FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



PREDATORY BEASTS IN YELLOWSTONE PARK. 



WILLIAM S. BRACKET. 



I have read with much interest in the 

 January number of Recreation the arti- 

 cle on Bear in Yellowstone Park, written 

 by my friend, Frank A. Johnson, of Chica- 

 go, who is the hunter, par excellence, of 

 big game among all the amateurs of my 

 acquaintance. 



From an experience of over 12 years in 

 and around Yellowstone Park, permit me 

 to say a few words in response to Mr. 

 Johnson's article. 



The natural winter habitat of big game, 

 such as elk, deer and antelope, is not in 

 the valleys and meadows of the Park. In 

 early times the game passed down from 

 the high volcanic plateau, now known as 

 Yellowstone Park, at the first storm of 

 winter. They went clown the valley of 

 the Yellowstone river, and down the val- 

 leys of the 5 other great rivers which find 

 their sources in or near the Park, and win- 

 tered on the lower and warmer levels far 

 to the East and South. Civilization has 

 driven and hemmed the big game in the 

 Park and compelled it to winter there, for 

 there alone is the big game of our country 

 protected and preserved. 



It is hard at best for the herds of elk 

 and deer, and the few buffaloes left, to 

 winter in the Park, but of necessity they 

 must winter there or perish. They have 

 no other winter home secure from the at- 

 tacks of man. The mean elevation of the 

 Park is between 7,000 and 8.000 feet. The 

 winter snows are deep, and it is pitiable to 

 see the great herds of elk over on the 

 East fork of the Yellowstone, weak and 

 nearly starved, struggling through the 

 winter and early spring. Of course, great 

 care is taken to prevent any poachers from 

 killing or disturbing these elk or any other 

 big game in the Park, for here is their 

 last and final resort for protection against 

 those ruthless human monsters, who, if 

 unchecked, would soon exterminate all the 

 elk and deer in America, as the buffaloes 

 have already been exterminated. 



But far more terrible and destructive to 

 the big game of the Park in winter and 

 early spring than a whole regiment of 

 poachers, or other game hogs, is the con- 

 stantly increasing army of bears, cougars, 

 lynxes and timber wolves, which now in- 

 fest the Park, and which, by the most aw- 

 ful of blunders, are equally protected from 

 being molested by man, with the innocent 

 elk, deer and buffaloes. Thousands of elk 

 calves, fawns and buffalo calves fall victims 

 in the early spring of every year to the vast 

 numbers of predatory bears, grey wolves. 



cougars and lynxes which follow up the 

 starved and weak herds, and easily capture 

 and kill the young animals. The elk cows 

 and the buffalo cows are too weak to pro- 

 tect their young, and the deep snow 

 early spring in this, their unnatural winter 

 habitat, prevent escape. Unless some rem- 

 edy is applied to this awful state of affairs 

 we shall soon have no big game left in 

 Yellowstone Park. Game preservation 

 which does not preserve is a farce. 



Mr. Johnson is only one of a hundred 

 witnesses who can testify to the boldness 

 of bears in the Park. Wolves, cougars and 

 lynxes are even bolder and more savage in 

 their attacks on the helpless herds of elk. 

 deer and buffaloes, which are more than 

 half starved in the secluded and remote 

 valleys of the Park in winter. 



Recreation is the champion of game 

 protection. Let your widely read maga- 

 zine take up this crusade for the protection 

 and preservation of our big game in the 

 only reservation in the United States 

 where it is supposed to have protection, 

 but really does not get it. 



I am sure Capt. Brown, 1st U. S. Caval- 

 ry, the present efficient Superintendent of 

 Yellowstone Park, is alive to the necessity 

 of killing off all predatory animals in the 

 Park at once. But he can only make rec- 

 ommendations. He cannot act alone. 

 Unless public opinion is aroused and 

 sportsmen all over the country soon take 

 action, the big herds of elk, deer and ante- 

 lope, and the little herd of buffaloes in 

 Yellowstone Park, will be gone. 



The old-timers of the Upper Yellow- 

 stone and the hunters and ranchmen of all 

 that region will tell you that what I say in 

 this article is the literal truth. Al Pfohl. 

 who accompanied Mr. Johnson through 

 the Park and shared in the strange experi- 

 ences with the bears, narrated by Mr. 

 Johnson, knows this is so. Mr. Pfohl is 

 a good guide and hunter, whom I have 

 known many years on the Upper Yel- 

 lowstone. La Fontaine Black, a veteran 

 hunter, of Montana, and Mr. Pfohl were 

 talking with me about this very matter 

 last November, and deploring the fact that 

 the Government should allow the pr 

 tory animals of the Park to slaughter the 

 elk and deer in winter and spring as they 

 are now doing. 



Yellowstone Park in winter and earlv 

 spring has become a paradise for woh 

 bears, cougars and other predator'. 

 They come from all directions for hun- 

 dreds of miles, to feast and fatten on tin* 

 elk and deer. By a strange fatuity, the 

 carnivorous beasts are protected as they 



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