14 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



In Europe, as contrasted with the United States, there is a far 

 greater proportion of closely guarded private estates, and hunting 

 of large game is chiefly restricted to the wealthy few. This con- 

 dition of affairs has*resulted in a much slower rate of extermination 

 than in the United States, despite the large number of national 

 parks and wild-life refuges in this country. Furthermore, the 

 European attitude appears much more tolerant toward such preda- 

 tory animals as Wolves and Brown Bears, which have been able 

 to survive so far in such countries as Spain, France, Italy, Yugo- 

 slavia, Greece, Bulgaria, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, Poland, the 

 Baltic States, Russia, and Scandinavia. Americans have been more 

 ruthless in exterminating, or attempting to exterminate, any preda- 

 tory animal conflicting, or presumed to conflict, with human interests. 

 Unfortunately, the American method of dealing with predators by 

 means of poison has attained a certain vogue in Bulgaria. 



A few of the more important vanishing mammals of Europe may 

 be mentioned here. The Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) and the Wolf 

 (Cam's lupus) are probably doomed to disappear almost entirely 

 from Western Europe, although they will long survive in Russia 

 and Siberia. The European Wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris) has 

 become extremely scarce in general; perhaps its greatest danger 

 lies in extinction by dilution through interbreeding with feral 

 Domestic Cats. The insular Wildcats (Cretan, Sardinian, Corsican, 

 and British Felis agrius, F. sarda, F. reyi, and F. silvestris 

 grampia) are probably endangered in like manner. The European 

 Beaver (Castor fiber), persecuted for its fur, remains in only a few 

 isolated colonies. There is some doubt as to whether any repre- 

 sentatives of the Finland Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus fennicus) 

 and the Novaya Zemlya Reindeer (R. t. pearsoni) still survive; 

 the animal of Novaya Zemlya has fallen victim to visiting 

 ships' crews and to Samoyed immigrants. While the stock of the 

 Lithuanian Bison (Bison bonasus bonasus) is greatly reduced, and 

 while there has been considerable mixture in captivity with the 

 Caucasian Bison (B. b. caucasicus) and with the American Bison 

 (Bison bison bison), energetic protection in sanctuaries assured 

 its survival up to 1939, at least. Two of the four races of the 

 Spanish Ibex (Capra pyrenaica) have been exterminated by exces- 

 sive hunting, and the fate of those remaining has become uncertain 

 during recent events in Spain. The Cyprian Mouflon (Ovis ophion 

 ophion) has become reduced to a precariously small stock. 



The British Isles have long since lost the Brown Bear, the Wolf, 

 the Beaver, the Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) , and the Reindeer (Rangifer 

 tarandus) . No doubt insularity has here played a part in the early 

 disappearance of these mammals. 



