where mice and chipmunks are helping to alter profoundly the composition of 

 some of the most important forests in the West (Taylor 1927: 392, 395-396, 

 398-399) . 



This relationship could have been satisfactorily discovered only through 

 careful trapping and feeding experiments with the mammals concerned, associated 

 with close observation over wide areas of forest land in various stages of 

 management • 



One of the most notable life-history studies made to date is that of A. A* 

 Kichol (1938). He fed experimentally some 38 deer at various times in pens at 

 the Santa Rita Experimental Remge, near Tucson, Ariz., during a 3-1/2 year 

 period to determine the food requiranent necessary for growth, maintenance, 

 and reproduction. Palatability tests were run on 168 different native plants. 

 It was found that the coefficient 2,35 multiplied by the weight in hundreds of 

 pounds of the deer will give in pounds the quantity of air-dry forage removed 

 from the range daily by the deer. As Nichol points out, on any range on which 

 there is to be cooperative use by both game and domestic stock, one of the 

 first requisites to proper managraient is a knowledge of maintenance requirements 

 of the species occupying the area. There is an urgent need for further work 

 in the field. 



B-20594 

 Figure 2. — Wintering concentrations of big game provide the 

 opportunity for intensive observations. Elk on Hational Elk 

 Hefuge, 'Wyoming. 



