438 Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin 



of rangers desperately striving to keep them in. Once outside the 

 Park during the open hunting season the elk are shot by the local 

 sportsmen in great numljers. The year 1919 was one of the most 

 disastrous. Following a year of drought and scant forage, early snow- 

 storms that autumn drove the elk out of the Park, and some 10,000 of 

 them were killed. The . ranger force could do nothing to prevent 

 the slaughter of elk that had escaped into the territory of the adja- 

 cent states, even within the National Forests. They viewed this. most 

 recent slaughter with great sadness and dismay, for they who should 

 ]ia\-e the power to protect their herds in fall as they had in summer, 

 no matter where they strayed, were legally helpless. The Park 

 officials had feared just such a catastrophe and had warned against 

 it for years. In his annual report, prepared in the summer of 1919, 

 only a few months before the blow fell, Superintendent Albright 

 stated the critical nature of the situation as follows : 



"Every person in this country who is interested in the conserva- 

 tion of wild life, who wants to see a supply of big game sustained, 

 who wants Yellowstone National Park to hold its prestige as a great 

 natural preserve, should give attention to the problem confronting 

 us at the present time in caring for the elk. The time is coming 

 when a terrible, long, cold winter is going to kill the Yellowstone 

 elk herds if existing conditions outside the Park are maintained. 

 That time may be the coming winter ; however, it may be a winter 

 of ten }ears hence. No one can say when this calamity will strike 

 us, but those of us who know conditions about this Park realize 

 that the extinction of the eHv is inevitable unless these conditions 

 are changed." 



Under state game laws permitting the shooting of elk in Novem- 

 ber, a series of early winters would result in cutting the elk herds 

 down to but a few bands. No elk shooting whatever should be 

 allowed within the area surrounding Yellowstone Park where these 

 animals winter habitually or normally. Failing such legislation, the 

 open season should be shortened and placed at an earher date, so that 

 early winters will not force the elk out of the Park at a time when 

 hunters are allowed to shoot them. AA'yoming has befriended the 

 elk and passed laws protecting them, and has given them some 

 security in their winter home in Jackson's Hole. The ^Montana law 

 was fortunatelv considerabl}' ameliorated following 1919, but the 

 herds are still in great danger. 



This year, 1921, the elk remained on their summer range in the 

 high forests within the Park until October 24. From that date herds 

 were to be seen continuallv in the region about Tv'uvn Creek and 



