56 STEPPE FAUNAS AND TEMPERATE 



there are other large areas in Africa and in the north of 

 South America where open park-like country occurs, 

 with trees scattered among the grass, and such land has 

 some of the characters of a steppe. Again, all the great 

 deserts of the world are fringed by semi-arid areas, 

 displaying the general characters of a steppe. 



The great interest of the steppe areas is that, espe- 

 cially in Asia and Africa, they are the natural home of 

 very many of the great ungulates, the most highly 

 specialized of which are steppe animals. In North 

 America the steppe lands, within the human period 

 at least, have been inhabited only by few species of 

 wild iingulates, but of these few the bison was repre- 

 sented by countless numbers of individuals until it 

 was exterminated by the white man. In South America, 

 within the human period, but prior to the immigration 

 of the white, large ungulates were almost absent. No 

 horse, no relative of cattle or sheep or antelope cropped 

 the herbage of the great plains, but their place in 

 nature was taken by enormous numbers of rodents, 

 which reached here a size not attained elsewhere. 

 Again, in Australia no ungulate whatever occurred, 

 and the natural pasture was utilized by marsupials or 

 pouched animals, of which the most important grass- 

 eating form is the kangaroo. 



That South America has few native ungulates and 

 Australia none are two of the most interesting facts in 

 geographical distribution, but the fact that ungulates 

 introduced by the white man into both countries have 

 flourished apace makes it unnecessary for us to suppose 

 that any natural obstacle to their presence there 

 existed. We may then say generally that the steppe 

 regions of the world are the regions which form the 

 natural home of the ungulates most valuable to man. 



