268 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1945 



National Great White Heron Refuge in Florida. Often transplanta- 

 tion of stock to a suitable area is necessary. This was the case in the 

 establishment of bison on the National Bison Range, Montana ; musk 

 oxen on the Nunivak Island National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska; bison, 

 elk, and prong-horned antelopes on the Wichita Mountains National 

 Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma; and eastern wild turkeys on Bull's Island, 

 South Carolina. 



Improvement of habitat, always based on research as to the needed 

 environment, may change living conditions of a small population of 

 a species so as to be the determining factor in its preservation. Arti- 

 ficial means thus applied for wildlife restoration should tend to restore 

 the natural environment of the species or create adaptable substitutes. 

 The means are many and include various types of water restoration ; 

 change in vegetative types used by wildlife for food and cover ; crea- 

 tion of nesting sites; and control of predators and parasites, often 

 necessary when a wildlife type is nearing the vanishing point. 



Domestication and crossbreeding have been suggested as having a 

 place in saving an endangered wildlife species, but these methods 

 should be employed only as a last resort. Species so treated for many 

 generations, such as the dog, the cat, the horse, the water buffalo, the 

 ox, the sheep, the chicken, the turkey, and others, have all lost the 

 characteristics of the wild ancestral stock and developed into many 

 varieties. Fur farming may save the silver fox, a color variation of 

 the red fox, but in so doing it may so change its characteristics through 

 rearing that the native type would vanish. In order to save the Euro- 

 pean bison, or wisent, it has been crossbred with an old-lineage strain 

 of domestic cattle in Germany and with the American bison in the 

 Ukraine, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. 



REFERENCES AND COLLATERAL READING 



Allen, Gloveb M. 



1942. Extinct and vanishing mammals of the Western Hemisphere, with 

 the marine species of all oceans. Spec. Publ. American Committee 

 for International Wild Life Protection, No. 11, 620 pp., illus. 

 Anonymous. 



1940. The status of wildlife in the United States. Rep. Special Committee 



on Conservation of Wildlife Resources, 76th Cong., 3d sess., 457 pp., 

 74 pis. 

 1942. Text of federal laws relating to the protection of wildlife. Fish and 

 Wildlife Service, Circ. 12, 30 pp. 

 Aechey, Gilbert. 



1941. The moa : a study of the Dinornithiformes. Bull. Auckland Inst, and 



Mus., No. 1, 145 pp., illus. May 29. 

 Bvbboub, Thomas, and Pobteb, Mabqaeet D. 



1935. Notes on South African wildlife conservation parks and reserves. 

 Spec. Publ. American Committee for International Wild Life Pro- 

 tection, No. 7, 34 pp., 3 pis. 



