248 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 194 5 



Since man's appearance on the scene in recent times, with one or two 

 possible exceptions all cases of wildlife extinction can be lodged in his 

 own hands. Factors other than man's behavior may have resulted in 

 heavy local, or often perhaps widespread, losses in wildlife, but have 

 rarely endangered the existence of the species. It is difficult in most 

 cases to determine the exact cause or causes of an extinction. Often it 

 appears that it may be one factor, or again it may be several. Extinc- 

 tion in every case was probably brought about at first by gradual 

 depletion of the population and through local extirpation. When the 

 population becomes reduced to a danger point, extinction may come 

 with unexpected rapidity. Dislike the assertion as we may, in recent 

 times the human species has been the prime factor in the extermination 

 of other species. 



Man. — Man has aided in faunal destruction by the injudicious com- 

 mercialized use of wildlife. In order to realize this we have only to 

 look back on the days when barrels of wild ducks, shore birds, and 

 pigeons were regularly sold for little or nothing at market, and 

 thousands of big-game animals were killed only for the hides which 

 were sold as a cheap source of leather. The plume hunters went by 

 the board just in time to save the snowy heron and reddish egret, which 

 they had all but exterminated. The whaling and sealing industries 

 operated for many years without restriction. 



Hunting and trapping, although for the most part now well under 

 regulation, have taken heavy toll of certain species. Poaching, illegal 

 hunting, and lack of protective laws still menace certain forms of 

 game animals, and some of our more important fur animals have 

 lacked sufficient protection. The apparently inborn urge on the part 

 of some outdoor men to shoot every conspicuous and large living form 

 of wildlife created a serious situation for rare species and one that can 

 be controlled only by conservation education. Extension and im- 

 provement of travel facilities in more recent years have increased 

 pressure on wildlife. 



Drainage, cultivation, stock raising, and other necessary artificial 

 changes of wildlife habitat have endangered many species. Most of 

 these environmental changes could not have been avoided, yet often 

 wildlife received no consideration when it should have been given a 

 place in the picture. 



The introduction of exotic species has often proved to be detrimen- 

 tal to native forms, through either predation or competition. There 

 need be mentioned here only such instances as the introduction of the 

 mongoose, a predator, into the West Indies and Hawaii, and game 

 animals such as the rabbit into Australia, the American gray squirrel 

 into England, the red deer into New Zealand, and the nongame bird, 

 the European starling, into the United States, where it competes for 



