TWENTY-SEVENTH BIENNIAL REPORT. 107 



natural enemies of the stockman as well as the deer hunter, more attrac- 

 tive, thus encouraging men to make a business of hunting lions and 

 maintaining packs of specially-trained dogs therefor. 



Mo.st of our southern counties cooperate with us in the luost substan- 

 tial and gratifying way by joint appointments, whereby the county 

 game warden appointment is given to the state representaive upon a 

 division of expense and salary basis. The arrangement has worked out 

 decidedly well; the counties are awake to the importance of preserving 

 their peculiar wild life attractions. Upon most of the national forest 

 reserves, the rangers are giving all the time they can to fish and game 

 patrol; the forest officers mostly are ardent and well-informed eon.ser- 

 vationists, our deputies cooperating to the extent of fire prevention also. 

 But for such assistance from these allied sources, not nearly so much 

 could have been accomplished. 



GAME CONDITIONS. 



Antelope. Special attention has been paid to preserving the remain- 

 ing native big-game animals which have received from many past 

 legislatures the statutory protection of entirely closed seasons and 

 heavy penalties. 



Rapid settling-up of the typical antelope range on the "plains" of 

 western ]\Iojave Desert to which valley they leave their name as a 

 monument and perpetual reminder of their one-time plenty, probably 

 has sealed the fate of these unique and interesting creatures, whose 

 history has been so interwoven with the pioneering of the west. The 

 "Prong-horn" and civilization can not co-exist. Civilization now has 

 claimed Antelope Valley for its own. Preying principally upon the 

 "kids" when snow and shortened rations have cut down the only 

 physical resource of these animals — their great speed — the coyotes, the 

 chief natural enemy of the species, take a considerable toll annually, and 

 particularly in such heavy winters as last. 



Upon resolutions from local chamber of commerce representatives, 

 asking legal permission to "round-up" and "corral" the remnant of 

 these antelope in an enclosure to be made by fencing off a relatively 

 small part of the desert, the Commission conferred with the various 

 societies interested in maintenance of wild-life as such, and found 

 its verdict affirmed that the animals should be left in a state of nature, 

 with all possible done in their behalf. Whenever any so inherently 

 wild a species as the "Prong-horn" is reduced to slowly perish in the 

 protracted misery of captivity, its status as "wild-life" is admittedly at 

 an end. 



Cooperation with the "Committee for Conservation of Wild- Animal 

 Life" of the California Academy of Sciences has been whole-souled and 

 not without results, in this southern division. Enameled steel signs 

 have been posted along principal routes of travel, giving access to 

 haunts of antelope and mountain-sheep, warning the public that these 

 animals are protected and their range is at hand. Arrangements to 

 enlist public-spirited observers as incidental protectors also have been 

 undertaken. Winter feeding is among the most etfective methods of 

 antelope conservation, its success having been demonstrated on the 

 Mount Dome Antelope Refuge in northern California. 



