50 



BULLETIN" 1346, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE 



tlieir numbers during the preceding 12 months. The only exception to this is 

 in Harding County, where an increase was reported for the past two years, this 

 possibly being due to animals having come in from other sections. A number 

 of small bands of antelope have been exterminated in the State within the past 

 few years. 



Stanley Phillips, present owner of the Phillips buffalo herd, informed Mr. 

 Knowles that antelope in northern Stanley County were rapidly decreasing. 

 He reported the existence of a good-sized band there two years ago, which has 

 since been hunted with dogs and has been rapidly depleted. It is reported that 

 officers who were searching the premises of an alleged " moonshiner " in 

 Harding County found 11 antelope skins. It is encouraging to learn that the 

 people in the town of Buffalo are organizing a rod-and-gun club largely for the 

 purpose of giving protection to the remaining antelope in the State. 



Fig. 15. — Distribution, of antelope in South Dakota, estimated at 680, in 11 areas 



Mr. Knowles wrote that there has been a disproportionate decrease in the 

 number of buck antelope, and one of the small surviving bands is composed 

 entirely of females. Owing to the scarcity of males throughout the antelope 

 country many of the females do not breed. In one band of 40 only 3 bucks 

 were found. 



On June 29, 1923, J. D. Carr, writing from Lindsay, stated that 75 antelope 

 range within a radius of about S miles in the Cheyenne Breaks, where they 

 are not being molested. On the same date, from the same locality, F. L. 

 Norman wrote that about 125 antelope are running near Lindsay, where they 

 are so tame that they often come within 100 yards of his home. The crop of 

 young for the season appears to have been large. Mr. Norman states that 

 he and his son try to protect the antelope in every possible way and that 

 they will be pleased to have any measures taken to insure the safety of the 

 herd. 



The remaining antelope herds of South Dakota appear to be distributed in 

 the following 11 areas (fig. 15) : 



