122 
ORDERS OF MAMMALS— HOOFED ANIMALS 
from the second week after its birth, the fawn 
steps about with the air of a game-cock. If you 
will observe a seven-year-old male Elk in October 
or November, when the modelling of his form is 
handsomest, his pelage long, bright and immacu- 
late, his neck swollen with pride, and his fine new 
antlers ready for admiration or for battle, I think 
you will say, “This is the king of the Cervidae !” 
Even the moose, giant though he be, is not 
a creature of regal presence, like the Elk. Al- 
though the latter is a large and heavy animal, it 
has the small and shapely legs and hoofs of a 
thoroughbred. It is strictly a creature for solid 
ground, and while very fond of bathing in ponds 
during hot weather, it avoids swamps and low 
situations. 
It is both a grazing and browsing animal. Al- 
though up to twenty-five years ago it often ranged 
far out into the western edge of the Great 
Plains, and loves to frequent mountain parks, it 
is also a foi’est animal. Originally, its range 
coincided to a remarkable extent with that of 
the buffalo, covering fully three-fourths of the 
United States, from the Adirondacks and the 
eastern foothills of the Alleghenies to California 
and V ancouver Island. It was not found, how- 
ever, on the Great Plains north of the Saskatche- 
wan. 
In summer it ascends the Rocky Mountains 
to the very crest of the Continental Divide, 1 1 ,000 
feet above the sea. The species reaches its high- 
est physical development on the backbone of 
the continent, between northwestern Wyoming 
and southern Colorado. 
From nineteen-twentieths of its original range, 
this grand animal has been exterminated. To- 
day it is abundant in one locality only, the Yel- 
lowstone National Park and the country imme- 
diately surrounding it, where about 20,000 Elk 
find a safe retreat. 
Every winter the Elk herds of the Yellowstone 
Park migrate southward to feed in the sheltered 
valleys of Jackson Hole. During these migra- 
tions, which usually are made through deep 
snow, Mr. S. N. Leek and others have made 
many fine photographs of the herds. One of 
Mr. Leek’s striking pictures is reproduced on 
the opposite page. 
Elk are found in small numbers in the Olympic 
Mountains of Washington, in Oregon, sparingly 
in Colorado, western Montana and Idaho, in one 
small area of Manitoba, and at one point in south 
central California. On Vancouver Island the 
species is now extinct. 
It is probable that within a few years the Elk 
will disappear from all the localities mentioned 
save the Yellowstone Park, for in the other 
wild and thinly settled regions which it inhabits 
to-day, the measures for its protection from il- 
legal slaughter are by no means adequate. Some 
Americans who go hunting — I will not call them 
sportsmen — are so greedy, so lawless and so 
wasteful of animal life, that we frequently hear 
accounts of Elk slaughter which are enough to 
disgust all decent men. 
Fortunately, Elk are easily bred in confinement, 
and during the last twenty years many good herds 
have been established in the great private game 
preserves that are scattered from New Hamp- 
shire and Massachusetts to Minnesota. In ad- 
dition to these, there are many smaller herds in 
small private parks. Nearly every city north 
of the Potomac has a herd of Elk in one of its 
parks, and other hardy native animals in an estab- 
lishment known either as a “zoo,” a zoological 
garden, or a zoological park. Thanks to this 
constantly increasing public demand for living 
collections of wild animals, the American Elk 
and buffalo are now familiar objects to the chil- 
dren of at least twenty American cities. 
The Elk’s Calendar in the New York 
Zoological Park. 
Jan. 1 . Pelage has grown perceptibly paler. 
Feb. 1. Pelage has lost its lustre, and begins to 
look weathered. 
Mar. 21. Antlers of the largest male dropped, 
9 hours apart. 
Apr. 8. Each budding antler looks like a big 
brown tomato. 
Apr. 18. New antlers about 5 inches long, thick 
and stumpy. 
Apr. 30. Each antler has developed three 
branches. Young elk born, well 
spotted. Closely hidden in the rocks. 
Height 26 inches; length 35 inches; 
weight 301 pounds. 
May 10. Shedding in full progress; the Elk look 
their worst. 
.Tune 1 . Shedding about, half finished. 
June 18. Antlers now full length, but club-like; 
