THE MOOSE AND WAPITI OF MANITOBA 



A PLEA FOR- THEIR PRESERVATION 



will never be adapted to settlement, and 

 the sihy, elusive nature of the animal, 

 we are almost safe in saying that it 

 will never become extinct. In the 

 course of time its range will probably 

 decrease and it will vanish from many 

 of its present haunts; but in the great 

 trackless wilderness of th- north, it 

 will always have a comparatively 

 safe refuge. Given in the settled por- 

 tions of the country, where enough 

 wild, timbered land is available, it will 

 continue to exist and thrive if prop- 

 erly protected, as it conforms readily 

 to its surroundingisi. 



A Vast Range. 

 The former, natural range of the 

 wapiti covered an immense area from 

 the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from 

 New Mexico in the south to British 

 Columbia, the valley of the Saskatche- 

 wan, and the Great Lakes in the north. 

 Though most of the herds now exist- 

 ing are found in wild, mountainous 

 stretches of country covered with for- 

 est growths, the wapiti thrives equally 

 well on the open plains, and before 

 forced to take refuge in its wilder and 

 more inaccessible strongholds of to- 

 day, it roamed in countless thousands 

 throughout the high, dry plains of the 

 west. Wapiti were once very plenti- 

 ful in the Adirondack and Alleghany 

 Mountains, and early records show 

 them to have once existed in Quebec 

 and Ontario. Towards the south, they 

 roamed in great bands over the coun- 

 try now occupied by Kentucky, Ten- 

 nessee Ohio and Indiana, and to the 

 north they were very plentiful 

 throughout Wisconsin, Michigan, Min- 

 nesota, the Dakotahs, Manitoba and 

 portions of the Northwest Territories. 

 Over the greater part of their range 

 their extermination was accomplished 

 almost as completely as that of the 

 buffalo, and in the early '80's they 

 practically ceased to be a plains 

 animal. Early in the nineteenth cen- 

 tury they were totally exterminated in 



their eastern range, and at the present 

 day the most easterly country occu- 

 pied by them is in Manitoba. In Cali- 

 fornia they have all but ceased to 

 exist. The same thing can be said of 

 Oregon and Washington, and the coun- 

 try southward from Colorado. Mani- 

 toba and Wyoming are the only por- 

 tions of their once great range where 

 they can be said to be still plentiful, 

 and in parts of Colorado, Idaho, Mon- 

 tana, Alberta and British Columbia 

 scattered herds exist. 



Owing to its gregarious habits and 

 the comparatively open character of 

 its western range, the wapiti had little 

 to protect it against the destructive 

 warfare waged upon it in the winning 

 of the west. To the fact that it will 

 adapt itself and thrive in widely dif- 

 fering surroundings, can thanks alone 

 be given that it did not follow in the 

 bison's wake. Several years ago, in 

 spite of this, the wapiti in the wild 

 state threatened soon to vanish for- 

 ever; and even in its most isolated 

 ranges, it could not have held out long 

 against the scores of head, hide and 

 teeth hunters who preyed upon it. But 

 the American nation awoke to a real- 

 ization of the wapiti's hopeless out- 

 look, and by adopting stringent mea- 

 sures for its protection, and creating 

 an increasing public sentiment for its 

 perpetuation, the danger of its extinc- 

 tion was apparently averted. By the 

 establishment of the Yellowstone Na- 

 tional Park, a comparatively safe re- 

 fuge was provided for the largest herds 

 of wapiti existing at the time, and in 

 other parts of the country state legis- 

 lation made the laws so stringent that 

 few people dared to violate them. This 

 movement for the protection of the 

 wapiti has met with success, and in 

 the Yellowstone Park at least they 

 will always exist in a practically wild 

 state. 



Protection Wanted Here. 



Turning our attention to Canada we 



