REPORT ON CONDITION OF ELK IN JACKSON HOLE, 

 WYOMING, IN 1911. 



INTRODUCTION. 



That part of the valley of Snake River in northwestern Wyoming 

 usually called Jackson Hole has long been the principal winter 

 home of large numbers of elk, or wapiti (Gervus canadensis). These 

 animals, which spend the summer in the southern part of Yellow- 

 stone National Park and in the mountains south of it, are forced in 

 winter to seek lower levels, where a lighter snowfall and a milder 

 climate insure more favorable forage conditions. Their primitive 

 winter range has gradually been reduced, until this basin has become 

 their principal stronghold. Here, until recent years, the herds have 

 fared well, except in an occasional abnormal winter; but with 

 increased settlement in this valley has come depletion of the range 

 by grazing. The elk have come down in their old or even in aug- 

 mented numbers only to find their former haunts shorn of forage 

 by cattle, and when unusual winter conditions have conspired with 

 a lessened food supply, great suffering and loss of life have ensued. 

 Such was the case during the winters of 1908-9 and 1909-10, and 

 during that of 1910-11, when an almost unprecedented fall of snow 

 following a dry summer covered to a depth of several feet the remnant 

 of a scanty crop of grass, conditions became acute. The elk sought 

 the valley in about their normal numbers, but a little earlier than 

 usual, and before the winter was half over had suffered great loss. 

 The State legislature was appealed to and promptly appropriated 

 money to buy food for the starving creatures. Moreover, the State, 

 realizing its inability to cope with the situation unaided, presented 

 the following memorial to Congress : 



House Joint Memorial No. L. 



A joint resolution relating to the preservation of big game in the State of Wyoming, and memorializing 

 the Congress of the United States to make an adequate appropriation to aid the State of Wyoming 

 in providing winter food for and otherwise protecting the big game which range in the National Park 

 and in the Jackson Hole region of this State, alternately. 



Be it resolved by the house of representatives (the senate concurring): 



Whereas the principal remnant of the big game of the United States, comprised 

 of moose, elk, and deer, range alternately during the winters in the National Park 



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