Elk in the snow. 
N a recent article in American Game 
it was stated that the latest esti- 
mates of wild game in the National 
Forest included 511,000 deer, 49,000 
elk, 13,000 mountain sheep, 18,000 
mountain goats, 8,000 moose, 4,600 
antelope, besides the small feathered 
game which is not estimated. Many, 
no doubt, wonder how these estimates 
and counts are obtained, knowing that 
game animals are ordinarily very wild 
and hard to approach besides being 
scattered over a vast territory the 
greater part of which is mountainous 
and timbered. 
There are two methods of taking a 
wild game animal census; one is purely 
an estimate, the other an actual count. 
The National Forests are made up 
of ranger districts varying in size from 
about 50,000 acres to 300,000 acres and 
in some instances even more. Each of 
these districts is in charge of a Forest 
Ranger. He is the man on the ground 
who, more than any other person, 
knows the country comprising his dis- 
trict. He is constantly traveling the 
trails, creeks, and ridges on his terri- 
tory inspecting the ranges used by do- 
mestic stock, looking over the timber, 
putting out fires, doing various sur- 
veying jobs and many other tasks. He 
camps for the night many times during 
the year in out of the way places sel- 
dom frequented by humans. Naturally 
in his travels he sees lots of game and 
the tracks and other signs of lots more. 
During the spring and summer game 
animals are tamer than in the fall and 
early winter and do not take to flight 
so quickly, so can readily be observed. 

How the Game 
Is Counted 
in the 
National 
Forests 
By W. M. RUSH 
Photos by Courtesy of the 
U. S. Forest Service 
In the late winter most species of game 
bunch up and seek the localities where 
feed is the least difficut to obtain, for 
when the snow gets several feet deep 
and well packed the problem of getting 
sufficient food is a life and death mat- 
ter with them. Here too, the ranger 
finds them on a windswept ridge, in 
a willow swamp, or at a lower altitude 
where the snow is not so deep. So 
after a few years’ time the ranger is 
prepared to say how many game ani- 
mals of each species he has on his dis- 
trict, and while his estimate is not ab- 
solutely accurate, it is the best that 
can be obtained without expending an 
unjustifiable amount of time, and the 
ranger knows that no other person has 
had as good an opportunity to secure 
information on the game as he has had. 
An actual count of game animals is 
made where there are large numbers 
of some species in a relatively small 
area and where such large numbers 
present some specific problem to their 
proper administration. A count made 
of the Sun River elk herd in 1925 is 
probably closely analogous to other big 
game counts made in regard to meth- 
ods employed. 
N this locality the elk from two large 
game preserves congregate on a 
comparatively small area during the 
winter, on account of the deep snows 
covering the feed in the preserves. Six 
rangers were assigned the job of mak- 
ing a count of these elk, and in order 
to cover the country as nearly as pos- 
sible at one time, the men assembled 
with their outfits at a point near the 

The ranger takes a spill. 
center and worked toward the outside 
of the range in parties of two. Each 
party was equipped with toboggan, 
snowshoes, field glasses, bedding and 
grub. The country was worked sys- 
tematically, usually with one man trav- 
eling the ridges and the other the cor- 
responding valley. It was easy to tell 
the upper limits of the wintering 
grounds as the snow showed clearly 
whether or not any elk had _ been 
over it. 
ARLY in the morning and late in 
the evening the elk were found in 
large bunches out in the open, feeding, 
and it was easy to get an accurate 
count on them. During the middle of 
the day they usually bedded down in 
the timber, so the ranger did most of 
the counting early in the morning. It 
is characteristic of elk that the cows 
and young bunch together during the 
winter and the bulls are to be found 
widely scattered in bunches of four or 
five or even singly, usually higher up 
than the cows, or in heavy timber 
or swamps. The six men spent eight 
days doing the job and traveled a to- 
tal of about 750 miles, practically all 
of which was on snowshoes. Sometimes 
in crossing windswept ridges it was 
necessary to backpack their bedding 
and provisions as tobogganing was out 
of the question. Backpacking is kill- 
ing work and tobogganing a load is 
not child’s play, it is a real man’s job 
in a rough country and even with two 
men to handle the toboggan it some- 
times turns upside down on a steep 
(Continued on page 768) 
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