CONSERVATION OF BIRDS AND MAMMALS !« 



work has been carried on through the efforts of the Departments of 

 Agriculture and of Mines, through Mr. Taverner in the Geological 

 Survey, and also by the recently formed Canadian Society for the 

 Protection of Birds. 



Protection of Mammals 



Animals in Turning now to the question of the protection of 



Dominion mammals, I will refer briefly to the present state of 



Parks affairs. We can group our chief wild mammals into 



three groups, those which are under protection in Dominion or pro- 

 vincial parks, those which are under protection on the forest reserves 

 and those, in the Northwest Territories, which are not so protected. 

 The welfare of the animals in the Dominion parks is very well looked 

 after ; I think we ought to feel perfectly well satisfied that, under the 

 present administration, game protection is receiving the attention it 

 deserves. That, at least, has been my impression in visiting some of 

 the more important parks. I was particularly impressed with the 

 buffalo park at Wainwright, Alberta, one of the most interesting of 

 our national parks. There we have a park of 160 square miles entirely 

 devoted to the keeping of this herd of buffalo, which is practically all 

 that is left of this formerly widely-spread and very typical North 

 American mammal, and the conditions there are such as to indicate the 

 fact that things are going well. The herd was purchased in 1907 

 from Michel Don Pablo, of Missoula, Mont., and then numbered 

 about 750. It has now increased to about 2,000 and it is one of the 

 most inspiring sights one can imagine to ride or drive out on this 

 reserve and see the buffalo, as in the old days, grazing in herds here 

 and there. 



No Danger '^^^ question has been asked as to whether there might 



from In- not be some danger of the animals in-breeding, that 



breeding jg^ whether the breed might not become degenerate. 



I do not think that is likely to occur there. For one thing, the animals 

 are under their normal climatic and environmental conditions. Every- 

 thing is favourable in that respect. If you take animals out of their 

 natural environment, and then interbreed them, you will get bad 

 effects from in-breeding, but under normal conditions like those at 

 Wainwright, we should not have any bad effects. We can safely 

 assume that from experience in other cases. About 1865, a few red 

 deer were introduced into the North island of New Zealand. One 

 buck and two does were introduced; they have multiplied until now, 

 I understand, there are over ten thousand head of deer in that island 

 and they are doing wonderfully well. On Lambay, one of the islands 



