7 



SPECIES TO BE SELECTED FOR BREEDING. 



The number of species of deer suited for breeding in inclosures in 

 the United States is great, though the chances for success are by 

 no means the same for all. As a rule those native to America are 

 to be preferred, since they are already acclimated. In selecting any 

 species, similarity between its natural habitat and that to which it 

 is to be transferred must be considered. Important, also, is its 

 adaptability to varied conditions, as shown by former attempts to 

 acclimatize it. 



Unless they have shown a peculiar adaptability to such change, 

 deer should not be taken from arid parts of the United States to 

 humid parts. To a disregard of this principle are probably due many 

 of the failures that have attended experiments in breeding the 

 American antelope, the Columbia blacktail deer, the moose, and 

 other animals in places differing widely from their natural ranges. 



The history of attempts to acclimatize the several kinds of deer 

 shows that some readily adapt themselves to a great variety of con- 

 ditions, and efforts to introduce them into new countries have been 

 almost uniformly successful. Such has been the experience with the 

 axis deer, the Japanese and Pekin sikas, the red and the fallow deer 

 of Europe, and especially with the wapiti, or Rocky Mountain elk, 

 and the Virginia deer. While experiments Avith the foreign species 

 named offer every promise of success to the owners of American 

 preserves, there are obvious reasons for recommending the two native 

 animals just mentioned as best suited for the production of venison 

 in the United States. 



THE WAPITI, OR ROCKY MOUNTAIN ELK. 



The wapiti {Cervus canadensis) ^ including two related species and 

 a geographic race, and known generally in America as the elk, is, 

 next to the moose, the largest of our deer. It was once abundant 

 over the greater part of the United States, whence its range extended 

 northward to about latitude G0° in the Peace River region of the 

 interior of Canada. In the United States the limits of its range 

 eastward were the Adirondacks, western Ncav Jersey, and eastern 

 Pennsylvania ; southward it reached the southern Alleghenies, north- 

 ern Texas, southern New Mexico, and Arizona; and westward the 

 Pacific Ocean. 



For the practical purposes of this bulletin all the forms of the 

 wapiti are treated as a single species. At the present time the range 

 of these animals has so far diminished that they occur only in a few 

 scattered localities outside of the Yellowstone National Park and 

 the mountainous country surrounding it, where large herds remain. 

 Smaller herds still occur in Colorado, western Montana, Idaho, east- 



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