ARTIODACTYLA 319 



really domesticated, there seems no good reason why it could not be 

 done if the incentive were sufficient, as it was in case of the reindeer, 

 which meant so much to the people where it was brought under con- 

 trol. However, there are a great many deer held in public and private 

 parks, and they are completely protected by law in our national parks, 

 where no hunting is permitted. Whether deer farming will ever become 

 a profitable business is yet to be demonstrated, but there are large areas 

 of mountain lands unsuited to cattle and horses but well suited to deer 

 and elk, which may some time be used for that purpose. A 6-foot 

 ferice is said to be sufficient to hold a 4-year-old elk, but a foot or so 

 higher, would be better. 



The wapiti, or American elk (Ccrvus canadensis, etc.), not very 

 closely related to the European elk (Alecs alecs, which is more nearly 

 related to the American moose), was once abundant over large por- 

 tions of North America, but has now been exterminated from much 

 of its former range, and greatly reduced in the small areas where it 

 still roams. Of the estimated 70,000 in the United States in 1919, or 

 52,000 in 1926, about half were in or near Yellowstone Park. 52 Un- 

 fortunately for the elk, it posseses two peculiar tusks, of unknown func- 

 tion, in the upper jaw. These were worn by Indian women in North 

 Dakota, the men not being permitted to wear them; but the Indians 

 did not kill the elk for the teeth alone. 63 They utilized the flesh, skins, 

 sinews and antlers. When members of a great fraternal order began to 

 use the teeth as an emblem of the order, the slaughter began in earnest. 

 Thousands of elk have been killed for the tusks, their carcasses and 

 even their skins being left untouched. 54 The practice has not yet en- 

 tirely ceased. 



The food of the elk is largely browse (twigs of deciduous trees 

 and shrubs and cedar twigs), with some grass and other plants in 

 summer. The Yellowstone Park herd is subject to scabies, introduced 

 by sheep, and serious tick infestation, and probably to other diseases 

 and parasites. 55 



The European elk or moose (Alecs alecs) is a browser. It and the 

 American moose are the largest living members of the deer family. 



52 Graves and Nelson, Our national elk herd, U. S. Dept. Agric. Circular, No. 51, 

 p. 4, 1919. Palmer, Game as a national resource, U. S. Dept. Agric. Bull. No. 1049, 

 1922. Adams, Roosevelt Wild Life Bull, m, 557, 1926. 



53 Bailey, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 49, p. 33, 1926. 



"Leek, Elk tusk hunting, Outdoor Life, xxxv, 149-151, 1915. Bailey, N. Amer. 

 Fauna, No. 49, 1926. Graves and Nelson, U. S. Dept. Agric. Circular No. 51, p. 18, 

 1919. 



55 Stone and Cram, American animals, p. 33, 1902. Skinner, The elk situation, 

 Journ. Mammalogy, ix, 309-317, 1928. 



