130 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



During the past few years, several attempts were made to breed 

 antelope in Buffalo park, but met with practically no success. Although 

 given every attention and the food to which they were supposed to be 

 accustomed, all died. The Superintendent reported that he considered 

 this was due to the fact that the antelope never fully recovered from 

 the shock of capture and, after repeated failures, he recommended that 

 the attempts should be discontinued. It was then decided to attempt 

 to preserve this animal by creating carefully selected reserves at a 

 considerable distance from each other, and containing within their 

 respective areas all the necessary plant growth required by antelope, 

 together with good winter and summer pastures, thus affording both 

 shelter and feed the year round. In the selection of these reserves the 

 services of Mr. Thompson-Seton, the eminent naturalist, were secured 

 by the Department. With Mr. Maxwell Graham, Chief of the Animal 

 Division of the Parks Branch, he made a personal inspection of a 

 number of possible areas throughout the West. Finally, three areas 

 were set aside as reserves for antelope, one in Alberta and two in Sas- 

 katchewan, and it is hoped that, by devoting special study to the needs 

 of the animals and their possible diseases, success may be assured. 



Early last spring, the Northwest Mounted Police notified the 

 Branch that there was a herd of antelope near Foremost, Alberta. Mr. 

 Maxwell Graham was successful in enclosing with a fence about 12 

 miles in length, a herd discovered near the junction of two deep coulees 

 in Southern Alberta. The land was mostly unsettled and all of it 

 unfitted for agriculture. Broken by numerous ravines, containing all 

 the vegetation needed by the antelope, such as sage brush, cactus, and 

 antelope grass, as well as water of an alkaline nature, no better selection 

 for an all-year-round reserve could be asked for. 



When the discovery of the herd was made, the time of year — early 

 spring — forbade any idea of attempting to drive and corral the ante- 

 lope. The Dept. of the Interior decided to construct around the eight 

 sections where the antelope were situated, an antelope-proof fence. 

 With considerable difficulty, owing to the nature of the ground, the 

 sections have been efficiently fenced and there are now 42 antelope 

 within the enclosure. 



Further, by means of wing-trap devices on two sides of the reserve, 

 it is expected that other antelope now in the near vicinity will also be 

 secured. These devices have been approved by Mr. Ernest Thompson- 

 Seton and others in a position to judge of their value. 



To perpetuate the species, we have thus a nucleus herd, in an 

 enclosed reserve eminently suited to it, and have, therefore, great 



