STATUS OF THE PEONGHOENED ANTELOPE, 1922-1924 



21 



CARE TO PREVENT FRIGHTENING 



Antelope fawns are very panicky when something unusual occurs. The 

 attendants must move slowly, talking to them at all times; quick movements 

 frighten them. Upon entering the place where they are confined, if one will 

 talk to them and be careful to move slowly, in a few minutes they will settle 

 down and allow him to work among them without signs of fear. Even after 

 they are 2 or 3 months old it is necessary to use much caution when going 

 among them, but I noticed that the fawns usually come running to a man 

 when they become frightened, apparently for protection. When suddenly 

 frightened, however, they may rush at full speed into a fence without appar- 

 ently seeing it. With a single exception every fawn we lost was injured or 

 killed outright from being frightened. 

 Two of them broke their necks by hit- 

 ting the wire fence on a slant, running 

 their noses into the mesh. 



Fawns apparently have a hereditary 

 fear of cats and dogs, and I believe 

 cats scare them worse than the dogs. 

 I have been wondering if the bobcat 

 family isn't one of their worst enemies 

 on the range. 



We found out when we crated the 

 animals at Diessner that one must be 

 very careful, for after a few were 

 caught the others became frightened. 

 At first we caught all the gentle ones, 

 leaving the wild ones until the last. 

 When we came to the last two, which 

 were the wildest of all, one of them 

 made a frantic jump at the wire fence, 

 striking it on the slant and' breaking- 

 its neck. 



When we recrated them at Reno I 

 purchased lumber and made a corral 

 about 8 by 20 feet with a lumber chute narrowing to about 4 feet wide at one 

 end. Putting all the fawns into this small inclosure, we picked the wildest one 

 first and by catching the four or five that did not come to us readily when they 

 were out in the big inclosure we had no trouble 'whatever. The old gentle 

 stand-bys did not become frightened, and within a few minutes we had the total 

 number for shipment crated. 



SHIPPING CRATES 





Fig. 2. — Specially constructed crate for 

 shipping 4-montks-old antelope. Made 

 of five-eighths-inch material and requir- 

 ing 20% feet of common lumber, the 

 inside measurements being 38% inches 

 long, 33 inches high, and 13 inches 

 wide. Weight, 35 pounds. Cost of 

 making crate and lining with burlap, 

 including labor and materials, $2.40 



Crates should not be built too large. (Fig. 2.) A crate for an antelope 

 averaging 50 pounds in weight should be about 38% inches long, 13 inches 

 wide, and 33 inches high, inside measurements, using select dressed lumber, 

 about one-half or five-eighths of an inch thick by 3 inches wide. The bottom 

 and sides up for about 12 or 14 inches should be solid, and then 3-inch strips 

 placed 3 Inches apart on the sides and ends to allow good ventilation. The 

 trips above the solid bottom board should be wrapped with burlap so as 

 to make a padded '-rate. It is well to take a small joining plane and run over 

 the edges of the hoards so that Dare will be no sharp edges to cut. ' 



The main thing in making a crate is to have it so narrow that the animal 

 • an noi chanj i ad in It. Antelope should be i>ui In the crate backward with 

 head toward the door. The <i<>"i' should be made so that n will slip in a slot 



