Wild Animals You May Know # * * 61 



the snow, while the animals are too weak to resist. These large teeth 

 are prized by jewelers for good-luck pieces. They are also needed by 

 the elk to masticate his food, and without them he is unable to forage 

 for himself and starves to death. Some 

 times the great animals are illegally shot 

 by poachers for their teeth only. The 

 body of the elk is left in the snow, where 

 the hunter ended the animal's life. The 

 elk that remain in the high mountains have 

 a difficult enough battle for life during the 

 winter months with the elements. Often 

 the rangers are called upon to rescue them 

 from snowdrifts. So it stirs to genuine 

 anger those who are fond of wild life 

 when hunters prey cruelly on these fine animals when they are least 

 able to flee for their lives. 



Of recent years the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks has 

 co-operated with the rangers to fight the cruel practice of stealing teeth 

 from the elk. Use of elk teeth has been outlawed by the order. Like 

 wise, public-spirited citizens are assisting financially in the purchase of 

 great ranches both to the north and to the south of the park where the 

 elk can graze under protection during the long winter months. Of 

 course the elk, being a huge animal, requires much food and there is 

 to be considered the possibility that the animals may increase too 

 greatly. There is no objection on the part of rangers to sportsmanlike 

 hunting, if the elk are given a chance to escape. Their protest is against 

 ruthless slaughtering of animals accustomed to protection. 



Elk are found in smaller numbers in Glacier and Rocky Mountain 

 parks. In the latter park they are the offspring of animals shipped 

 from Yellowstone after the native herds had been wiped out by hunters. 

 Elk once ranged the slopes of Mount Rainier, but this species, larger 

 animals than the Rocky Mountain elk, are now confined to the Olympic 

 Peninsula. In Yosemite Valley is a band of San Joaquin Valley elk, a 

 smaller and different species from those of the Rockies. They were 

 brought to Yosemite to save the species from extinction and are pros 

 pering beneath the shadows of Half Dome and the other great Yo 

 semite peaks, against which the elk form a picturesque foreground. 



Antelopes may be seen in Yellowstone and Grand Canyon parks. 

 These beautiful little animals, fleet of foot and alert of sense, once 

 ranged the plains east of the Rockies in tens of thousands. Now the 

 herds in the two parks number not more than eight hundred. They 

 are practically extinct in most states, though in Wyoming, Oregon, and 

 Nevada they have made a notable increase in numbers under stringent 



