EXTINCTION OF CERTAIN MAMMALS 14! 



America within the past century the bison (buffalo), elk (wapiti), 

 various species and subspecies of deer, woodland caribou, moose, prong- 

 horned antelope, mountain sheep, mountain goat, bear (especially the 

 grizzly), jaguar, puma (mountain lion), beaver and some other spe- 

 cies have been entirely exterminated over a very large part of their 

 former range, and the musk-ox is threatened with extinction. The 

 rapid destruction of fur-bearing mammals has led most states at least to 

 enact laws for their protection. The slaughter of birds has been even 

 greater, the passenger pigeon and great auk having been entirely ex- 

 terminated and the ducks, geese and shore-birds, as well as many 

 species of song birds, greatly reduced from their former abundance. 1 

 The wild turkey, one of our largest, most handsome and majestic 

 American game birds, once abundant almost throughout the eastern 

 part of the United States, is now extinct over a large part of its former 

 range, and elsewhere much less abundant than formerly. The various 

 species of the grouse family, water- fowl and shore-birds are everywhere 

 greatly reduced in numbers and some species have disappeared from 

 their former haunts in large areas. The following species of American 

 birds have been entirely exterminated since 1840, according to Horna- 

 day: Great auk, Pallas cormorant, passenger pigeon, Eskimo curlew, 

 Cuban tricolored macaw, Gosse's macaw, Guadaloupe macaw, yellow- 

 winged green parrot, purple Guadaloupe parakeet, Carolina parakeet. 

 Does that record increase our pride in our boasted civilization ? 



All students of the subject agree that the situation as to the most 

 interesting and valuable of our mammals is critical and calls for heroic 

 efforts to save our mammals. The situation in other lands is no better 

 than in America. In Europe various species have disappeared over most 

 of their range and become scarce in other regions. Among these may be 

 mentioned the beaver, European bison, deer and others. In Africa the 

 seriousness of the situation is much more striking. Many students of 

 African mammals agree that some of the large species of Africa's in- 

 teresting and unique mammalian fauna are threatened with very early 

 extermination. Two species, the quagga and blauwbok, are said to have 



1 Consult especially : Hornaday, Our vanishing zvild life, New York ; The de- 

 struction of our birds and mammals 2nd Ann Kept. N. Y. Zool. Soc., pp. 77-108. 

 Osborne and Anthony, Close of the age of mammals, Journ. Mammalogy, in, 219- 

 2 37, 1922, with comments by several other naturalists ; Can we save the mammals, 

 Natural History, xxn, 389-405, 1922. Lucas, Animals recently extinct or threatened 

 with extermination, as represented in the collections of the U. S. National Museum, 

 Ann. Kept. U. S. Nail. Mus. for 1889, pp. 609-650. Dall, On the preservation of the 

 marine animals of the Northwest Coast, Ann. Kept. Smithsonian Institution for 

 1901, pp. 683-688. 



