Big Game Animals of the Yellozvsfone 467 



would be a calamity ; for nothing holds the popular interest in this 

 great Park more than its wonderful display of animal Hfe. The 

 bordering states of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho should therefore 

 cease their indefensible practice of maintaining open shooting seasons 

 near the Yellowstone Park borders. This practice is equivalent to 

 poaching on the Park preserve, for the large mammals are influenced 

 in their movements not by the purely artificial boundaries of this 

 area, but by the natural topography of the country. The citizens 

 of the surrounding states derive a large and rapidly increasing annual 

 revenue from the Park tourists, and they should be foremost in giv- 

 ing protection to the game which wanders into their territory. If 

 they are actuated by no higher motive, at least it would be good 

 business for them to protect "the goose that lays the golden egg." 

 If adequate measures are taken to study and save the large 

 mammals at the present critical stage, it will mark the beginning of 

 constructive management of a wild life resource invaluable alike 

 to science and to educational recreation in our parks. But the danger 

 of complete loss and the extreme difficulty of restoration of the 

 diminishing herds is realized by few people. Every visitor to the 

 Yellowstone should feel a personal responsibility and solicitude for 

 its wild animals, as for its other priceless treasures, and should take 

 a keen interest in the problems of their true appreciation and their 

 preservation for all time. 



