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Fauna Series No. 1
Methods
Fauna of the National Parks
of the United States
CONSPECTUS OF WILD-LIFE PROBLEMS OF EACH PARK
SEQUOIA AND GENERAL GRANT
There is no better commentary on the faunal changes wrought by man in and around our parks than the following quotation from Judge Walter Fry's A Twenty-five Year Survey of the Animals of Sequoia National Park–1906-1931.
"Bear and deer have increased at least 60 per cent. Mountain and valley coyotes, skunks, weasels, porcupines, pikas, rats, mice, gophers, moles, shrews, mountain beavers, and bats have held their own. Mountain lions, lynxes,30 fishers, martens, minks, foxes, raccoons, ring-tailed cats, marmots, squirrels, chipmunks, hares and rabbits (other than the California jack rabbit) have decreased about 40 per cent. Mountain sheep, wolverines, and badgers are verging on extinction. Four mountain sheep were reported seen by tourists on the western slope of Mount Whitney last year, and their tracks have been reported on Sugar Loaf Creek this year. Wolverine tracks have been reported on Kern River this year, while badgers have been noted at Willow Meadow. The last wolverines taken in the vicinity of the park, of which we have record, were the five trapped during the winter of 1924-25. Two were taken at Big Meadow, two at Mineral King and one at River Valley. Of the 5 taken, 4 were males and 1 female. They were all beautiful specimens and in fine condition. This trapping near the park boundaries has, of course, been responsible for diminishing the fur-bearing animals.
"Two native species – the gray wolf 31 and the California jack rabbit – have disappeared. The only gray wolf seen within the park since the time of its creation was one killed by Charlie Howard at Wolverton, September 25, 1908. Mr. Howard at the time was slaughtering beef for a troop of soldiers, and the wolf came up within 50 yards of his camp in broad daylight and was eating on some of the beef offal. It was a large male in fairly good condition but quite old, as evidenced by badly worn teeth. California plains jack rabbits have always inhabited sparingly a small area at Shepherd Cove and Ash Mountain within the park; but during the summer season of 1918, when poisoned grain was put out along the park boundary to kill ground squirrels, it not only killed the squirrels but the rabbits as well. None of the rabbits have been seen within the park since August 25th of that year.
"The opossum, an animal foreign to the region, has recently arrived in the park. These animals are one result of the drought of 1924, when the waters over their breeding grounds, some 15 miles west of the park, dried up. As the waters dried out, the opossums kept following up the Kaweah River into the mountain section, until they reached the park on September of that year. Quite a large colony of the animals is reported living at Camp Potwisha in the park. The opossums are descendants from stock imported from Missouri some 25 years ago and liberated a short distance east of Visalia.
"I have not listed the California grizzly bears in this report, because we have never considered them a resident of the park; although at very rare intervals individual animals have been reported within the park, and a few have been killed west of the park. From 1921 to 1922, a large bear seen at various times within the park was, undoubtedly, a grizzly. This is possibly the bear killed at Horse Corral by Jesse Agnew in 1922.
"So comparing the wild animals of Sequoia National Park for 1931 with those of the first survey of 1906, 25 years ago, we find the following changes:
"Of the 63 known species that inhabited the park in 1906, 2 have increased, 35 have held their own, 21 have been greatly reduced, 3 are verging on extinction, and 2 have disappeared. One animal has been added the opossum . . ."
It is obvious from the foregoing that the present park is insufficient to protect its wild life. It is less than 10 miles wide in the middle. There is not an acre of ground within the park which is not less than 10 miles from some portion of the boundary, and fully four-fifths of the park is within 5 miles of some portion of the boundary. It could not be expected that a preserve drafted in such fashion could maintain wilderness conditions. If the natural resources of the park are to be preserved unimpaired, the park area must be made adequate for its animal inhabitants. In the region about the park, mountain lions have been persistently hunted; the fur-bearers have been reduced by trapping; deer and game birds are hunted annually; the timber has been cut to the park boundary in some places; and the grazing of domestic stock has depleted the range. All these activities drain away the animal life and destroy the values for which the park was created. If Sequoia is to save a sample of the Sierra and Sierran life for all time, it should include the Kings River country immediately adjacent to the north, sufficient territory for deer winter range on the west, the Mineral King country on the south, and enough of the east side of the Sierra to provide for the few remaining mountain sheep and high-mountain fur-bearers. Especially is the Kings River country necessary, because it would provide the solid block of protected territory sufficient to maintain normal wild-life conditions. It is scenically tremendous, but is being ruined for both people and animals by overgrazing. On a 4-day pack trip through the Sugar Loaf Meadow and Deadman Canyon regions in 1930, there was not sufficient food, except in a few local areas, for a burro; it was necessary to pack grain. Deer and all other forms of wild life were scarce, and the cattlemen with whom we talked said that every form of life was getting scarcer each year.
Within the park, faunal problems are similar to those outlined for Yosemite, i. e., concentration of deer and bear in the centers of human habitation; the problem of trampling down the range by thousands of people; the restoration of the normal predator population; the restoration of the fur-bearers; the preservation of the rare game birds; the human and animal adjustment in so small an area; and the exclusion of exotics, such as the opossum.
No intensive faunal survey has ever been made in Sequoia, as has been done for Yosemite32 and Lassen.33 This should he undertaken before the original picture is too far gone to be restored.
30 Probably refers to Lynx rufus californicus.
31 We know of no timber-wolf specimens from this region, but Judge Fry's account of the wolf is respectfully submitted.
32 Animal Life in the Yosemite, by Grinnell, Joseph, and Storer, Tracy I. University of California Press, Berkeley, Calif., 1924.
33 Vertebrate Natural History of a section of Northern California Through the Lassen Peak Region, by Grinnell, Joseph, Dixon, Joseph, and Linsdale, Jean M. University of California Press, Berkeley, Calif., 1930.
PACIFIC COAST PARKS
Crater Lake | Lassen Volcanic | Mount Rainier | Sequoia and General Grant | Yosemite
PARKS
Southwest | Rocky Mountain | Pacific Coast | Eastern | Territorial
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Last Modified: Tues,
Feb 1 2000 07:08:48 pm PDT
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