44 



BULLETIN 1346, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



3. About 75 are reported in adjacent parts of central Golden Valley and 

 Billings Counties. This is the largest band reported in the State. William 

 McCarthy, who owns 11,000 acres of rough, rolling land in the heart of the 

 Bad Lands along the Missouri River, which affords a natural range for game, 

 writes that when he came into possession of the range in 1910 there were about 

 15 antelope there. Much hunted, they sought and were given every protection 

 in his pastures, where they found running springs and flowing wells with an 

 abundance of grass, and as a result have become very tame. 



4. Bands numbering 55 were reported in September, 1924, in the Bad Lands 

 of the Little Missouri River in Slope County. 



5. In September, 1924, a band of 26 was reported from southwestern Bowman 

 County. 



OKLAHOMA 



Of the vast number of antelope once roaming the prairies of Oklahoma only 

 a single native band, containing 5 or 6 animals, was reported as surviving in 

 1923, and the small band on the Wichita National Game Preserve, in Comanche 

 County. (See PI. I.) 



NORTH DAKOTA 



Fig. 12. — Distribution of antelope in North Dakota, estimated, at 225, in 5 areas 



In December, 1910, and January, 1911, the Boone and Crockett Club trans- 

 ported 9 antelope from the Yellowstone National Park herd to the Wichita 

 National Game Preserve. This experiment had an unfortunate ending, 

 since all the animals died during the next few years. Another attempt 

 was made in the fall of 1921 by the American Bison Society to established a 

 herd on this preserve by placing there 10 animals which had been purchased at 

 Brooks, Alberta. Six of these died shortly afterwards, and in the fall of 1922 

 the Bison Society placed 6 more there from the same source. Of these 5 died 

 shortly afterwards, leaving during the winter of 1922-23, 5 survivors from the 

 original transplantings of 16. In the spring of 1923 the 3 females each gave 

 birth to a pair of young, which were safely reared. This was duplicated in 

 the spring of 1924, bringing the number in the herd to 17. The handicap 

 which at first existed appears to have been overcome, and the outlook is favor- 

 able for the establishment there of a good herd. 



