Ai:!IOUIICSr.'Eirr ; Our \?ilds I'lan has "been on the trjiil of ?Qme Big Game, 



He has been talking to Uncle Sain's Naturalists in the Bureau of Biological 



Survey, Now he is here for his reg-ular once-every- two-weeks talk to the 



listeners of Station Buffalo, elk, antelope, moose, mountain sheep, and 



musk-oxen are among the animals he has "been trailing Well, Mr, Wilds- 

 man, how is our big game gett.\ng along? 



Yos, I ve "been inquirin^^- around about our big game. 



I was asking Mr, Talbot t Denmead, the assistant U.S. Game Conservation 

 Officer, about how our buffalo were getting along. You know, our American 

 bison, or buffalo, wcs on the verge of being completely wiped out. Now on 

 four big game reserves administered by the U. S. Bureau of Biological Sur- 

 vey, we have about 6oO buffalo, all told. That's aot many compared with the 

 thundering herds th^t shodc our prairies back in the days when Buffalo Bill 

 took Ms famous meat contract. But it is enough practically to aave the 

 buffalo from extinction, 



I'r. Deni.ieadL tells me th.;it we could double the size of our buffalo 

 herds every two year. But if we did, they would starve to death. We don't 

 have the range for them. All in all, including those on gcvemment pre- 

 serves, on private ranges, and in zoos, there are three to four thousand 

 buffalo in the United States and ifccct. fifteen thousand in Canada^- 

 perhaps 19,000 in existence toda^/-. The Biological Survey has concentrated on 

 small herds, and on keeping the stock pure. 



About 22 buffalo have been turned loose in Alaska, and several young 

 have been bom there. But londer present da*" conditions in this country, 

 lir, De:-^ad says, we just can't let buffalo run loose, A buffalo bull, almost 

 twide the size of an ordinary b-ijll, can do a good deal of daiia^e, A scared or 

 enraged buffalo will tra-r.ple down almost anything that gets Tn its way suid 

 will attack horses, Hemember, buffalo used to range over a wide territory. 

 If we let them loose, Mr. Denmead says they'd start out and never cone baci:. 



As to elk, it is not so necessary to keep them fenced in. In handling i 

 them at the government Elk Refuge at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, we don't fence I 

 the ellc, we fence the hay to feed them. The elk travel considerable distanced 

 There are several thousand of thoa in and about Yellowstone National Park, 

 They won't stay in the park in the winter time, but gather in big herds, 

 and saae come down from the mountains to the Elk Refuge for food. In order 

 to save our elk from starvation, Mr, Denmead tells mo, alfalfa is grown and 

 stacked up behind fences to be on hand to feed the hungry elk in winter when 

 they come down froa the parlu. Last year, nearly seven tliousand elk were 

 fo^i it the Elk Refuge, 



