78 NOBTH AMERICAN FAUNA [No. 55 



CERVUS CANADENSIS NELSONI BAILEY 

 ROCKY MOUNTAIN WAPITI; ELK; PATUOHA of the Piute at Burns, Oreg. 



Cervus canadensw nelsoni Bailey, Biol. Soc. Wash. Proc. 48 : 188, 1985. 



Type locality. Yellowstone National Park. 



General characters. Next to the moose and the Roosevelt elk, these are the 

 largest of our North American deer. Antlers deciduous, large, long, with 

 rounded beams and branches, normally with six prongs each in adult males; 

 tail a mere pointed stub, 2 or 3 inches long ; hoofs heavy and rounded, cow- 

 like; upper canine teeth present in both males and females. In winter 

 pelaige, body light buffy gray; tail and rump patch, chin, eyering, inside and 

 base of ear, white or buffy; head, neck, breast, and legs, dark brown, or 

 nearly black on throat, with belly reddish brown; metatarsal gland white 

 in buffy ring. Summer pelage, rusty brown or light bay, rump but little 

 lighter; head, neck, and legs, brownish. Young, tawny, thickly spotted with 

 white over back and sides. 



Measurements. Two-year-old male from the Gros Ventre, Wyo. : Total length, 

 2,015 mm; tail, 160; hind foot, 670; measured in the flesh. Ear (dry), inside 

 measurement, 190 ; outside from upper base to tip, 230. Skull of 4-year-old bull 

 from Nebraska, basal length, 414; orbital width, 202; length of upper molar 

 series, 130. 



Distribution and habitat. The elk of the Rocky Mountain region 

 originally occupied the whole of the Blue Mountain timbered plateau 

 in northeastern Oregon, but there seems to be no record to indicate 

 that the range ever connected with that of the herds on the west 

 side of the Cascades. Some of the original stock are still found in 

 the Blue Mountain country, where they have doubtless become mixed 

 with those introduced from the Yellowstone National Park in 1913. 

 As these were undoubtedly the same form, the mixture is of little 

 consequence and may even serve to add new strength to the herd 

 (fig. 10). 



At Burns in 1920 some of the old residents said that in the early 

 days elk were found in plenty all through the Blue Mountains, and 

 that horns were picked up along the Silvies River where Burns now 

 stands. Mr. Moore, of Klamath Falls, tells that in 1876 he saw an 

 elk in the tule swamp on the Blitzen River between Malheur Lake 

 and the Steens Mountains. In December 1930, when Malheur Lake 

 nearly dried up, elk horns and bones were found on the dry bed 

 where the water had receded near the mouth of Silvies River. In 

 1878 Charles E. Bendire reported elk in the Wallowa Lake section, 

 in the mountains east of Umatilla on the head of Silvies Creek, and 

 on the head of Bear Creek in the Blue Mountains. Ten years later, 

 in 1889, elk were reported in Forest and Stream near the head of 

 John Day River. In 1919 George G. Cantwell, while working in the 

 Blue Mountains, 25 miles north of Enterprise, wrote that " old set- 

 tlers tell me that 35 years ago elk were plentiful almost everywhere 

 throughout this section of the mountains." In crossing the Blue 

 Mountains from the north in 1895-96, the writer saw old elk horns 

 at the ranches and was told that there were still a .few elk in the wild- 

 est parts of these mountains. They were scarce then, reaching their 

 lowest ebb later, about 1910, not long before the Yellowstone elk 

 were brought in. 



In 1912 and 1913 the imported elk were placed in the fenced en- 

 closure known as " Billy Meadows " on the Imnaha National Forest. 

 In 1914 the herd in the pasture was said to comprise 28 animals, in- 



