Fauna Series No. 1 Cover Contents Foreword Approach Methods Analysis Conspectus Suggested Policy

Fauna of the National Parks of the United States FOREWORD This is the first of a series of reports dealing with the vertebrate fauna of the national parks to be prepared in the Branch of Education and Research of the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. In addition to treating of the vertebrate natural history of the parks still requiring basic surveys, the reports will cover research in one branch of the science that is the very foundation upon which the National Park Service is built, namely, the preservation of the native values of wilderness life. For it is this ideal above all else which differentiates this service from its sister services in government. The rescue of this prized heritage of the American people has created unique problems in road construction, landscape architecture, education, and administration, but in no field are the complications deeper and their solutions more obscure than in conservation of the wild-life resources. The parks' faunas have been extremely sensitive to the influences of civilization. The present paper details the conclusions of a general investigation of the vertebrate life of the national parks with emphasis on these human relationships. Acknowledgement is made to those who have fostered the preliminary survey. From its initiation, the project has been under the personal guidance of Director Horace M. Albright, of the National Park Service. Without his constant support and the ready help of his assistants, a survey of such comprehensive character would have been impossible. Since Assistant Director Harold C. Bryant assumed his post in 1980, he has greatly assisted the progress of the work. Senior Park Naturalist Ansel F. Hall facilitated the office organization in many ways. Dr. Carl P. Russell, field naturalist, was instrumental in the original conception of the idea and has both inspired and advised the survey all along the way. Dr. Joseph Grinnell and his coworkers in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, have graciously placed their facilities and advice at our disposal.

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