. The conservation of the wild life of Canada . ge native mam-mals, and which will be exterminated within a few yearsunless absolute protection is given to them and rigorouslyenforced. Further, the great possibility of utilizing suchlarger members of our wild life as the barren-ground caribouand deer as a source of meat has been urged, and the factsthat will be set forth in this chapter will serve to empha-size and lead to a greater appreciation of this potential foodsupply. THE WAPITI, OR ELK The wapiti or elk {Cervus canadensis) is the handsomestof all our native deer, and next to the moose
. The conservation of the wild life of Canada . ge native mam-mals, and which will be exterminated within a few yearsunless absolute protection is given to them and rigorouslyenforced. Further, the great possibility of utilizing suchlarger members of our wild life as the barren-ground caribouand deer as a source of meat has been urged, and the factsthat will be set forth in this chapter will serve to empha-size and lead to a greater appreciation of this potential foodsupply. THE WAPITI, OR ELK The wapiti or elk {Cervus canadensis) is the handsomestof all our native deer, and next to the moose it is the is the North American representative of the Europeanred deer, and formerly was the most widely distributed 26 THE GAME ANIMALS OF CANADA 27 member of the deer family in North America. But thehistories of all the largest and most interesting members ofour wild hfe are depressingly similar, and all have sufferedthe inevitable result of territorial development and mansimprovident greed for slaughter. Thousands of these splen-. FiG. I.—ELK-HORN PYRAMID Such pyramids used to be found in the great plains, indicating the former abimdance of the Wapiti {After Baird) did animals have been slain merely for the sake of theirteeth. No condemnation of this iniquitous practice canbe too strong, and every possible means should be taken toput an end to the practice of dealing in and wearing elktusks, in view of the barbarous significance of such use-less emblems. The result is that to-day the abundance ofthe wapiti is but one-twentieth of what it was formerly,according to Hornaday. The latest estimate of their num-bers over the whole of their present restricted range in 28 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE the United States is 70,000,* of which nearly half are to befound in Wyoming, mainly in and about Yellowstone Na-tional Park. Distribution and Abundance in Canada.—Its originalrange is shown in the accompanying map prepared byErnest Thompson Seton; this also shows t
Size: 1789px × 1396px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1921
