i68 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 



caribou are experts in taking care of themselves 

 during long winters of deep snows. They 

 select a yard which offers the maximum food 

 supply and other winter opportunities. 



One snowy winter I visited a number of elk 

 that were yarding. High peaks rose snowy and 

 treeless above the home in the forest. The 

 ragged-edged yard was about half a mile long 

 and a quarter of a mile wide. About one half 

 the yard was a swamp covered with birch and 

 willow and a scattering of fir. The remainder 

 was a combination of open spaces, aspen groves, 

 and a thick growth of spruce. 



Constant trampling compressed the snow and 

 enabled the elk readily to move about. Out- 

 side the yard they would have bogged in deep 

 snow. In the swamp the elk reached the moss, 

 weeds, and other growths. But toward spring 

 the grass and weeds had either been eaten or 

 were buried beneath icy snow. The elk then 

 ate aspen twigs and the tops and limbs and 

 bark of birch and willow. 



Ease of movement in this, area enabled the 

 elk to keep enemies at bay. Several times I 

 saw from tracks that lion had entered this self- 

 made wild life reservation, and on two occasions 

 a number of wolves invaded it. But each time 

 the elk had bunched in a pocket of a trampled 

 space and effectively fought off the wolves. 



