Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 181, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 August 1911 — THE BIG GAME SITUATION [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE BIG GAME SITUATION

WILL B.Shore . GUIDE

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S N the put live rear* the elk In the section of the Montana game fields north of the boundary of the YelV lowstone Park have Wvy gTeatly Increased In numbers. It has been observed by many of the hunters In recent years that a larger number of cows have two calves following them than In ive▼ioua years. The elk are becoming acclimated to the high mountainous country of the park and upper Yellowstone and are growing more hearty In their present environment. In early days before the great valleys and low lands were taken up ‘by the aettler the elk were found In the big open country except In late summer months, where they were very often found in the high mountains grazing upon great plateaus. Early explorers and prospectors noted very few elk in the park and, section north of that reserve, and In fact very little game except buffalo. This information was obtained from Dr. Reagle, who was with Dr. Hayden in his official expedition in 1871, when most of the geysers were named and angulated. The elk stay up here in the mountains all winter now, very few of their number trying to do down the valley. They have learned to like the snow, and during the first snow storms will leave the low country where the ground is bare to climb upon the plateaus and benches into a foot of snow. It is not uncommon to see a band of elk making a trail through tour feet of snow, taking turn about breaking trail. They will live all winter in this deep snow and will paw out great patches, backing the snow up around them and making it look as though they were penned up in a big eorral with a great white fence abound it They are fine rustlers and are busy most of their time pawing the snow down trying to find a bunch of grass. ' The calves suffer the most from the long, cold winter and lack of feed, due to the deep snows, but there is not a very large percentage that die, probably about 10 per cent. They usually meet their fate in March, Which is the month the cow starts to wean her calf, which at that time is very weak and thin and in bad condition to rustle for Itself. The large herds of elk start to leave the high mountain meadows of the Yellowstone Park, where the snow

gets from four to twenty feet deep, for their winter range the latter part of November. The game is very constant in the uses of trails and runs. Each' season they go out from their summer range by the very same trails and passes en route to their winter home. The pass used in their exit from the park is about a mile from the Aspen Hunting Cabin, on Buffalo Flat, north of Yellowstone Park, and the trail they travel over is a quarter of a mile above the same lodge. During this exodus of elk every morning about the time the sun’s first rays of light can be seen radiating in the gray east, on the sky line will be observed vast numbers of moving objects which will be made out to be elk. Five thousand were estimated to have passed along the trail above the cabin in four days. The cotrs and calves outnumbered the bulls about five to one. Very few old bulls were noticed, probably because a large percentage of them stay upon Hell-Roar-ing Creek. The elk are a nomadic animal and very unlike the deer, seeming to have no particular country or home and are more or less on the move most of the time. Last fall while hunting with a party on a small creek, a branch of Slough Creek, we came upon a large bull in the woods, and one of the party came near shooting him when it was noticed that the elk only had one perfect horn. The other antler was a freak which stuck out from his head like a huge club (not unlike the pictures of Teddy’s big stick) and had one small point on it. Later we saw this same bull with the freak head on Palmer Creek, some 50 miles from where we bad seen him a month previously. Thlß old bull was finally killed twenty miles down the Yellowstone River. At the rate the elk are increasing in this section of Montana and the Yellowstone Park, it is becoming a problem to the state of how to take care of the rapidly multiplying herds.

There is plenty of summer range up in the great meadow and valleys of the park, but the snow is too deep for them to stay all winter, so they must come down to, the lower country. Several large bands of domestic sheep have been grazed up to - the very boundary of the park, although the supervisor of the Forest Reserve has promised to keep the sheep back five miles from the park line, but he failed to do it This drives the elk down the Yellowstone Valley. In the last three years great herds of elk have swept down this valley, tearing down fences, eating up the ranchers’ hay stacks and in fact eating everything in the line of feed, making the country look as if a bunch of Kansas grasshoppers had suddenly swept down the country. This winter (1910-11) the elk are twenty-five miles down In the ranch country. It Is needless to say they woq’t all of them get to see the beautiful scenery of the great Yellowstone Park again. The superintendent of the Yellowstone park and chief scout, Mr. McBride, are taking good care of the park antelope, mountain sheep, deer and a small part of the elk. It Is impossible to feed 50,000 elk, which is the number in the park, according to the last census.

About 100 tons of hay are fed to the game every year. This is put up by the government. It is alfalfa hay and is grown in the park on an 80-acre flat in front of the town of Gardiner. There are from 400 to 2,000 elk fed on the flat. The number varies as there is no fence to retain the animals and the game comes and goes at will. If the storm is severe the flat is covered with game; when the weather is mild the feed ground is clear of game. The antelope that are fed number about 200. The other 200 go down the river, which is their natural range. The scouts and soldiers try to drive them back, hut it is a difficult task. The prettiest sight of all is to see the 60 mountain sheep around the feed racks in the Gardiner Canon. Anyone who has spent all day climbing to the top of some high mountain, thinking he has been very careful to keep under cover and out of sigh't of a band of mountain sheep,.to find the quarry has disappeared, knows how wary the big horn is. But it is different here. The big 16-inch ram which is so hard to get close to in the wilds will come up and almost eat out of your hand. At least, he cornea near enough to get a good picture.

A BUNCH OF MOUNTAIN SHEEP

A MONARCH