4 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 



discussion by the Commission of Conservation in other re- 

 ports. In its report on ''Fur Farming in Canada" the 

 Commission has presented a fairly complete statement re- 

 garding the fur-bearing mammals of the country, and there 

 is no necessity to duplicate the facts so presented. For 

 that reason the fur-bearing mammals will not be considered 

 at length, but only in so far as their conservation in the 

 wild state necessarily constitutes an important aspect of 

 the general problem of wild-life conservation. In this ac- 

 count it is proposed to deal in particular with the larger 

 wild mammals, many of which are commonly included un- 

 der the head of ''big game," and the birds of Canada, inas- 

 much as these animals constitute that portion of our native 

 fauna that is in the greatest need of adequate protection 

 with a view to preventing the extermination that will in- 

 evitably follow failure on our part to provide it. 



Nature has laid on the shoulders of the Canadian people 

 an obligation, and at the same time an opportunity, of a 

 peculiar character in so far as the preservation of the wild 

 life, not of this hemisphere alone but of the whole world, 

 is concerned. In the gradual evolution of the great land 

 masses of the earth's surface it has come about that by its 

 geographical situation and physical characteristics the 

 greater part of Canadian territory constitutes a distinct 

 faunal region, differing from other regions of the world by 

 reason of the fact that it contains certain species of animals 

 not found elsewhere. In some cases these animals are re- 

 lated to forms in other regions of the world ; in other cases 

 they are distinct and unrelated. In the Canadian region, 

 to mention a few of the larger forms of wild life, we find 

 the moose (Alces machlis), which is related to the elk* of 



* It is unfortunate that the word elk has come to be used in North America 

 as an alternate name for the wapiti. As popular names must naturally be 

 used for these animals, it seems very desirable to confine the name elk to 

 the European Alces or moose, and use the Shawnee name, wapiti, for Cervus 

 canadensis. 



