504 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



THE FUTURE OF OUR FAUNA. 

 By Madison Grant. 



THE growth of sentiment in favor of so- 

 called protection of game has been extreme- 

 ly rapid in the United States in recent years, 

 but unfortunately the destruction of the game in 

 question has proceeded in most cases with even 

 greater celerity. The object of the first game 

 laws was usually the establishment of close sea- 

 sons, covering for the most part those months 

 during which the young were born and nour- 

 ished. To these close seasons were soon added 

 restrictions regulating the number of animals to 

 be killed and the mode of hunting, forbidding 

 for example, crusting moose, hounding deer, and 

 the use of swivel guns for ducks. These meas- 

 ures in turn proved inadequate to prevent the 

 rapid diminution of game, so that finally the 

 market itself was attacked, and the trade in 

 skins and meat was either prohibited or strictly 

 limited. 



About this time it became evident that some 

 species were either locally exterminated or on the 

 verge of extinction, and there began to appear 

 on the statutes of various states, laws forbidding 

 the killing of certain animals for various 

 periods, usually about five years. Some of 

 these laws were effective where the district in 

 which the prohibition was put into effect ad- 

 joined one where game still abounded, and from 

 which a supply could be drawn. Little by lit- 

 tle, in this way, the public became accustomed 

 to the fact that in certain places certain ani- 

 mals could not be legally killed at any season, 

 and this naturally led to the next step, viz. — 

 the complete stopping of the killing or capture 

 of all animals in certain restricted localities 

 known as game refuges or sanctuaries. These 

 refuges, the writer believes, are the final solu- 

 tion of game protection. All the other expe- 

 dients and devices named must prove to be in- 

 adequate, except in certain favored localities 

 like Long Island for deer, and perhaps Maine 

 and the Maritime Provinces for moose. Sooner 

 or later the development and population of the 

 country at large will reach a point when there 

 will be no room for the larger forms of mam- 

 malian life, although there is no reason why 

 game-birds and fish should not continue to 

 abound. These larger forms therefore can only 

 be handed down permanently in refuges like the 

 Yellowstone Park, and these must be established 

 throughout the length and breadth of North 

 America, especially in regions where forest re- 

 serves are necessary for the control of the water 

 supply. Whatever hunting the future genera- 

 tions will enjoy must be on the borders of these 



reserves, which, if successful, will provide an 

 overflow of game sufficient to stock the sur- 

 rounding country. 



The fact is, that the time is close at hand 

 when we must abridge, or altogether take away 

 the old right to bear firearms and use them on 

 all living creatures. In place of this we must 

 substitute Old World conditions, which appear 

 to be consistent with the preservation of abun- 

 dant wild-life living on friendly terms with a 

 dense human population, as in India. This is 

 an ideal condition which we Americans must en- 

 deavor to establish in this country, if we wish 

 to continue to enjoy the spectacle of animated 

 nature around us. To bring about such a 

 change in public opinion is a gigantic undertak- 

 ing, and it may be necessary in many places to 

 go through, in our characteristic national way, 

 the process of complete destruction of the ani- 

 mals we have, and the restocking of the country 

 with new and perhaps in many cases with for- 

 eign and less attractive forms. 



To avoid this last misfortune, the continua- 

 tion of the native wild stock through the medium 

 of game refuges is absolutely essential. The 

 Adirondacks, for instance, where nearly every 

 native and most of the visitors feel it obligatory 

 to carry around a repeating rifle and to use it 

 on every living thing in season, and on pretty 

 nearly everything except deer out of season, 

 consist now of almost lifeless forests and lakes. 

 If we could once for a definite period of years 

 do away with the habit of rifle carrying, we 

 probably could restore a great deal of the pris- 

 tine beauty of the North Woods. The natives 

 there have advanced to an imperfect belief in 

 game protection, but still regard "varmints" or 

 vermin as something to be destroyed on all oc- 

 casions, and used as living targets. The defi- 

 nition of the word vermin most popular in the 

 Adirondacks, seems to be the one recently used 

 in Congress where a western representative 

 stated that, "the term vermin included every- 

 thing that could not be eaten, differing thus from 

 game, which was edible." 



The New York Zoological Society is prepared 

 to continue to support and urge such further 

 restrictive measures as may be from time to 

 time found desirable, but it believes that, look- 

 ing a generation or two into the future, the only 

 true and permanent solution lies not so much 

 in further legislation, but in a strict and con- 

 tinuous enforcement of existing laws ; and most 

 particularly in the creation throughout the 

 country in all desirable spots, especially in 

 mountains and on islands, of sanctuaries for 

 wild-life, where neither rifle, nor fire, nor dog 

 may menace the safety or disturb the breeding 



