ANIMAL LIFE IN OKLAHOMA. 11 



habits than the badger, but the record in its favor is scarcely lesS 

 astounding. Skunks are preeminently animals of the field and wood, 

 and their occasional appearance in the farm yard is accidental. They 

 work, for the most part, at night, and the number of noxious insects, 

 mice, and rats which they annually unearth and devour is almost beyond 

 belief. The furs of these animals are becoming very valuable and a 

 splendid income awaits the boy who has the ingenuity and courage to 

 collect a number of skunks and organize the first fux-growing industry 

 in Oklahoma. 



OTHER FLESH-EATING ANIMALS. 



Other flesh-eating animals existing in Oklahoma are the bobcat, 

 raccoon, o'possum, weasel, and mink. These animals exist abundantly 

 in some portions of the State, while in others they have already been 

 exterminated. The weasel and bobcat were once found on the open 

 plains wherever prairie dogs lived, but they have long since been driven 

 to the protection of the timber, and even here they are only rarely seen. 



GNAWING ANIMALS. 



BEAVERS. 



The beaver is the largest gnawing animal in Oklahoma, and easily 

 leads the mammals of the world in mechanical and engineering skill. 

 Beavers were at one time common in many of our smaller streams, and 

 the line of their retreat is marked by dams and houses which they 

 were forced to abandon hurriedly, in their efforts to keep away from 

 the habitations of man. Wherever the banks were too low for the 

 beavers to burrow into, they constructed dams across the channels and 

 often raised the water as much as four or five feet, forming large 

 artificial ponds with a depth sufficient to protect the entrance to their 

 houses, and to provide for storing a food supply large enough to carry 

 the beaver colony through the period when the ponds were frozen over 

 and they were cut off from the usual food beyond the limits of the 

 water's edge. The trees generally selected by the beaver for food include 

 the birch, cottonwood, hickory, ash, and willow. To secure the tender 

 limbs and younger shoots they often "cut" down trees as large as i 

 foot in diameter. If only the smaller limbs were used they were cut 

 off and dragged to the pond, but if the trunk was needed for strengthening 

 the dam, a channel was dug from the pond to the tree and the timber 

 was floated into position, as is the custom of lumbermen in all parts 

 ■of the world. There is only one colony of these interesting animals 

 now within the State. This is located on a small strearm in Ellis 

 iCounty. It is hoped that the men who own the adjoining land will 

 see that measures are taken to prevent this last picturesque beaver 

 •''town" from being depleted of its industrious population. 



PRAIRIE DOGS'. 



Prairie dogs, which exist so abundantly in many parts of Oklahoma, 

 .are social creatures and live together in communities called towns. A 



