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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
GRAND CANYON
Grand Canyon National Park is laid out like most of the Southwest national monuments; that is, a boundary line drawn about the object of interest, the canyon, without regard for faunal requirements. While it is true that the canyon itself is the main attraction of the park, it is also true that nowhere else in the Southwest is there such a varied and interesting intergradation and division of faunal types. Each year the interest in the faunal story of the canyon region is growing. Back of the present status of wild life at the canyon stretches the paleontological story into the distant past. It is this great panorama of the development and adaptation of life as depicted in the canyon which gives it its meaning. We can not think of the canyon as one thing and its meaning as another. They are inseparably and integrally one experience. There is no break between the life of to-day and the primitive life which first left its imprint in the rocks of the canyon. The wild life of to-day is the most vivid part of that story; without it the rest would be colorless and lacking in both significance and reality. It is absolutely essential to the significance of the canyon that its native life be preserved. This means that the park must be made adequate for wild-life requirements.
The greatest danger to the park fauna is along the south boundary. In many places the boundary comes to the very rim of the canyon, so that grazing and lumbering are immediately adjacent to the canyon itself. This rim country is essential as summer range for park animals. To some extent the Grand Canyon situation is the exact reverse of that which obtains in the mountain-top parks of the Northwest: In winter certain animals withdraw into the park; in summer they move out of the park. The territory immediately south of the park has been so severely overgrazed in the past that for miles at a stretch there is almost no forest reproduction, and deer forage has been practically destroyed. This is an arid region which recovers so slowly that it will take many years, even under absolute protection, to recover and again be a suitable faunal habitat. This region should be added to the park to protect its wild life.
The ideal Grand Canyon unit would include the Coconino Plateau and a portion of the grasslands southwest of the present park. That would provide suitable antelope range and include a faunal unit cut off from adverse influences by the desert lying between the Coconino Plateau and the San Francisco Mountains. At present this is impossible of accomplishment, and, therefore, the minimum faunal requirements must be met instead. This would require moving the south boundary back to a line at least 10 miles from the canyon rim at every point. All grazing should then be prohibited in this area to allow it to recover, and deer should not be encouraged.
It would seem inadvisable to extend the north boundary at this time because of the complications on the Kaibab Plateau. Due to the present policy of total protection for all predators in the Kaibab forest and the attempt to restore the range, there is no adverse influence threatening from that side.
FIGURE 42. – Mule deer wintering on this point have
browsed the cliff rose (Cowania mexicana)
until it presents an
excellent example of an abused range, a fringe of the Kaibab Plateau
deer problem. Note browse line on cliff rose at far right.
Photograph
taken June 1, 1930, at Point Sublime on the north rim of the Grand
Canyon.
Wild Life Survey No. 1128
Predatory-animal control has been recently discontinued. There is, therefore, nothing to be said about coyotes, wild cats, and mountain lions until sufficient time has elapsed to form judgment concerning these animals and their effects.
Within the last few years over 1,200 feral burros have been removed from the canyon. Until the vegetation recovers somewhat from the depleted condition which they caused, not much can be said about the animal life of the canyon. Perhaps the mountain sheep will increase as their range improves. They are still scarce.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN MULE DEER (Odocoileus hemionus). – The deer on the north rim of the canyon have been affected by the same causes which resulted in the superabundance of Kaibab deer. While forage conditions within the park are much better than they are on the Kaibab Plateau as a whole, it is evident that there are still too many deer for the range. This statement is made exclusive of the few denuded points along the north rim, which probably are local winter retreats and might be overgrazed any winter if a few deer were forced to remain on such points. But considering a large area such as Powell Plateau, where the "high-water" line shows overgrazing as severely as at any point on the Kaibab, it becomes evident that the range needs special protection until it recovers. Probably the open season each year on the Kaibab Plateau will drain enough deer from the canyon region to relieve this situation.
Deer on the south rim have always been scarce because of lack of forage and water. The south-rim country is essentially a desert country in which the larger forms of wild life are never abundant as they are in more favored regions. It would never be natural to see large herds of game along the south rim. To transplant large numbers of deer or other animals from the Kaibab to the south side of the canyon would be to invite disaster. Even if sufficient water holes were artificially formed, the sparse vegetation would never support many deer, and the south-rim range is already subnormal. Beyond that, it would be destroying all of the significance of the canyon as a natural barrier between related forms of animal life. The significance of wild life on the south rim is that it is in a rigorous niche of nature where only the forms of animal life which could adapt to a desert region are to be found. It is normal in such a region to find few deer, many rodents, coyotes, wildcats, and mountain lions. There would be no point to any move which tended to change this harsh desert life to the sylvan type of forested Kaibab. Every effort should be made to keep these two regions as separate and distinct as they were when white man first found them. Even the bridges at the bottom of the canyon should be guarded in some way to prevent the faunas of the two regions from mingling.
AMERICAN PRONGHORN (Antilocapra americana americana). – The introduction of antelope into the canyon, at Indian Gardens, is still in the experimental stage. Its outcome will be awaited with interest. Whether the antelope will be able to adapt to the confined quarters of the narrow plateau down in the canyon is a question. The antelope is a plains form of animal, dependent upon flight to escape its enemies. This would not be possible in the canyon; hence it would be at the mercy of predators. It would be undesirable if the antelope should successfully increase and spread in the canyon, because where forage is scarce the competition becomes keen even between animals of diverse food habits, such as sheep and antelope. Mountain sheep belong in the canyon and are adapted to it. It would, therefore, be preferable if no alien member were introduced into the canyon, thereby giving the native animal life full benefit of all available range. So long as the antelope of Indian Gardens remain in their present status, they are no menace to other forms of canyon life, but neither do they measure up to the Park Service aim of presenting animal life in its natural habitat.
MERRIAM TURKEY (Meleagris gallopavo merriami). – Wild turkeys were at one time abundant in the San Francisco Mountains region, and are still present in reduced numbers. Whether they ever crossed the intervening desert to the Grand Canyon region is not recorded, to our knowledge. According to Mr. Edward Hamilton, who has lived near the Grand Canyon for more than 40 years, turkeys were never found along the south rim. There is an abundance of food and yellow pine, but a lack of water. If it could be found that they ever existed along the south rim, their reintroduction would add greatly to the interest of the Grand Canyon forest.
SOUTHWEST PARKS
Bryce Canyon | Carlsbad Caverns | Grand Canyon | Mesa Verde | Zion Canyon
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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