246 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF MAMMALS 



presents a remarkable contrast to Africa in this respect. 

 It is comparatively barren, and has no large animals. The 

 jaguar represents the lion ; the guanaco and llama take the 

 place of the antelopes, while the only large mammal affect- 

 ing the waters of streams, after the fashion of the ox, is 

 the tapir, an animal preyed upon by the jaguar and moun- 

 tain lion, or puma. Indeed, compared to Africa, South 

 America is a vast, gameless region, and to preserve the 

 great game of Africa from extinction, a movement should 

 be undertaken to collect examples of all the African 

 mammals and transplant them to South America, that 

 they may be preserved for future generations. 



The adaptation of animals to their surroundings is an 

 interesting study. The mammoth, the musk ox, became 

 gradually habituated to their environment. The reindeer 

 probably slowly became enabled to resist the intense cold 

 of regions most inhospitable. It is difficult to imagine a 

 human being living from choice on shores of the Arctic 

 Ocean, yet there are many Eskimos who Hve there who 

 prefer it, and do not mind the intense cold. Examples of 

 isolation are not uncommon among animals. The group 

 of huge manateeHke creatures known as rhytinas is an 

 interesting example. They were found in Bering Sea a 

 century or more ago, few in number, the only animals of 

 their kind and soon exterminated, represented to-day by 

 their distant allies, the manatees and dugongs, also doomed 

 to extinction. The great sea elephants are found only on 

 Heard Island and other islands in the far South, a few 

 being known on the Pacific North American coast during 

 the past century, now in all probability extinct. 



The distribution of the whales has been very extensive. 



