American Big Game in its Haunts 



go over the mountains and through forests if occa- 

 sion demands. Although there are plenty of 

 coyotes in the Park there are no big wolves, and 

 save for very infrequent poachers the only enemy 

 of the antelope, as Indeed the only enemy of all the 

 game, Is the cougar. 



Cougars, known In the Park as elsewhere 

 through the West as "mountain lions," are plenti- 

 ful, having Increased In numbers of recent years. 

 Except In the neighborhood of the Gardiner River, 

 that is within a few miles of Mammoth Hot 

 Springs, I found them feeding on elk, which In the 

 Park far outnumber all other game put together, 

 being so numerous that the ravages of the cougars 

 are of no real damage to the herds. But In the 

 neighborhood of the Mammoth Hot Springs the 

 cougars are noxious because of the antelope, moun- 

 tain sheep and deer which they kill ; and the Super- 

 intendent has Imported some hounds with which to 

 hunt them. These hounds are managed by Buffalo 

 Jones, a famous old plainsman, who is now In the 

 Park taking care of the buffalo. On this first day 

 of my visit to the Park I came across the 

 carcasses of a deer and of an antelope which the 

 cougars had killed. On the great plains cougars 

 rarely get antelope, but here the country Is broken 

 so that the big cats can make their stalks under 



26 



