayfish and larger quantities of fish, the mink's diet is
much the same as the weasel's.
MINK
190 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
Sportsmen, finding duck feathers in the mink's scats, have accused it of kill-
ing waterfowl. In Yellowstone a mink reached for a duck, missed, and grabbed
it by the leg. The duck flapped its wings frantically and succeeded in rising clear
out of the water and twenty inches above. But the mink held on. For a few
moments the mink dangled in mid-air. Then its weight pulled the duck back
down to the water and under. Most of the ducks eaten by the mink are those
that are crippled or have died of wounds after escaping from hunters. Probably
some nests are found and the eggs destroyed.
Although the mink does not usually kill as wastefully as the weasel, it is a
menace to the poultry farm. It assists the farmer by destroying rats, but may
kill the chickens as well. A mink on a rampage may kill dozens of "broilers" in
one night.
The mink travels far and wide and has many affairs during the mating
season. After two months of such living, he is ready to settle down for a while
and be a devoted and hard-working husband and father. He and his last mate
set up housekeeping.
Naturalists differ about the length of the gestation period. Most opinions
agree that it is forty-two to forty-four days, but there is evidence that it may
last as long as seventy-five days. Possibly the time may vary, due to delays in
the attachment and growth of the embryos.
The four to eight or even more young are about as long as pea pods and
covered with very fine, short, whitish hairs when born. Even before their eyes
open at the age of five weeks, the little minks chew on meat brought by their
mother and father to the den under the roots of a tree on the streamside. As
soon as they can see, their mother no longer nurses them but puts them on a
meat diet.
TMe parents carry the young by the scruff of their necks on land, and "pick-
a-back" when in the water. A doting couple were once seen swimming with one
little fellow across both backs.
Around home the young are very playful in a savage way. A favorite game
is "stalk and pounce," a practice for hunting. The victim of the stalk turns on his
back and tries to fend off the aggressor with all four feet. Throughout the
struggle, both little minks squeal, hiss and growl ferociously. When they become
adults, they quarrel violently to the accompaniment of almost continuous
screeching.
When the youngsters are old enough to travel on their own legs, they accom-
pany their mother and father on all their wanderings. Usually at night, but
sometimes during the day, the family proceeds on its rounds to gather food.
The year-round range is large, probably including several square miles. It is not
THE MUSK-CARRIERS
covered systematically. Instead, a temporary headquarters is selecteda natural
cavity in a bank, or perhaps a muskrat lodge or rabbit burrow is commandeered
and the minks work out from there. Then, in a week or two, they move along
the circuit to the next stand. They frequently travel in a slow, lumbering walk,
with arched backs, but their best gait is a bounding, graceful lope that can be
kept up for miles, apparently with little effort.
At times a mink can be very nonchalant. It has been seen in the Adirondacks
of New York, floating down streams on bright autumn days, curled up, appar-
ently asleep.
A mink's hunting seldom takes it any distance from streams, lakes or tidal
marshes. Occasionally minks have been known to live on the shore of the open
ocean, miles from the wooded creeks of the typical mink territory.
In late summer the family breaks up, father, mother and children all going
their separate ways. By the time the first snow falls, each of them has established
its individual territory. In the case of a female, this is small, hardly ever exceed-
ing twenty acres. She is smaller than the male but she too can kill a big muskrat
unaided. After raising a strenuous family, she is glad to live alone until mating
season comes again. This occurs from the end of January in the South to early
April in the North.
The male mink wanders over much larger ranges. The territories of the
different minks may overlap and the same den may be used by several animals
successively. The hunting routes are irregular and indefinite but tend to follow
streams or lake margins. During very cold weather following a snowfall, the
animals generally stay at home and sleep- curled up, with heads under their tails.
It is fortunate that the mink spends much of the time in water. That is all
that keeps it from asphyxiating its neighbors. Although it cannot spray its
enemies, like the skunk, it discharges acrid musk from similar glands. To most
people it is more obnoxious than that of the weasel, and considerably worse than
that of the skunk. The older the mink is, and the nearer it is to mating season,
the more unbearable it is. Much less restrained than the skunk, the mink goes
around issuing this stench on the slightest provocation. This discharge has little
value as a defense weapon. Apparently its function is to attract the opposite sex.
The mink does have its lighter moments. They are infrequent, but definitely
light. It has been seen to copy the otter and slide down hill on its belly just for
fun. In at least one case on record, a mink made eight successive slides down a
slope covered with a couple of inches of snow.
Mange, bot flies, lung flukes and tapeworms sometimes cause serious trouble
to the mink. Few animals have the temerity to pick a fight with it. Only the
lynx, bobcat and fox, among the mammals, and the great-horned and snowy
192 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
owls, among the birds, arc known to prey on it. When attacked by too formi-
dable an enemy, it can dodge and slip into shelter like a flash. If cornered, it
becomes a demon of fury. It tears at the enemy or a trap with vicious teeth and
claws. Its face is contorted into horrible grimaces. It discharges enough musk to
smell to high heaven. It spits, hisses, and squeals shrilly with rage. Sometimes
it barks hoarsely. No animal goes more berserk in a trap. It may even bite off
its caught foot beyond the steel trap, which does it no good, or may bury itself,
trap and all.
Human trappers account for far more minks than all other factors combined,
except perhaps shortages of food caused by epidemics among the rodents. Never-
theless, the species has held its own fairly well. Most wild minks are caught in
steel traps. The Eskimos, however, use a funnel-shaped wicker basket, made on
the principle of a fish trap, which is set in a narrow channel where the animals
are likely to swim.
The mink has the most beautiful and costly coat of all the small mustelids.
The value of a good, dark pelt from the northeastern part of the range is ordi-
narily about ten dollars. Louisiana produces more mink fur than any other
state (168,600 pelts in the winter of 1945-6), but the quality of the fur is not as
high. In the great boom of the late 1920*5, a small lot of very choice dark skins
sold in New York for one hundred and seventeen dollars apiece.
The mink was the first American furbearer to be "domesticated." The busi-
ness of raising the animals for breeding stock or fur began on a very small scale
shortly before the Civil War. In the early days, some minks were sold as ratters.
With many ups and downs, the mink industry has expanded until each year
many thousands of minks, about forty per cent of the total marketed, are raised
in captivity and pelted. The high quality of these furs, which are unblemished
by trap and other scars, make them worth twenty to twenty-five dollars under
average market conditions. Good animals for breeding purposes bring seventy-
five to one hundred dollars.
An extinct species, called the sea mink (Mustcla macrodon), was a light-
colored, reddish brown animal. Larger than the common mink, it lived along
the coast of Maine and New Brunswick. It apparently vanished for good about
1860. A couple of faded mounted skins, and many bones in Indian village sites
and shell heaps, are all that remain.
General description. A weasel-like animal about the size of a small house cat.
Body and neck very long; legs short; tail long and rather bushy; head rather
short with pointed muzzle. Fur soft and well covered with long, glistening
THE MUSK-CARRIERS 193
guard hairs; color uniform russet brown to very dark chocolate brown with
white chin and irregular white spots on throat and breast. Total length, 20 to
30 inches; height at shoulder, 5 inches; weight, about 2 pounds. Females are
considerably smaller, sometimes only half as heavy as males.
Distinguishing characteristics. The mink is larger than the weasel, is generally
darker in color than the weasel's summer coat and lacks the extensive white
under parts of the weasel; also, does not turn white in the winter. The marten
has a more bushy tail and yellower brown fur. The otter is much larger and has
a heavy tapering tail, while that of the mink is not heavy and is more nearly
cylindrical.
Range. All of North America north of Mexico, except Newfoundland, northern
Ungava, northeastern Mackenzie, northern and extreme western Alaska, south-
ern half of Florida, and southwestern United States, including the drier plains
and deserts from southern Texas to the coast of southern California.
WOLVERINE
GULO SP.
The wolverine is a lonely, bad-tempered animal. It will brook no inter-
ference, even from a mountain lion or a grizzly. It can spit in anybody's eye.
Its father might as well have been a bear, and its mother a skunk. It smells like
one and looks like both of them. Some people call it Skunk-Bear.
The powerfully built body lumbers along on short squat legs. The dark
brown hair is long, coarse, thick and shaggy. It has a bushy tail, hair-covered
feet and bearlike claws. Three to four feet long, including the tail, it is the
largest of all the weasel tribe.
The wolverine has been seen to drive bears, mountain lions and coyotes away
from their own kill, and then nonchalantly eat it himself. Not only one bear
or mountain lion at a time but sometimes two or three I
Apparently the wolverine just gets mad when it sees someone else eating a
good dinner. The hair on the back and neck rises straight up, the tail is hoisted
like that of an angry bison, and it advances to the attack.
Three large coyotes have been seen to leave their meal of dead horse when
this happened. At least one pair of adult black bears are known to have beaten
a hasty retreat when a wolverine demanded their dinner. Two mountain lions
WOLVERINE
THE MUSK-CARRIERS 195
relinquished a deer they had killed when a wolverine in California stalked
toward them. One o the lions protested violently but even it was afraid of the
little bow-legged robber.
The wolverine is said to have attacked and killed mountain lions, coyotes,
bears, moose, caribou, sheep and deer. The short legs and bearlike gait prevent
it from chasing these animals, which are so much larger. But it is a strategist.
According to a number of hunters and trappers, it has leaped on elk and moose
when they were bogged down in the deep snow. These animals have been found
with a hole chewed or torn hi the back, and their spinal cords cut or torn.
Wolverine tracks pointed to the assassin.
A mountain lion was once found terribly chewed and lacerated, with one
leg broken. In the deep snow, footprints of a wolverine, mixed with those of
the lion, told the story.
Other large mammals seem to have been leaped upon from trees or over-
hanging rocks. Tracks of wolverines following Dall sheep in Alaska indicate
that the wolverine hunts sheep. It is quite possible that it follows the sheep
until they reach the corner of a cliff, where it makes a quick leap or two onto
a sheep's back and cuts the jugular vein.
This short, bow-legged Napoleon is the strongest for its size of all North
American mammals. A wolverine near Mount McKinley was known to drag
a small Dall sheep down a mountain, across a river bar, and over a steep bank
a total distance of at least one and one-half miles. All this was done before it
settled down for a feast. The ground was covered with snow but the carcass
must have weighed three times as much as the bantam warrior.
The only creature not reported to have been attacked by the wolverine is
man. On the Alaska Peninsula, I once scared off a flock of mallards that a
wolverine had been trailing. It turned and faced me. For a long minute it stared
vengefully, then its mouth opened in a snarl of rage but it didn't try to attack 1
me. With a final glare, it turned and loped angrily off into the alders.
Apparently, only a porcupine can damage the wolverine. When very hungry,
a wolverine will tackle a porcupine but does it so clumsily that it may pay with
its life. Wolverines have been found dead with great numbers of quills sticking
in their mouths and throats, their stomach walls covered with quills, many
of which had worked through into the body cavity, and their intestines
pierced.
The wolverine is supposed to be the glutton of all gluttons. For this reason
it has been given the Latin name Gulo, meaning gullet. Its powerful digestive
system disposes of food so efficiently and frequently that it can eat immense
quantities of food. It cannot; however, live up to its backwoods reputation. It
196 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
docs not clean up a whole moose or caribou at a sitting. But it frequently camps
by a kill until everything edible has been devoured. It sleeps off its gorges in a
nearby rock-cranny or thicket and returns after each siesta. If it gets tired of the
same food, it will carry away and store the remainder. It tears the pieces into
chunks and caches each piece separately.
Meat of all kinds, ages and conditions makes up its diet. It has been seen
eating snails and frogs. Probably it depends chiefly on mice, chipmunks, ground
squirrels, ground-roosting grouse such as ptarmigans, and marmots. It does rela-
tively little digging after small fry, for the front feet are not well equipped for
the purpose. Its great strength, however, enables it to turn over slabs of rock,
and to roll over logs or tear them apart to get at rodents that have taken
refuge there.
If a wolverine finds and takes a notion to follow a trapline, it may drive the
trapper to his wit's end and ultimately ruin him. With diabolical ingenuity, it
will remove every bit of bait, every trapped animal, and often hide the traps or
destroy them, but is usually too smart to get caught itself.
It can dig, climb or gnaw its way into almost any building. At times it has
broken. into cabins and eaten or destroyed a whole winter's supplies in one week.
Flour and other food that it does not cat is spoiled by the vile-smelling secretion
from the anal glands. Canned goods, pots, pans, dishes, cutlery, and stove lids
are scattered through the woods as if out of sheer deviltry.
It enjoys eating and hunting too much to hibernate. When winter comes, it
puts on its heaviest coat, stiff hair soles on its feet, and continues to eat and hunt,
hunt and eat.
You can't find out much about the private life of the wolverine. It appears
to be a solitary, grumpy animal that seldom teams up with any other animal.
The only exception occurs in February or March, when it takes a mate. After a
brief courtship, it goes back to its solitary ways.
The two or three young rarely up to five are born during June in a den,
under an overhanging rock, in the shelter of dense coniferous foliage, or at the
base of a hollow tree. From the beginning, they learn that life is hard and there
are no downy comforters for them. The woolly newborn coats are very pale,
light brown, buffy, or even nearly white, but they have the color pattern f
their parents. Darker bands occur along the sides.
The mother is an unusually capable defender of her family. She is an abso-
lutely fearless fighter. By late fall, the youngsters are two-thirds grown and
ready to fight their own battles. The family usually breaks up completely by
the time the ground is covered with snow, but sometimes a couple of the cubs
may continue to hunt together.
THE MUSK-CARRIERS 197
Although the wolverines may defile man's possessions, or even their own
food through carelessness, they keep an immaculate house. The mother house-
breaks her children at an early age, and the toilet is outside.
In spite of its heavy body and short legs, the wolverine can climb a tree if
necessary. Several wolverines have been known to climb to the very top when
chased by a pack of hounds.
The wolverine ranges over a considerable area. A hunter in the Cascade
Mountains of Washington once followed a wolverine's trail for two days, from
the headwaters of Ashnola Creek to the Canadian boundary, but never overtook
the animal. In central Alaska the wolverine is said to have regular routes or
circuits, and to pass a given point every eight to ten days.
The wolverine's coat is too bulky, and too difficult to get, to be popular fur
for garments in the United States. The total number of pelts sold annually is
between one thousand and twelve hundred. Practically all of them come from
northern and western Canada, Alaska, and the Soviet Republics. The value is
not high, rarely over twenty-five dollars for an exceptionally fine skin, and the
average is only six to eight dollars.
The native people of the Arctic, however, prize wolverine fur out of all
proportion to its monetary value. It is used as trimming for garments. The best-
dressed Eskimo is the one who has the most yards of wolverine skin. Eskimo
hunters believe that a belt or hunting bag made of the skin of the legs and face
will give them some of the physical strength and cunning of the redoubtable
animal. Because the guard hairs of the wolverine will not accumulate frost, the
pelt is a favorite trimming for parka hoods and cuffs.
Warm climates have no attractions for the wolverine. Its tribe is found all
the way around the northern world, south of the Arctic Ocean, in Asia, Europe
and North America. On our continent, the range extended from the southern
polar islands to the southern boundary of Canada, and into the United States
in the great mountain chains and around the northern part of the Great Lakes.
Northern Pennsylvania, southern Colorado or northern New Mexico, and the
southern end of the Sierra Nevada mark the farthest extensions of the aborigi-
nal habitat.
Never numerous anywhere in this country, even before the coming of the
whites, the wolverine is now extinct east of the Rocky Mountains. The last
specimen had been trapped from the Wolverine State before any of the skins that
passed through the trading posts was identified certainly as having originated
in Michigan. Today wolverines are very rare in the few localities in the Rockies
and Sierra Nevada where the race survives. The number of pairs living in the
entire .state of California has been estimated at not more than fifteen.
190 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
This small warrior with the big growl may soon become extinct unless given
absolute protection.
General description. A thick-bodied, short-legged animal with a shaggy coat,
looking not unlike a cross between a skunk and a bear. Head broad, with short
ears, body sturdy with a high-arching back; tail fairly long and bushy; feet
large, with large stout claws that are semi-retractile. Color dark brown to almost
black, with a broad brownish white stripe running along each side from shoulder
to rump and onto upper part of tail; head grizzled gray with black muzzle.
Total length, 36 to 44 inches; height at shoulder, 15 inches; weight, 20 to 35
pounds, to a possible maximum of 50 pounds.
Distinguishing characteristics. The size and bearlike form and light-colored
band on the dark brown, shaggy coat.
Range. From the southern islands of the Arctic Ocean south to central Quebec
and Ontario in the East and to Colorado and southeastern California in the
West. Very rare within the United States.
THE OTTER
LUTRA SP.
Otters have a delightful sense of frivolity. Young and old, they tumble and
wrestle like high-spirited children. They love a good game of tag and follow-
the-leader. Chasing each other, they roll gracefully through the water like small
dolphins.
Even an old female otter can amuse herself for hours playing with a flat
stone. She tosses it from paw to paw until she is bored, then throws it into the
water and dives after it. The game is to catch it in her teeth before it strikes
bottom.
The otter's favorite pastime is sliding. During the warm months a mother
and her young or perhaps several adults select a smooth steep bank that drops
into a stream or pond. Climbing to the top, they push off with all four feet
turned backward. Head first, down they go on their bellies, and kerplunk into
the water! In a few minutes the minor bumps are worn away and the wet bodies
have made the slide as slick and smooth as any metal slide on a school play-
ground.
In midwinter I have seen several slides on snow-covered slopes. The otters,
OTTER
200 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
with a run and a rush, do belly-whoppers like small boys on toboggans. The
soft deep snow at the bottom acts like a featherbed in stopping the exuberant
animals.
Like the sea otter, the river or land otter has the outline of a small seal or a
very big weasel. From three and one-half to four and one-half feet long, the slim
sleek body has a broad flat head and webbed feet for swimming.
The river otter is probably the best swimmer of all our "land" mammals.
It can stay under the water for a quarter of a mile without coming up for air.
To keep warm in the intensely cold waters of the north, it has two coats. Under
the skin is a layer of fat that extends over its entire body and functions as insula-
tion, just as does the thick blubber sheath of the whale. In addition, the otter
wears a coat of short, remarkably thick underfur which is overlaid with long
guard hairs. From the front, this coat glistens and shines; from the rear, it is
just another fine fur coat.
Normally the otter's beautiful dark brown fur is the same color and texture
throughout the seasons, and the hair is perfectly straight. Sometimes, however,
the tips of the guard hairs are curled. Trappers imagine that these pelts are
"singed" from too much sun-bathing.
Some naturalists have believed that the otter is monogamous, but as a matter
of fact he may have a number of mates each season.
The one to five, usually two or three, pups are born in April. Home is usually
in a bank burrow, perhaps a muskrat or beaver den that has been abandoned
by its owner, or in the base of a hollow tree. The hollow trunk of a fallen tree
also makes an acceptable nursery. In the flat marshes and the "tules" of Cali-
fornia, where a suitable tree is not available, the mother makes a wigwam.
Bending tall marsh plants together at the top, she encloses a small circular room.
A clean animal, she arranges for one or more outside toilets.
When born, the young otters are about the size of small ground squirrels.
Their eyes are closed and they are very dark, almost black. They develop rather
slowly, and do not see until about five weeks of age. It is said that they must be
taught to swim and to hunt for fish. The mother is a patient instructor and tends
her brood carefully. In the water, she is said to carry them on her back until
they can swim alone. They stay with her until they are almost a year old, when
the next annual litter is due to arrive.
The fact that young otters, as many as five in number, have been seen accom-
panied by two adults may indicate that two mothers may join company, or an
occasional and exceptional father may be allowed to share in bringing up his
progeny.
Paddling about in a lake, or lying in the sun on the bank, the otter family
THE MUSK-CARRIERS 201
present a picture of peace and affection. The mother and the young may take
turns combing each other's fur, starting at the head and working back. They
converse a great deal in low mumbling tones. Too rough play brings out a
complaining whine or a sharp bark of protest. The approach of an enemy is
signaled by a low warning cough or grunt
For a carnivore, the otter has a varied diet. It eats snails and clams and other
fresh-water shellfish occasionally, crushing the shells with its strong teeth. Cray-
fish is a favorite food, and otter droppings are frequently composed entirely of
the broken "shells" or outer skeletons of this crustacean. Insects, mudpuppies,
frogs and any snakes that happen along are also grist for its mill. Otters were
once seen in Yellowstone eating stalks of waterplants for several hours.
Should all otters be killed as enemies of muskrats, beavers and ducks?
Whether an otter will clean out a colony of muskrats in a short time seems to
depend entirely on circumstances. On some national wildlife refuges the two
species live in the same neighborhood without any bloodshed. Probably the
otters much prefer more easily caught food, but will kill and eat muskrats rather
than go hungry. The same seems to be true of birds. An otter in Yellowstone
Park was once seen with a blackbird in its mouth, and another with a flicker.
On several occasions, otters have been seen swimming or feeding within a few
yards of ducks. The otters seemed completely indifferent to the potential value
of a duck dinner, while the birds showed no alarm or tendency to move away
from possible danger.
It cannot be denied that the otter competes with man for fish. This is the
otter's favorite food. It loves a big salmon or trout, but probably takes the first
or easiest-caught fish that comes along. In a stream containing trout, squawfish
and suckers, with the squawfish predominating, an otter has been known to
content itself entirely with squawfish.
A cunning and stealthy fisherman, the otter creeps up slowly through the
water to surprise unwary fish. Some are cornered against the bottom in weeds,
or in angles of banks. At least three otters in Yosemite National Park have
learned the advantages of pooling their efforts. Diving in a circle, they seemed
to be driving startled trout toward each other's waiting jaws.
The otter eats a fish head first and discards the tail fin. Usually, after each
meal, it cleans its face and whiskers by wiping them on the grass or snow.
The search for food is aided by a keen sense of smell and a set of highly
developed whiskers that may serve as sense organs when it is looking for food
in muddy or roily water. Its eyesight is good but not outstanding, and its hearing
is somewhat less reliable.
Whenever possible, the otter travels by water. Its legs are too short for easy
2O2 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
hiking. However, when it wishes to move from one stream to another, it strikes
off across country at an awkward but efficient lope. If necessary, it can run as
fast as a man, and can outdistance a man on snowshoes. It probably has regu-
larly used crossings between streams, and may even climb high ridges.
During the winter it may have to hike many miles to find holes in the ice
for fishing. I once followed an otter's trail for several miles in the Upper Penin-
sula of Michigan. It had investigated all openings where the stream was swift
enough to keep free of ice. Diving in, it had fished awhile and then returned
to the snow-covered banks to resume its journey. The short legs acted merely as
paddles in the deep soft snow, for it really traveled on its belly. Every two er
three leaps it slid forward as far as possible, then made two or three more bounds
and slid again.
One would think that a dripping wet otter would freeze after emerging from
a swim into the icy air of a northern winter. In cold weather or hot, the otter's
first thought after a swim is to dry its coat. Shaking itself vigorously to send the
water flying, it then rolls over and over in the snow or on the grass until
fairly dry.
Although rather solitary most of the time, land otters keep tab on each other
by means of scent posts. At chosen spots on the shore, almost every passing otter
leaves a sign consisting of a twisted tuft of grass on which a few drops of scent
from the anal glands are deposited. These scent posts are a great convenience
in mating time.
If captured when only a few weeks old, otters make affectionate and gentle
pets. They are intelligent, easily trained and friendly. Older otters are too set in
their ways.
A dark rich brown, appearing almost black when wet, the otter's coat is
somewhat paler and grayer underneath than on the back, and changes to grayish
on the throat and muzzle. It is one of the most durable and valuable of North
American pelts and at the height of the market in 1946 brought as much as
fifty dollars or more. Ordinarily, however, No. i skins bring between ten and
twenty dollars, depending upon size and color. Those from eastern Canada and
the northeastern United States are darkest and are valued at almost twice the
price of paler pelts from the South and about thirty per cent more than the
better grade of skins from Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.
In recent years, the states .reporting the highest catch of otters have beto:
Louisiana, about two thousand per year; New York, four hundred; Wiscon-
sin, three hundred; Washington, two hundred and 'fifty; Georgia, one hun-
dred and seventy-five; and Maine and Oregon, about one hundred and fifty
each. The take of land otters in Alaska has been about three thousand per year,
THE MUSK-CARRIERS 2O3
with a value of more than fifty thousand dollars. In that Territory, the otters of
the interior rivers have small silky pelts, while those living along the coast are
larger and bluish brown in color.
Otters are found north of the Rio Grande except on the tundra of the far
north and the deserts of western Texas, southeastern New Mexico, and Cali-
fornia, Nevada and Utah. Even before white men came to America, these
animals were scattered rather thinly. In order to secure sufficient food and, per-
haps, because of an innate restlessness, they ranged widely in twos or in small
families.
Trapping and the encroachment of man have thinned the sparse otter popu-
lation over vast areas and have extirpated it from much of the eastern and
central states wherever agriculture is intensive. Nevertheless, these animals
survive in much settled country and surprisingly close to big cities, provided
they are protected by enforced laws or natural barriers from human intrusion.
General description. A long-bodied animal formed like an over-sized weasel,
with flattened head, slender body, and tapering tail; legs short; all four feet
webbed. Fur very dense; underfur whitish gray at base, changing on upper
parts to dull dark brown at tip; guard-hairs similar in color but glossy; under
parts, throat, and muzzle grayish. Total length, 3^ to 4^ feet; height at
shoulder, 9 to 10 inches; weight, 10 to 25 pounds. Females are definitely smaller.
Distinguishing characteristics. Weasellike form and aquatic habit. The large size
distinguishes the otter from any other weasel, including the mink.
Range. Fresh-water streams and lakes of North America north of Mexico, except
the treeless tundra of the Arctic slope and the deserts of western Texas, south-
eastern New Mexico, southern California, Nevada and western Utah .
SEA OTTER
ENHYDRA LUTRIS
If you arc ever lucky enough to sec a live sea otter, you will probably find
several, all floating on their backs. Arms arc crossed on their bosoms, their
webbed toes are turned upward and their tails straight out. Unless you take a
picture with a telephoto lens, you will miss the trustful expression of the
friendly, white-whiskered face and big black eyes. Occasionally they put one or
both paws over their eyes to shut out the light so that they can doze better.
204 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
It is amusing to see them stand straight up in the water and peer over the
waves or seaweed to see what is going on. With their be-whiskered mouths
half open, and apparently toothless, they look like quizzical old men.
They have the most exquisite fur in the world the rarest and most costly.
For two centuries this elegance has brought death and near extermination to
the sea otters. Because of their great value, lands were explored, men eagerly
braved the hardships of the most perilous waters, and hundreds lost their lives.
In 1737 the white man first learned of the beauty of these skins. For cen-
turies before, the Chinese and west coast American Indians had been using
them. Trust the avid white race to gobble up and destroy every valuable
resource that could be assimilated.
In the first year after the discovery of the Pribilof Islands, two Russian
sailors slaughtered five thousand otters at St. George Island. The following
year they could secure only one thousand. During the next five years every last
animal was killed. This stupid slaughter continued wherever sea otters were
found.
SEA OTTER
THE MUSK-CARRIERS 205
The animals were hunted from small boats, pursued until they were ex-
hausted. The desperate creatures became cunning, hid behind rocks, or made for
tide rips or breakers. Sometimes they dove in the opposite direction and came
up behind the pursuers. But the hunters were persistent and indefatigably
spurred by greed.
The sea otter is four to five feet long, including its ten- or twelve-inch tail.
An adult male weighs up to eighty pounds. An enlarged edition of his inland
relative, he has a long supple body, small fore feet and large webbed hind feet.
His head is broad and flat, with ears almost hidden in the fur. His hind feet
are very large and powerful, and are haired on both surfaces. Reddish brown
or dark brown, sometimes almost black, his beautiful body fur is frosted with
white, while the head and neck are paler, frequently grayish or even cream-
colored. The white hairs in the coat arc not a sign of age. Adults may have
none. Youngsters are definitely more grayish than any "grown-up."
Even matter-of-fact hunters have gone into rhapsodies over the otter's fur.
The undercoat is unusually fine, soft and dense, about three-quarters of an inch
long and overlain by sparse, long guard-hairs. Close to the roots, the fur is white
or silvery, darkening progressively toward the outer tips. The whole effect is of
luster and velvety grace. The fur is always prime, for the otter lives in a fairly
uniform climate and doesn't need a summer and winter coat. It sheds its hair
quite gradually, the largest quantities in May and June. It is so permeated with
oil that it rarely, if ever, becomes water-soaked.
One remarkable feature is the looseness of the coat. It hangs on the otter's
body like the slack skin on a puppy-dog's neck. One would think it was designed
for an animal almost twice its size. When removed, it stretches to as much as
ninety inches long and thirty-six inches wide.
A rocky, broken coast, plenty of food and an abundance of kelp are the
requirements for the sea otters' home. A great bed of coarse "sea-weed" breaks
the sweep of the waves and forms a protective screen against enemies.
The otter has three meals a day an early breakfast, a noonday lunch, and
an evening dinner between five and eight o'clock. In a herd of sea otters, there
arc always some that take a snack between meals. Others that have poorer
appetites may skip some of their meals and remain indolendy in the kelp
beds.
In the north, the sea otcer eats sea urchins (three-quarters of its food), crus-
taceans, mussels, clams, snails, crabs, fish roe, limpets, chitons, polyps, cuttlefish,
occasional smelt and little sardinelike fish.
In the south (California) the diet is made up of red abalone, sea urchins,
crabs, and mollusks with the exception of mussels. Occasionally it nibbles a kelp.
206 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
Pebbles or bits of coral rock are sometimes taken accidentally with shellfish and
similar food.
The otter is an expert at diving for food. It dives without splashing, folding
its arms on its chest and swimming obliquely downward with undulating body
and powerful kicks of the huge hind-feet paddles. In the depths it must rely
mostly on the senses of touch and smell. Even at bright noon, there is little light
at a depth of one hundred feet or more. At the height of the foggy, Alaskan
winter, there are only a few hours of dull daylight which never reaches much
below the surface of the water. Even on the surface, the otter's sight and hearing
are not good but its sense of smell is acute.
. A man must use a tool, such as a leaf of an automobile spring sharpened at
one end, to pry abalones from the ocean bottom at low tide. The powerful
muscles of these great shellfish are a menace to any fisherman. A friend of mine
once helped to retrieve the body of a Chinese who, at low tide near San Fran-
cisco, had tried to pull up an abalone with his hands. The abalone ckmped the
man's fingers fast between its shell and the rocky bottom. The tide swept in,
no help came and the fisherman was drowned.
How does the sea otter detach these great shellfish with only teeth and paws
for implements? Blithely it brings them up, apparendy without casualty. It
probably is able to catch them when relaxed and unaware. A large piece of shell
is always broken out of one side. Perhaps the otter bites it out or possibly pounds
it out with a stone. Returning to the surface, the adroit animal turns on its back.
Holding the six- to nine-inch shell with its paws, it tears out a chunk of flesh
from the abalone.
It habitually uses its chest or abdomen as a table, and its sense of balance is
so fine that no meal goes overboard, even when rocked by the waves. The Jbgs
of a crab are eaten one by one, while the rest of the creature waits on the otter's
belly. When a large purple sea urchin is captured, the otter bites a hole in the
"shell" or test, or cracks it with thickly calloused paws. Then it sucks or licks
out the soft interior parts with great gusto. It even licks its fingers thoroughly
afterward and not a morsel is wasted. The smaller sea urchins which occur in
Alaskan waters are eaten, shell, spines and all.
An efficient creature, when it brings up a bivalve, it also carries a flat stone
about six or eight inches long and wide. Placing the stone on its chest, it crashes
the mollusk down on the stone with a full-arm swing of both paws. Perhaps
several blows are required to break the shell, but the otter is persistent and
expert.
Sometimes, like a small boy, the sea otter becomes restless in the course of a
meal. Clasping the uneaten food to its chest, it turns over and over in the water,
THE MUSK-CARRIERS 207
chewing a mouthful as it goes, perfectly unconcerned about mixing sea-water
with its dinner.
Once I saw an otter interrupted at dinner by an itching at the base of one
ear. Setting the food down on its chest, it began to scratch vigorously with both
hands. The thick fur seems to be a haven for fleas or lice. At times otters are
driven to dashing about madly, frantically scratching and biting for three or
four minutes, or even longer.
Usually, if not in a hurry, the sea otter swims on its back. It may merely
scull with the tail, moving it from side to side or in a circle. A little more speed
is gained by an undulating movement of the body. If that is not enough, it
lowers one or both hind feet into the water and really strikes out.
When frightened or in a hurry, it turns over on the abdomen and makes off
at a speed of about ten miles per hour. The feet may stroke in unison or alter-
nately, or they may switch from one system to another. The otter swims in a
graceful, undulating course, now on the surface, now below. It rides over swells
as if they were not there, but it usually swims through, not over, the waves. If
really hard-pressed, it can swim under water for four or five minutes.
- A stormy period is a hard one for the sea otters. They must work all the
time to prevent being blown away or dashed onto the rocky shore. When the
wind dies down they are glad to rest. Wrapping themselves in strands of kelp
to avoid drifting away, they yawn themselves to sleep.
Except on moonlight nights when they may swim about for a while, the
sea otter herd goes to bed with the coming of darkness. A favorite dormitory
of kelp is used night after night. Ribbonlike kelp is preferred to the tubular
species because it is easier to wrap up in and is less likely to slip loose.
Sea otters growl, bark, squeal and spend a good deal of time squabbling.
When one of them takes a nip at a passing herd-mate, it may be answered by
a cuff and a protesting, drawn-out squeak that is almost a whistle. Not infre-
quently one of them will rob another of food. Only an easy-going creature will
ignore this affront. When fighting, the otters leap dear of the water, dive and
dash at each other with incredible swiftness and great splashings. The mother
otters avoid much of this bickering and spend a gre^t deal of time playing
with their children.
Sea otters may mate in any month. The male courts his prospective mate
by rubbing her cheek with his, or patting her fondly with his forepaws. After
a gestation period of about nine months, the single pup is born on an isolated
rocky islet or in a thick bed of kelp in a sheltered cove. The mother's faithful-
ness and affection for her youngster are infinite. She never deserts it. If chased
by an enemy, she seizes it by the skin of its neck in her teeth, and makes a
208 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
scries of dives short and quick enough so that the little one will not drown.
When diving for food or in play, she may carry it more casually in the crook
of her arm. When it is tired of its swimming lessons or of being carried around,
she brings it in her arms or on her chest back to their kelp bed.
Her love for her offspring, which is so great that it overcomes any fear, was
often utilized by the hunters. Because she would not abandon her pup, she was
handicapped. If the pup were captured, they would use it as a decoy. When the
mother was killed and picked up first, the crying puppy would swim up to the
boat and be taken alive.
The young sea otter is born with its eyes open and a full set of teeth, but
grows up rather slowly. Not until it is about six months old does it eat solid
food. At this time the mother removes bits of crabmeat and clams and other
shellfish from the shells and feeds them to the pup. She continues to nurse it
while floating on her back until it is at least a year old. It may not be weaned
even then unless another brother or sister is born. Unlike most adolescent ani-
mals, it is not forced to shift for itself at that point. Mother sea otters are fre-
quently accompanied by their young of two ages. The otter reaches its full
growth when about four years old.
With the exception of man, enemies seem to be few. Only the killer whale
is formidable. Seals and sea lions may compete for food but do not attack.
Gulls sometimes annoy by swooping hungrily about, hoping to snatch up bits
of food. The otters try to frighten them off by splashing water in their faces
or to confuse them by diving and coming to the surface elsewhere. Storms
sometimes kill old or weak otters by dashing them on jagged rocks. Once in a
great while slides from cliffs may kill an animal. Female otters occasionally die
in parturition, for the pup is comparatively large and mature when born. Many
sea otters probably have toothaches, as cavities are frequent in their broad, flat
teeth. Sometimes the decay results in abscesses. It is possible that part of their
dental trouble may be due to breaking open the hard spiny shells of sea urchins.
We have seen how the sea otters were slaughtered ruthlessly by the Russians
in the late eighteenth century. As a result, the government imposed rigorous
restrictions. By the i86o's, the sea otter population had recovered sufficiently to
furnish an annual crop of about five hundred pelts.
Then, by the Treaty of Sitka in 1867, Alaska was purchased by the United
States and unlimited killing of the otters began again. The price of pelts went
down to about fifty dollars and the sea otters quickly became almost extinct.
In 1910 a single skin brought one thousand seven hundred and three dollars
and thirty-three cents on the London market. The following year the govern-
ments of Russia, Japan, Great Britain and the United States agreed to cease all
THE MUSK-CARRIERS
killing of sea otters. Under the penalty of heavy fines and jail sentences, poach-
ing is now slight and the otters arc slowly increasing. About three thousand are
estimated to be in the waters around the Aleutian Islands, and more than two
hundred live along the California coast south to Monterey.
For years the U. S. Government pondered the possibility of experimenting
with raising sea otters in captivity. It remained for the Russians to put the
scheme into execution. On one of the Commander Islands, they have established
the only sea-otter experimental station in the world. In large pens on a salt-
water estuary, where the tide rises and falls, the captive sea otters breed and
rear their young.
General description. A large, slender, marine mammal with broad flat head,
small ears, short legs, webbed hind feet and thick short tail. Fur soft, short,
brownish black, sometimes much grizzled. Total length, 4 to 5 feet; height at
shoulder, 10 to 12 inches; weight, up to 80 pounds.
Distinguishing characteristics. Smaller than the seals; body more uniformly
slender throughout its length. The small front feet of the otter distinguish it
instantly from the flippers of the seals.
Range. Coast and offshore islands of western North America from southern
California to central Bering Sea. Commander and Kurile Islands, and possibly
other localities, off the northeastern coast of Asia.
STRIPED SKUNK
MEPHITIS SP.
A skunk is not just a skunk. It may be a striped, or a spotted, or a hog-nosed
skunk. The striped skunk has two white stripes down its back that join over the
shoulders. The hog-nosed has one broad white band from stem to stern. The
little spotted skunk has many narrow white stripes that are so broken at times
that they appear to be spots.
Everybody knows the striped skunk. It is a big fellow, as skunks go, and
lives almost everywhere in the United States and most of the settled portions
of Canada.
Each of the three skunks is famous for its remarkable aim. With one gland
on each side of the anus, it seldom misses its target. Looking straight at the
enemy, it can bring its back around and fire directly at him. Previously hidden,
2io MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
the vents of the glands are now protruding. One may go off separately; usually
both discharge at the same time. They may send one stream or a blinding, sting-
ing spray.
"Wait till you see the whites of their eyes!" all the little skunks are taught.
They do and then shoot straight at the eyes.
Many people believe that this will cause blindness. This is not true. The dis-
charge will cause an excruciating burning and a copious flow of tears, but
no more. Wiping or washing the eyes with water will hasten recovery,
which the stream of tears will accomplish anyhow within ten or fifteen
minutes. t m m
Although the skunk's defense is automatic, the quantiy of spray is limited
to five or six shots. Perhaps for this reason, or because of a naturally amiable
disposition, it shows some restraint.
It always gives warning. LOOK OUT! It stamps its displeasure, patting the
ground alternately with stiffened front legs. It may click its teeth, growl or
hiss. If the enemy continues to threaten, up goes the bushy tail. Every hair is
STRIPED SKUNK
THE MUSK-CARRIERS . 211
erected at right angles to the axis so that the whole effect is that of a flaring
plume. This is the moment for you to run for your life.
Like a flash the skunk whips into a U-shaped position, with head and rear
toward the enemy. Swiftly it shoots to the right, to the left, in front or above,
apparently without moving. The gorgeous tail is held carefully aloof. You may
be sure the skunk is not soiling its own fur.
The powerful hip muscles contract and squeeze part of the contents of the
glands through the ducts. The openings of these ducts are everted slightly past
the anus like twin nozzles. The two fine streams of thick, oily, yellowish liquid
unite about a foot away into one spray of increasingly fine droplets. This spray
is astonishingly accurate up to about twelve feet from the animal. If the air is
still or the wind is blowing directly toward the target, the stream may strike
six or eight feet farther.
To some people the scent of skunks is extremely obnoxious, bringing on.
violent nausea and weakness, while others do not mind it much. To me, a
little of the skunk scent is not unpleasant. The acrid odors of weasel and
mink are far more repugnant.
Don't think you are safe if you grab the skunk by its tail and keep its feet
off the ground. That theory has been exploded too many times. If you must
hold a skunk, keep it belly up, grasping the head in one hand and the base of
the tail with the other. Needless to say, keep the base of the tail pointed AWAY
from you, and remember too that the skunk has a set of very sharp teeth!
It is possible sometimes to handle a skunk without being bitten or gassed.
Of course the reactions vary with circumstances and the disposition of the
individual animal. The skunk is not naturally ^belligerent and will often respond
to gentle treatment and soft speaking. I once caught a female striped skunk,
by accident, in a No. 4 steel trap that was intended for a bobcat. The powerful
jaws had broken the poor animal's hind leg. Slowly I walked up to her, speak-
ing gently as I approached. Working carefully, I simultaneously released the
trap and worked her into a burlap sack. After carrying her a hundred yards to
my car I drove several miles over a rough road to a stream, where I mercifully
drowned her. Not once, in the trap or during my experience with her did she
release her scent., On several other occasions I have also handled skunks with
impunity.
A famous scientist says that running water will largely remove the skunk
odor from pelts. My wife does not agree, at least about my pelt. The only time
that I ever received a shot I landed in the dog house. Running water did noth-
ing for me, nor did soap do any good.
A couple of washings with gasoline worked wonders however. If you can't
212 MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
spare the gasoline, wash your clothes in ammonia, chloride of lime or a dilute
solution of sodium hypochlorite. A mixture of equal parts of oil of citronella
and oil of bergamot will help to neutralize the odor on your person. Trappers
sometimes smoke their clothing over burning juniper or cedar leaves.
A skunk hunts all night and sleeps most of the day. The striped skunk is
apt to get up earlier and stay out longer than other skunks. It does not spend
every day in the same bed. Because it travels so slowly it frequently does not
have time to get home. When dawn comes, or soon thereafter, it picks out a
likely abode. If other residents are already bedded down, it doesn't mind. Every-
body curls up somehow and goes to sleep. In winter time, the more occupants
in the nest, the warmer it is! Sometimes there are as many as fifteen skunks
sleeping together.
The "V" striped skunk is one of the very few North American mammals
of any economic value whose lot has been improved by the coming of Euro-
peans. The near-destruction of the once-great forests of the eastern half of the
continent and of the Pacific slope has been hard on most mammals, but not
the skunk. It likes forest borders, brushy field corners, fence rows and open
grassy fields broken by wooded ravines. A few wanderers select the deep forest
for their homes, but the vast majority of skupks prefer the open places where
insects abound.
Even in cold climates the skunk may winter above ground, under a building
or in a pile of stumps or field stone. Usually, however, it picks out an earth
den. This winter home is ordinarily deeper than the summer home. It may
be an abandoned woodchuck or badger or fox den, or one dug by the skunk
itself. The tunnel (frequently two) will run into the ground at a gentle angle
for six to twelve feet. This terminates in a small room whose ceiling is about
two feet below the ground level.
Into this chamber the owner lugs as much as a bushel of dry leaves and grass,
scraping the material along the ground under its belly until reaching the front
door. Then it pushes the load ahead of itself down the tunnel. This vegetation
is used not only for bedding but to plug the doorway in very cold weather. The
entrance to the tunnel is fairly well hidden in grass or under a brush pile or over-
hanging foliage.
Although scats are found in the nest, it is not as smelly as might be imagined.
The skunk is a fairly clean animal and one can detect only a faint odor at the
door, or about its person.
Skunks do not really hibernate. Low temperatures bring a drowsiness, espe,
cially to the females and the younger animals. If disturbed during such times
the animals waken, and resist any attempt on the part of the intruder to drag
THE MUSK-CARRIERS 213
them from the den. If prevented from returning they make the best of it,
curling up and falling asleep in a few minutes.
The length of this winter's "sleep" varies greatly with locality and with sex
and age. In the South the skunk is inactive rarely longer than a few days. In
the North, young skunks retire with the first cold snap and don't poke out their
noses until spring. Adult females sometimes stay inside for six to twelve weeks,
although this is rather rare. The males, on the contrary, are out in every mild
spell and, as the winter wears on, they may require temperatures well below
zero to keep them underground.
Skunks may den alone or in almost any combination of ages and sexes. The
combination may vary from day to day. There may be a pair of adults, a mother
with her young of the past season, or several males exercising some sort of
supervision over a batch of youngsters. As many as ten females and two or three
males have been found together. Usually there is only one male with a group of
adult females. He may very likely keep out the other males. Skunks sometimes
winter in the same tunnels, but usually in different chambers, with opossums,
woodchucks and cottontails. Probably these other animals prefer to ignore the
intruders.
By February the older females are ready for mating and the males are out
looking for them. This occurs even earlier in the South. Although the cold
increases, the would-be fathers ramble oftener and farther. They may travel
four or five miles in a single night on their quests. This is a long trek for a
skunk but during this month, and in March when the younger females come
in heat, they are out exploring every sleeping-quarter for possible mates. These
quests and the communal life lead to numerous fights, and much squealing.
Sometimes they get so excited that they waste their spray on each other.
The females who stay indoors during the cold weather are fortunate. It is
trapping season of course. They may lose weight, but they save their skins. This
is probably one of the reasons that the skunk race continues to increase.
After a gestation period of about eight weeks, the mother skunk brings
forth a litter of from three to eight young. To some extent her age and size
determine the number. A larger and older mother usually has more offspring
than the younger ones.
The little fellows are wrinkled, blind, toothless and almost earless and hair-
less. Their black-and-white pattern is already evident on their pink skin, and
their front claws are well developed. The mother with her six pairs of nipples
nurses them by sprawling over them or later by lying on her side.
The young grow rapidly and soon have good coats of fur. Their eyes open
at about three weeks of age. Two weeks later the little animals are walking
about sturdily and rapidly. At two months of age they are weaned, and by fall,
some or even all of them have wandered away from their mother to range on
their own.
The striped skunk is a silent animal under most circumstances. Only when
it loses its ordinarily equable temper, does it utter a single low hoarse bark, or 
