REPORT OX CONDITION OF ELK IN JACKSON HOLE, 
WYOMING, IN 1911. 
INTRODUCTION. 
That part of the valley of Snake River in northwestern Wyoming 
usually called Jackson Hole has long been the principal winter 
home of large numbers of elk, or wapiti (Gervus canadensis). These 
animals, which spend the summer in the southern part of Yellow- 
stone National Park and in the mountains south of it, are forced in 
winter to seek lower levels, where a lighter snowfall and a milder 
climate insure more favorable forage conditions. Their primitive 
winter range has gradually been reduced, until this basin has become 
their principal stronghold. Here, until recent years, the herds have 
fared well, except in an occasional abnormal winter; but with 
increased settlement in this valley has come depletion of the range 
by grazing. The elk have come down in their old or even in aug- 
mented numbers only to find their former haunts shorn of forage 
by cattle, and when unusual winter conditions have conspired with 
a lessened food supply, great suffering and loss of life have ensued. 
Such was the case during the winters of 1908-9 and 1909-10, and 
during that of 1910-11, when an almost unprecedented fall of snow 
following a dry summer covered to a depth of several feet the remnant 
of a scanty crop of grass, conditions became acute. The elk sought 
the valley in about their normal numbers, but a little earlier than 
usual, and before the winter was half over had suffered great loss. 
The State legislature was appealed to and promptly appropriated 
money to buy food for the starving creatures. Moreover, the State, 
realizing its inability to cope with the situation unaided, presented 
the following memorial to Congress : 
House Joint Memorial Xo. 1. 
A joint resolution relating to the preservation of big game in the State of Wyoming, and memorializing 
the Congress of the United States to make an adequate appropriation to aid the State of Wyoming 
in providing winter food for and otherwise protecting the big game which range in the National Park 
and in the Jackson Hole region of this State, alternately. 
Be it resolved by the house of representatives (the senate concurring): 
Whereas the principal remnant of the big game of the United States, comprised 
of moose, elk, and deer, range alternately during the winters in the National Park 
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