358 



ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



and birds. These refuges are scattered throughout the country and 

 in Alaska, Porto Rico, and the Hawaiian Islands, and few States are 

 without them. The States lacking refuges of this kind are Missis- 

 sippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and West Virginia. 



BIG-GAME PRESERVES. 



Most of the big-game animals have increased, but serious losses 

 were suffered in the antelope herds on the Montana Bison Range and 

 the Wind Cave Game Preserve, S. Dak., and in the elk in Jackson 

 Hole, Wyo. The year was marked by appalling losses of antelope, 

 and it will take years of painstaking effort to bring these herds 

 back to their former numbers. On the Bison Range the antelope 

 were killed mainly b}^ coyotes, which ran them into deep snow- 

 drifts, where they became practically helpless. At Wind Cave large 

 bobcats appeared to be the chief offenders, trailing the antelope in 

 the snow and apparently killing full-grown bucks without difficulty. 



This experience with predatory animals at the Bison Range and 

 Wind Cave, combined with the severe weather conditions, indicates 

 forcibly the difficulty attendant on developing antelope herds under 

 fence. Their former freedom to range widely was a strong element 

 in their favor. Under fence they appear to be the most helpless of 

 our large game. As game preserves are developed they will natu- 

 rally attract predatory animals from a wide adjacent region, espe- 

 cially during severe seasons when food becomes scarce. Unsatis- 

 factory conditions caused by the drifting snows which fill the 

 gullies and depressions raise the question of whether locations like 

 the Wind Cave Preserve and the National Bison Range are well 

 suited to building up antelope herds. Areas subject to a lighter 

 snowfall, even though the same temperatures and high winds prevail, 

 may prove better suited to these animals. A milder climate or 

 lighter snowfall may be needed to insure success. Efforts are being 

 continued to establish a large antelope range in the southwestern 

 part of Idaho. 



The following table shows the number of big-game animals under 

 fence on the preserves at the close of each calendar year from 1916 

 to 1921; the figures for 1922 are as reported on June 30, and, except 

 for the buffalo, are approximations: 



Two educational motion-picture films have been prepared during 

 the year to illustrate the work of this division. One, entitled "Anne's 

 aigrette," showing interesting pictures of the American egrets, 

 snowy herons, and other birds on the Walker Lake Bird Reservation, 

 Ark., is designed to demonstrate the inhumanity of the traffic in the 



