ANNUAL REPORT, 1937-38 



southern portion of the Province continue to attract the majority of hunters seeking 

 deer, and it would appear that these animals are still sufficiently plentiful and 

 showing some increase in numbers in some sections of these areas, i.e. Parry Sound, 

 Muskoka, Haliburton, Renfrew and the northern portions of Victoria, Peterborough, 

 Hastings, Addington, Frontenac and Lanark, to warrant the belief that this branch of 

 sporting activity will long be available here. In the Counties included in the 

 southwestern peninsula and in certain eastern counties there has been an entire 

 close season on deer for the past several years, and even though these particular 

 counties represent the most settled portions of the entire Province we are able to 

 state that the complete protection which prevails here is resulting in the number of 

 deer increasing in most of these counties. This has been particularly the case in 

 the counties of Bruce and Grey where conditions have been so favourable as to 

 warrant the Department providing a short open season there. 



The open season for deer during the year reported on was a highly successful 

 one. Reports to the Department from sportsmen and overseers indicated that as 

 a general rule deer were more numerous in certain sections than was the case in the 

 previous season. While this may in some measure be attributable to a natural move- 

 ment of the herd, it is reasonable to assume that the comparatively mild winters of 

 the past two years, together with the protective measures in force have resulted in 

 increased reproduction. We are referring, of course, to those areas in which hunting 

 was legal. The Department's Inspector, who was stationed at a strategic point on the 

 highway to check hunters on their return from the north, reported that the con- 

 sensus of opinion was that there were more deer seen than ever before. A Deputy 

 Game Warden with whom we were discussing the hunt said, — "I have been hunting 

 deer for seventeen years and never saw them so thick as they were this year," Such 

 reports are encouraging, indicating as they do that the deer herd, with a reasonable 

 measure of protection, is capable of replenishing itself despite natural and unnatural 

 enemies. 



MOOSE: — This splendid monarch of the Ontario forest is to be found only 

 in the northern portion of the Province though scattered specimens are to be found 

 in Muskoka, Parry Sound, Renfrew and in the sections immediately to the south of 

 Algonquin Provincial Park. Nowhere in Ontario are they plentiful and there is no 

 douDt that the various regulations which exist for the protection of these magnificent 

 animals are absolutely necessary for the welfare of this species. It is only 

 in a few sections that their numbers are reported to be even fairly plentiful, and 

 nowhere has any decided improvement in numbers been observed. 



CARIBOU: — These animals are extremely scarce and are reported only from the 

 Districts of Rainy River, Kenora and Thunder Bay, also from the northern portions 

 of Algoma and Cochrane. Some slight increase has been observed in the eastern 

 portion of Thunder Bay and in the Chapleau Game Preserve, which is located in the 

 Districts of Sudbury and Algoma. 



EliK: — As has been outlined in previous reports the elk which are to be 

 found in Ontario at present are those which were imported to the Province from 

 Western Canada, and their progeny. The original shipments were made with the 

 approval and co-operation of the Dominion National Parks Branch, and on arrival 

 here were placed on the following Crown Game Preserves, viz: — Pembroke, Burwash, 

 Chapleau, Nipigon-Onaman and Goulais River-Ranger Lake. 



There has been some improvement in practically all instances save one, — 

 those liberated on the Nipigon-Onaman Crown Game Preserve. Elk from the herd at 

 Pembroke have been placed in Algonquin Park and on the Bruce Peninsula, while 

 some animals from the herd at Burwash were liberated in territory immediately 

 adjacent thereto. It is reported that their numbers have increased in the Chapleau 

 and Burwash Game Preserves and also on the Bruce Peninsula, while some of these 

 animals have been observed on Beausoleil Island in Georgian Bay off Simcoe County. 



