Page 190 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

I<i8 OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE
HUNGRY ELK IN JACKSON HOLE. WYOMING
Part of a Herd of About 2,503 Head, being fed on hay, in the Winter of 1910-11
Note the Absence of Adult Bulls. Copyright, 1911, by S. N. Leek
herds now consist chiefly of cows, calves, yearHngs and young bulls with small antlers. In one photograph showing about twenty-five hundred elk, there are not visible even half a dozen pairs of antlers that belong to adult bulls. There should be a hundred! This condition means that the best bulls, with the finest heads, are constantly being ::elected and killed by sportsmen and others who want their heads; and the young, imma- ture bulls are left to do the breeding that alone will sustain the species.
It is a well-known principle in stock-breeding that sires should be fully adult, of maximum strength, and in the prime of life. No stock- breeder in his senses ever thinks of breeding from a youthful, immature sire. The result would be weak offspring not up to the standard.
This inexorable law of inheritance and transmission is just as much a law for the elk, moose and deer of North America as it is for domestic cattle and horses. If the present conditions in the Wyoming elk herds continue to prevail for several generations, as sure as time goes on we shall see a marked deterioration in the size and antlers of the elk.
If the foundation principles of stock-breeding are correct, then it is im- possible to maintain any large-mammal species at its zenith of size, strength and virility by continuous breeding of the young and imma- ture males. By some sportsmen it is believed that through long-con- tinued killing of the finest and largest males, the red deer of Europe have been growing smaller; but on that point I am not prepared to offer evidence.