248 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



also permanently injured the sparse forest of the area so that 

 hundreds died from starvation. A nearly similar state of affairs 

 took place in the Murderers Creek Game Refuge of eastern 

 Oregon, which was established in 1929 in the belief that the 

 deer there needed protection (Englis, 1939). In the course of 

 some years the mule deer so increased that in one section 

 12,000 deer were trying to exist "where even 6,000 would have 

 gone hungry. " Bitterbush, mountain mahogany, and juniper, 

 the chief winter food plants, were so overbrowsed that bitter- 

 bush became mere stubs, and the junipers were trimmed as 

 high as a deer could reach. Many deer starved to death and 

 the others were small and undernourished. In 1935 the area 

 was reopened to hunting and the refuge given up. In such 

 cases it is clear that a proper proportion (to be determined) of 

 panthers would not only keep the deer down to a number 

 commensurate with the carrying capacity of the range, but also 

 afford a certain return from fur, besides adding to the human 

 interest of the situation, in hunting or observation. This view 

 of the value of predators has only in recent years been brought 

 out forcibly as a result of the experiments in "control" that 

 have been more or less intentionally carried out by federal and 

 other agencies in our West during the past 60 or 70 years. It 

 now becomes clear that "predatory animals are to be con- 

 sidered as an integral part of the wild life protected within 

 national parks, and no widespread campaigns of destruction 

 are to be countenanced, " but native predators may be allowed 

 to continue their normal utilization of other park animals, unless 

 in special cases where the need for some regulation becomes 

 obvious (Cahalane, 1939b). This logical and scientific policy, 

 based on an accurate knowledge of the various species con- 

 cerned, should become increasingly established over all the 

 larger areas of unsettled country. 



Of the four races listed above, Felis c. hippolestes is the largest 

 member of the species; it is of a dull fulvous color and has a 

 large massive skull with a highly developed sagittal crest. A 

 large male measured 8 feet in total length and weighed 227 

 pounds (Merriam, 1901, p. 586). The skull measured 196 mm. 

 in basal length. Young are born in January and February in 

 Colorado. This race ranges from extreme northern New 

 Mexico (probably) northward through Colorado and the ad- 

 jacent parts to Wyoming, Montana, and British Columbia. 



