Wild Animals You May Know * * * 59 



The deer do about as they please, regardless of the rangers. One of 

 the hardest things in the world is to make a deer do something he 

 doesn't want to do. The rangers would much rather capture a bear and 

 get him ready for shipment than box a deer for a trip to a city zoo. 

 The deer does not bite, but he is much quicker and is nervous and 

 strong, and often strikes viciously with his feet when afraid he is 

 going to be hurt or captured. In some parks deer are now so numerous 

 that they can well be spared. In fact, it is claimed by some scientists 

 that in certain of the national forest areas near national parks the deer 

 are too numerous, notably in the Kaibab Forest on the north rim of the 

 Grand Canyon. It is asserted that the vast herds of deer there have 

 wiped out the aspens and that they are now ruining other trees, even 

 young pines and firs, by eating leaves and bark, and that they are 

 starving in the wintertime. The park rangers disagree with this point 

 of view and believe that there is still sufficient food for the Kaibab deer. 



In 1924 a cattleman of Arizona proposed a relief for this situation 

 by offering to gather together a band of cowboys and drive eight thou 

 sand deer from the Kaibab region down into the Grand Canyon, across 

 canyons, streams, and the Colorado River, and up the steep slope to the 

 south rim. At one point it was necessary to drive the deer in single file 

 along a narrow ledge trail for eight miles. It is hard to imagine any 

 thing more difficult than the job these cowboys attempted. They were 

 to receive two dollars and fifty cents a head for all deer delivered to 

 the south rim. The rangers advised them that the drive could not suc 

 ceed, but assisted in every way possible. The cowboys assembled, like 

 wise motion-picture men and newspaper correspondents, and the drive 

 was on. Not one deer ever reached the south rim. They simply refused 

 to be driven anywhere. 



The rangers are attempting a more simple, albeit slower, plan of 

 populating the south-rim area with deer. Several small fawns were 

 brought by rangers on pack horses to the south rim and are being 

 raised on bottles. They are doing well and, if they prosper in their new 

 home, which will be the only one they will have known, visitors to the 

 south rim will see plenty of deer. 



The rangers are fond of these friendly, inquisitive animals 

 and find it hard to understand the enthusiasm of hunters for 

 killing deer. The rangers of Yosemite claim that the 

 deer know exactly where the park boundary line 

 runs. Along the Wawona Road, which parallels the 

 boundary for several miles, the rangers point 

 out plenty of deer on the protected park side 

 of the road and call attention to the fact that 

 there are none on the unprotected side, a few 



