Mexican Wilderness and Wildlife 9781477303252

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Mexican Wilderness & Wildlife

BenTinker Foreword by A.Starker Leopold Illustrations by Doris L.Tischler University of Texas Press Austin

Mexican Wilderness & Wildlife

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Tinker, Ben, 1903Mexican wilderness and wildlife. 1. Natural history-Mexico. 2. Game and game b i r d s Mexico. 3. Mexico-Description and travel. I. Title. QH107.T56

500.9'72

77-14030

ISBN 0-292-75037-4

Copyright © 1978 by the University of Texas Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America

To the S.H.J. & V.M.T.

THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK

Contents

Foreword

xi

1. Past Records

3

2. First Protection of Vanishing Wildlife

5

3. Big Game and Major Predatory Animals

12

4. Life Zones

19

5. Natural Game Foods

24

6. Life Sketches of Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

30

Desert Bighorn Sheep, Ovis canadensis

30

Pronghorn Antelope, Antilocapra americana

47

Mule Deer, Odocoileus hemionus

53

Whitetail Deer, Odocoileus virginianus

62

Collared Peccary, Dicotyles tajacu

70

Bear: Grizzly, Ursus arctos; Black, Ursus americanus

72

Wild Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo

80

7. Life Sketches of Major Predatory Animals

87

Jaguar, Felis onca

87

Mountain Lion, Felis concolor

90

Timber Wolf, Canis lupus

96

Coyote, Canis latrans

99

Bobcat, Lynx rufus 8. Desert Water

102 104

9. Trout Fishing

113

Sierra Madre Occidental

113

Baja California

114

10. Antiguas

118

11. Ammonites

122

12. Guide to Big Game Habitats and Wilderness

124

Tables

1. Natural Game Foods

27

2. Desert Bighorn Sheep

40

Ovis canadensis gaillardi (Mearns)-Altar Desert, Sonora 3. Desert Bighorn Sheep

45

Ovis canadensis cremnobates (Elliot)-Baja California 4. Pronghorn Antelope

52

Antilocapra americana 5. Mule Deer

58

Odocoileus hemionus eremicus (Mearns)-Sonora and Baja California 6. Horn Measurements of Whitetail Deer

64

Odocoileus virginianus texanus and couesi-Sierra Madre Occidental and Contiguous Ranges, Desert Regions of Sonora 7. Body Measurements of Whitetail Deer

69

Odocoileus virginianus couesi -Sierra Picu, Altar Desert, Sonora, and Sierra Madre Occidental, Sonora 8. Bears

75

Grizzly, Ursus arctos, and Black, Ursus americanus 9. Jaguar

90

Felis onca 10. Mountain Lion Felis concolor-Sierra Madre and Contiguous Ranges

93

MAPS

1. Sierra Madres

16

2. Baja California

20

3. Altar Desert

36

4. Road Map of Mexico

126

Foreword

Although the Spanish conquistadores overran Mexico in the early 1500's, parts of the country remained essentially unchanged and unknown until the early 1900's, four centuries later. One of the last frontiers was the Sierra Madre along the Chihuahua-Sonora border and the adjoining foothills and deserts of northern Mexico. Ben Tinker, author of this volume, was one of the fortunate few to settle in this wilderness and to understand and appreciate its pristine beauty before the era of the logging truck and the whitefaced cow. He recounts here his tremendous personal knowledge of the animals of Mexico and a lifetime spent hunting and observing them. In one of the early chapters of the book, Mr. Tinker summarizes his unusual and challenging experiences as Game Guardian of Sonora. Appointed by President Obregón in 1923, with salary derived from the Permanent Wildlife Protection Fund of New York, he brought his boyhood knowledge of the deserts and mountains to bear on this crucial conservation assignment in northern Mexico. Largely through his efforts, a breeding nucleus of antelope and bighorn sheep was preserved throughout their native habitats. Later Mr. Tinker went back to ranching in the rough mountain breaks of the upper Yaqui basin in southeastern Sonora. There he has continued to enrich his life through repeated and varied contacts with the wildlife of Mexico. Moreover, as a prominent rancher and a friend of the Indian population, he has exerted a strong conservation influence, with the result that wild animals have persisted there in numbers and variety no longer found elsewhere. The grizzly bear, for example, has disappeared throughout the southwestern United States and northern Mexico except in the area comprising the headwaters of the Río Yaqui, where a remnant still exists. Deer, turkeys, wolves, mountain lions, and black bears likewise thrive there. In the mid-1940's I personally was involved in a survey of the wildlife of Mexico. Most unfortunately, I did not meet Ben Tinker during this period, for he would have had much to contribute. In the last two or three years Mr. Tinker has demonstrated to my complete satisfaction that his knowledge of the wildlife of northern Mexico is far su-

xii

Foreword

perior to my own. I was unaware, for example, of the existence of whitetailed deer in parts of Baja California, but in recent weeks Mr. Tinker has brought to my office cast antlers of whitetails picked up in two localities in Baja California during a trip in August 1971. He likewise reported to me the existence of California condors in the rough breaks of the east slope of Sierra de San Pedro Mártir, a sighting which has subsequently been verified (1971) by a field party dispatched by Mr. Ed Harrison of Los Angeles. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, Mr. Tinker has convinced me by photographs and other evidence of the continued existence of grizzly bears in the upper breaks of the Río Yaqui. His personal knowledge of wildlife of Mexico richly deserves publication and general dissemination. A lifetime of outdoor lore is condensed in the present volume. As a professional conservationist, I welcome this contribution to our knowledge of the wildlife of Mexico. A. Starker Leopold California, November 1971

Mexican Wilderness & Wildlife

Knowest thou the time when the wild goats bring forth among the rocks or hast thou observed the hinds when they fawn? Hast thou numbered the months of their conceiving or knowest thou the time when they bring forth?-Job 39:1-2

1. Past Records

Historical records of Mexico's large game animals are few, and much valuable natural history observed by the conquistadores was only casually recorded as they fought for the treasures of Montezuma. Records of their journeys through pristine habitats of wildlife reveal little of the natural animal wealth of the country. Cortez mentions that deer and wild turkeys were numerous near the valley of Mexico in 1519. When he arrived, the Aztecs had domesticated turkeys from wild flocks, and he sent several pairs on ships returning to Spain. These turkeys were the first in Europe, and as they resembled guinea cocks imported from Turkey they were given their present name. The first record of North American antelope was also made by the Spanish conquerors in 1540 when they recorded a hunt for these animals by Antonio Mendoza, the first viceroy of Mexico. This expedition was staged in the state of Hidalgo, and the present railway station of Cazadero ("chase") derived its name from the event. Diego de Vargas, en route north to conquer tribes of Pueblo Indians, recorded deer and antelope in central and northern Mexico, but as he did not penetrate the mountainous regions there is no mention of wildlife which inhabited the sierras. During 1540 Francisco Vásquez de Coronado recorded mountain sheep in southern New Mexico but evidently bypassed others in northwestern Chihuahua, or at least he did not mention them. Two years later, Juan Cabrillo, the Portuguese explorer, reported numerous bands of pronghorn antelope in the valley of Santo Tomás and others on the playa Ensenada in Baja California. Chronicles of the mission padres record game animals of the Sonora and Baja California deserts. Padre Kino noted the antelope, deer, and mountain sheep inhabiting the Altar Desert during his journeys through Sonora in 1691. Padre Francisco María Piccolo observed the mountain sheep in Baja California during 1697, and in Paris during 1702 he published the first account of them. Padre Fernando Consag embarked on a voyage to explore the Colorado River delta in 1746; he reported numerous mountain sheep inhabiting sierras which border the Gulf of California on the peninsula's eastern slopes. This intrepid

4

Past Records

padre and another, Wenceslao Link, also explored northern Baja California during 1765 and recorded that both mountain sheep and mountain lions were numerous. An ancient Kaliwa Indian tradition tells of a pestilence within a few years after the padres' journeys which destroyed many of the mountain sheep. These padres also noted large bands of antelope in valleys near the Picos de Matomi. Antelope were numerous until 1902, when they were exterminated by miners working the newly discovered gold deposits of Arroyo de Miramar. During the latter years of the eighteenth century, Padre Francisco Xavier Clavijero explored Baja California from Cabo San Lucas to Misión San Borjas and rendered a report of wildlife which was probably the most comprehensive of its kind at that time. After this was published nearly a century passed before scientists exploring the peninsula included zoological life in their reports. During 1892 Dr. Gustav Eisen of the American Geographical Society and Dr. W. E. Bryant of the California Academy of Sciences reported on the wildlife of the Cape region. This report was augmented by Dr. Eisen in 1894 after he had surveyed all the terrain northward to Sierra de Calmalli. In 1903 Mr. Edmund Heller collected mammals at Sierra de San Pedro Mártir for the Field Columbian Museum. During 1905-06 Drs. E. W. Nelson and E. A. Goldman of the United States Biological Survey spent a year studying wildlife of the entire peninsula, and in later years they explored many other parts of Mexico. They blazed a trail in Mexico which American and European scientists have followed during recent times. Dr. Nelson contributed much interesting knowledge concerning the Mexican fauna in his book Wild Animals of North America. After the Madero revolution in 1910, economic conditions and years of civil strife throttled scientific studies of Mexico's wildlife. However, peace and education in recent years have promoted a wide interest in the subject among the Mexican people.

2. First Protection of Vanishing Wildlife

Previous to 1908 little was known about the sheep of the desert mountains or the pronghorn antelope of the surrounding plains and valleys of Baja California, northwestern Sonora, and northern Chihuahua. Only a few natives and American prospectors had ventured into these vast arid regions. During 1907, Mr. A. W. North made an extended pack and saddle trip in Baja California, however, and he briefly mentioned the mountain sheep in his book The Mother of California, published by Paul Elder and Company in 1908. Later he gave an interesting account of hunting the mountain sheep and pronghorn antelope of Baja California entitled Camp and Camino in Lower California (Baker and Taylor Company, 1910). However, these books did little to arouse the interest of naturalists and sportsmen in these regions or their wildlife. In the fall of 1908, Dr. W. T. Hornaday, Director of the New York Zoological Park, National Collection of Heads and Horns, and Chairman of the Permanent Wildlife Protection Fund, hunted both mountain sheep and pronghorn antelope in the Pinacate region of northwestern Sonora and detailed this in his book Camp Fires on Desert and Lava (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1908). This work attracted worldwide attention to these animals and their habitats in Mexico, and the horde of meat hunters and sportsmen that invaded Baja California, northwestern Sonora, and northern Chihuahua caused concern for the future of these animals. In this book he stated that "all the mountain sheep of Mexico should be protected forthwith. Without quick and effective protection all the mountain sheep of Mexico will disappear forever and it will take place so quickly that the world will be surprised by the news that it has taken place." In an issue of Nature Magazine dated October 1923, Dr. Hornaday stated: The mountain sheep and pronghorn antelope of Mexico were so fiercely beset by hunters that their speedy extinction seemed fixed and certain. The only question about it was: Which hunters

6

First Protection of Vanishing Wildlife are the most deadly-the American sportsmen or the Mexican meat hunters? Both elements were proving serious factors. Be it known that the mountain sheep of Mexico happen to be particularly interesting to zoologists and sportsmen. They represent the most southern outpost of genus Ovis in its march southward from the Asiatic-American crossing at Bering Strait. When Alfonso L. Herrera, Director of Government Biological Studies in Mexico, arrived in New York to discuss international wildlife protection with officials of the New York Zoological Society and the Permanent Wildlife Protection Fund, protection of the two vanishing species was advocated, and he departed for Mexico vowing to urge President Álvaro Obregón to close the season on mountain sheep and antelope throughout the entire Republic. Within a few months President Obregón signed decrees granting an absolute closed season on both animals and penalties for infraction of these laws were prescribed. The Mexican Government's coup to prevent their extinction was hailed by naturalists and true sportsmen all over the world. The trustees of the Permanent Fund awarded President Obregón and Director Herrera its gold medal "For distinguished service to North American Wildlife." The answer was clear. It was the duty of the Permanent Wildlife Protection Fund to show its faith by some works. The Government of Mexico had many irons in the fire in setting the nation's affairs in order after years of grave disturbances, and funds were not available to finance wildlife protection. Nothing but live men could enforce the decrees. This man was found and a plan worked out to assist Mexico in its first steps toward preservation of the Republic's fauna. Mr. Ben Tinker, an American cattle rancher of Sonora, was unanimously recommended by President Obregón, Mr. Madison Grant, President of the New York Zoological Society, the Boone and Crockett Club, and the trustees of the Permanent Wildlife Protection Fund. He knows every desert water hole, mountain range and every band of sheep and antelope in Mexico as no other living man knows them. He can pack, ride and shoot, is a good mixer, and makes no enemies unnecessarily. Consequently, on October 1, 1923, the Government of Mexico appointed Mr. Tinker Game Guardian for the enforcement of the protection, and he was clothed with authority to arrest violators and deliver

First Protection of Vanishing Wildlife

7

them to the nearest Mexican court of justice and also to call on civil officers for all needed assistance. The Permanent Fund paid him and his assistants. The appointment of an American to protect the big game of Mexico was published throughout the United States and other countries through the Associated Press, and the far-reaching "rawhide telegraph" quickly spread the word in the back country. The program of game protection was undertaken and continued until the Mexican government was able to assume financially the work sponsored by the Permanent Fund. When the program was taken over by the Republic's reorganized Departamento de Forestal y de Caza, Mr. Hornaday (Chairman, Board of Trustees), in his final report (1926) to the Permanent Fund, stated: "It is now a great satisfaction to report that Mr. Tinker's work has been completed in Mexico. The protection has been thorough, effective and satisfactory and he is to be congratulated by the Permanent Fund and the People of Mexico." My field of operations in Mexico comprised vast deserts in Sonora and Baja California, sparsely settled with a few small pueblos and ranches which fringe a hinterland, little known and void of humans, with few permanent water holes and small springs scattered over a wide area. It is a land piled with desert sierras, great sand dunes, and lonely valleys where dim overgrown trails marked by broken pottery lead to ruined wickiups haunted by ghosts of ancient Indian hunters-Papago, Seri, Kaliwa, and Cocupa. It is dotted with graves of prospectors and gold seekers who perished from thirst en route to California in '49 over the dreaded Camino del Diablo; bones of others are uncovered when desert winds shift the mountainous dunes south of Río Colorado and along the Sea of Cortez. In Mexico, where there had been no previous regulations or protection of game, it was remarkable how few violations were committed by native hunters who had killed for meat like their forefathers, and several caught hunting illegally were genuinely ignorant of the game protection laws. The following incidents, which were included in my monthly reports to the Permanent Wildlife Protection Fund and to the government of Mexico, may be of interest to the reader. For instance, my assistants and I were benighted in a driving winter

8

First Protection of Vanishing Wildlife

rainstorm on the Lechugulla desert and hastily unsaddled under the protecting shoulder of a mountain. We were elated at finding a level spot in the dark, and we crawled into canvas-covered bedrolls to awaken at daylight snugly bedded down between graves of desert wayfarers buried below the steep canyon where the waters of Tinajas Altas lie hidden. On another occasion we were sitting around a smouldering campfire above Tinaja de Los Papagos. As twilight faded, the Papago horse wrangler cupped his ear and nodded. "A horseman rides this way." Counting the hoofbeats as the rider approached, and momentarily expecting his appearance as the slap of grease-wood on his chaps was audible, we tossed wood on the fire and arose to greet him. As the fire flared up, the rider wheeled his mount and retreating hoofbeats drifted away. The wrangler grunted and went to bed. A month later we rounded the point of Sierra Blanca, heading across the wide valley eastward. Ahead the wrangler scanned old horse tracks crossing the trail and picked u p an empty canvas money bag stamped "Banco De Sonora-Nogales, Son." At Quitovac the Papagos related how a solitary bandit of the Altar Desert, called Ojos Negros, had robbed a ranchero of several thousand pesos. He evidently had been heading for the water where we were camped and a spree in far-off Mexicali, when he saw our flaring camp fire. The trial of a popular ranchero for killing an antelope was convening in a sleepy little pueblo in Sonora. Judge Quiroz, arriving with his span of mules and a spring wagon loaded with barley hay and two goats, halted opposite a window in the room next to the court and nodded tersely to the spurred vaqueros, who hitched their horses and came in casting baneful glances at me. The court was in a long adobe building fronting the short main street. In the room adjoining, a kerosene lamp flickered to the rhythm of an early-morning argument between man and wife. The defendant entered and, winking at the vaqueros, gave me a friendly grin. Questions by the judge were inaudible in the rising tempo next door. His attempts to silence the lady's voice were followed by a crash, the lamp hurtling through the window and into the load of hay and goats. The mules cast off their mooring when the load burst into flames and hightailed it down the street followed by the vaqueros and the defendant, leaving the court occupied only by the judge and myself with the sack of smelly evidence. Judge Quiroz shrugged his shoulders and, stroking his long mustachio, rendered the judgment of a caliph. "I know those mules, it will take some time to catch them. I, therefore, fine Ramon 50 pesos

First Protection of Vanishing Wildlife

9

and take the meat to pay for my hay. If the goats and wagon are damaged, the fine will be 100 pesos. Bueno, Señor?" Shortly after this, another meat hunter was arrested and taken to a small railway station for transportation to Hermosillo and trial. The underpinning of the frame station and section house adjoining was open, exposing an accumulation of trash and dry tumbleweeds. It being Sunday morning, the section crew sat around the yard smoking and playing with their cat. While the prisoner and I awaited the late train, one of them tied a piece of paper to the cat's tail, lighting it with his cigarette. The cat ran under the station, setting it afire. In the scramble to empty water barrels, the unguarded prisoner, pretending to help fight the fire, escaped to the nearby monte and greeted me several years later in Guaymas. The tour of duty frequently brought me near Tiburón Island, which at that time was inhabited by Seri Indians, who were noted warriors, hunters of big game, and reputed cannibals. During the early years of 1900, several parties of American scientists and explorers ventured to the island and disappeared. These facts and others caused natives of the Altar Desert to fear these Indians, who recognized no government but their own and taught their children to worship the ponderous sea turtle and fluttering pelican instead of the Deity endorsed by the church. The Seris are adventurous seamen and in bygone days paddled their crude balsas (cane rafts) across Mar de Cortez to Guardian Angel Island and far u p the coast to fish and hunt along the shores of Sonora and Baja California. Late autumn veils their island with a smoky haze, lending it an appearance of mystery that beckons exploration. We had often surveyed it from a safe distance, but since we had no boat and were never certain that the Seris were absent, the chance to reach it was remote until one morning, when we found a sizable cane raft with paddles hidden in a fringe of mesquite trees where Arroyo de San Ignacio dents the shoreline. The island's east side appeared deserted. We were reluctant to meet savages with a hostile reputation, and with the reversed idea of hoping to find our hosts gone, we watched three days for smoke or other signs. When none appeared we shoved off at low tide and reached the island. Old footprints and no signs of life "bucked u p " our courage, and we followed a trail leading to a group of brush huts in a nearby canyon. The silence of midday in the desert hung over the deserted village. We looked into the huts: they were empty, dark, and smelly.

10 First Protection of Vanishing Wildlife Hastening from one to another we reached the last and were peering inside when a dim figure arose and hobbled toward us with outstretched hands. The cook cocked his rifle, and, as we backed away, the figure reached the doorway and an old woman staggered outside. Hair the color of bleached seaweed hung over a face of mottled parchment, and her sightless eyes searched for our whereabouts. I had an urge to be gone, and apparently the cook agreed as he thrust our lunch into her hands and we hastened silently to the balsa. "What's all yer hurry, nuthin' but a blind οl' woman tha' was sleepin' in a pile o' fish nets." "How about you?" I inquired. "Yep, let's git a-goin'!" Early the next fall we were camped near Tiburón Island. The Seri Indian camps at Pozo Coyote and on the island were deserted. These natives live on game and fish, and anticipated difficulties faded when we found the beach deserted and surmised that they were u p the coast fishing. "It's too damned good ta last." The cook flashed one of his rare smiles, whittled a fresh quid of Star "chawin" tobacco, and continued. "A heap o' mule deer in tha' chaparral, shore hungry fer fresh venison, mighty hard ta wait til the season opens, trigger finger gits itchy with fat bucks standin' nigh." He looked at me significantly. "Cain't ya make a longpasear over ta Sombrero Peak, leavin' me and tha' Injun ta figger it out?" After eyeing the wrangler's stolid face, he shifted the matter with a shrug, hinting further. "A passei o' antelope and mountain sheep off ta the south." During our afternoon siesta, a rifle blast echoed from the nearby sierra. Before the horses were caught up and saddled, a vaquero rode into camp carrying the carcass of a young mountain sheep behind his saddle and offered to share the meat. He was ignorant of the laws and, after explanations, willingly handed over his kill, telling me his name and that he had a ranch at La Gloria. After further questioning, he agreed to meet me at the court in Caborca the following day to explain the situation to the judge. The cook wrapped the illegal sheep with gunny sacks and hung it in the shade. Leaving the cook and wrangler at camp, I took the sacked evidence to town and found the ranchero waiting with the local judge, who after a lecture released him. The judge took the meat home, informing me the next morning that a hindquarter was miss-

First Protection of Vanishing Wildlife 11 ing. He being willing to overlook this technicality, and thinking of the cook's conversation, I ventured no opinion and, returning to camp, said nothing. I knew that the cook, if guilty, would finally give out his secret while trying to find out if the shortage was discovered before I left town. Months later he gave me the answer: 'That yearlin's hindquarter was shore good." As I generally packed into their country from Sierra Madre del Norte, the Seris frequently missed my trail. I was not discovered until one season a dozen of their hunters found my camp south of Puerto Libertad. After a feast of canned fruit, they camped nearby and we spent an uneasy night, to arise before daylight and find them gone. In order to carry on effectively, we bypassed towns and ranches unless restocking of provisions or other matters compelled us to visit them. Nearing a mining town in Baja California that had telephone connections, I went in to place a long distance call to the federal district. Immediately upon entering we were seized by the captain of a small military detachment and hustled off to jail as he refused to honor the first credentials presented, signed by the governor of the northern district. In the meantime a band of armed citizens gathered around, assuming a menacing attitude to support the captain, who quickly released us with numerous apologies when personal papers signed by the president were produced. My phone conversation with the Secretaría de Agricultura y Fomento helped to further alter the captain's opinion, and he staged a gran baile in our honor. We ushered in the dawn with countless drinks, which left us a bit hazy but helped level out the mountainous desert ahead. After the Permanent Wildlife Protection Fund returned their operations to the Mexican government, the laws on bighorn hunting over the entire Republic were strictly enforced by the government. At present there is a quota system including a drawing to determine who gets permits to hunt bighorn in Baja California. A limited number of permits are issued annually which allow each hunter to kill one mature male (ram) animal. The hunting is strictly supervised by game wardens in each locality where hunting is permitted. Females and their young are rigidly protected. Today the outlook for the survival and increase in the bighorn population in Mexico is good.

3. Big Game and Major Predatory Animals

The maximum of utility and natural beauty is found in Mexico's forested sierras, tropics, and deserts that comprise the environment for her wildlife. Originally the Republic of Mexico was endowed with a wealth of wildlife, but this vast resource has been seriously depleted since the revolution of 1910. Previous to this event, firearms were restricted to the military and upper classes. Game animals were plentiful in many parts of the Republic, and foreigners engaged in mining, lumbering, and railroad construction found a hunter's paradise. When the revolution closed these industries, towns and camps were deserted and there was little or no hunting for over a decade until a stabilized government was established which gave the civil population the right to possess guns. This enabled thousands to hunt for a pastime, and dwellers in the hinterlands to hunt for meat. Mexicans are a hardy, resourceful race. Many, by choice, abide in or near the wilderness with herds of half-wild cattle and fields of corn. Others wring gold from the streams, brew fiery mescal, and trap. They are hunters for meat, living a life free from modern shackles-if man is ever free. During the past twenty years passable roads have been built which border many of these wildlife habitats. Easy access has increased hunting by foreigners in automobiles and by the native population. Likewise, the cutting of forests and grazing of the rangelands have naturally altered the landscape. All of these changes have taken a toll of wildlife. Game animals formerly common in many regions have decreased and are not plentiful in mountainous sections that a few years ago could only be reached by pack and saddle. The central and southern states of Mexico have been heavily populated for centuries by Indian tribes that depended mostly on game for meat. Wildlife, therefore, cannot be plentiful where man has existed in great numbers, hence the naturalist and sportsman will find a better field in the isolated parts of the northern states. Various sections of the Republic's wilderness have been extensively visited over a long period of time, but this outline does not imply that all of its vast game ranges have been traversed by the writer. Accurate

Big Game and Major Predatory Animals

13

information must be obtained by actual experience and correct observation; secondhand knowledge is generally unreliable. "Experts" are often only good reporters with limited personal observations. Wildlife in Mexico inhabits a wide and varied terrain. To know even a fraction of the habits and habitats of these animals would require more than a lifetime in the wilderness. During my years as a sportsman and later as Game Guardian, I had unlimited time to live in many desert wilderness regions of northern Chihuahua and the great Altar Desert in Sonora. This presented the golden opportunity to observe wildlife and flora. There I became acquainted with José Juan and Antonio López. Both were rated famous hunters among the desert Papago Indians. They told me the legend of "The Valley of the Lost," related in chapter 6, pages 41-42. The same opportunity came while cattle ranching in the Sierra Madres of Chihuahua and Sonora, where I explored the vast forests of pine and oak, lingering for days to fish the numerous trout streams. The ranch cook was my companion, and after two months of being alone all day in camp, he would remark when I left at dawn, "Trout, trout, we got a heap, what are ya doin' taday?" I replied that I was looking for "the hidden spirit of the wilderness." Then he would shift his "chawin" and point at the canyons and say, "This camp is plumb full o' hush. Find it pronto and let's git back ta the ranch." On other long trips in the Sierras of Coahuila and Durango we had four or six pack animals. This required a packer, and he stayed in camp giving the cook a target for his salty remarks and conversation. Three subspecies of desert mountain sheep inhabit the Republic: Ovis canadensis mexicana (Merriam), Ovis canadensis gaillardi (Mearns), and Ovis canadensis cremnobates (Elliot). At present they inhabit parts of their original ranges in Chihuahua, Sonora, and Baja California respectively. Mexico's mountain sheep are the southernmost representatives of the genus Ovis in the world, migrating eons ago from bleak highlands of Asia into a land of sun and lava. The race mexicana was the first to be classified by zoologists. During 1899 Dr. E. W. Nelson collected eight specimens from their habitat in northern Chihuahua, and Dr. C. Hart Merriam described the animal as a new species. The other two races in Sonora and Baja California were described in later years by other naturalists whose names they bear. All bighorns are now recognized as races or subspecies of the species Ovis canadensis. During 1908 the book Camp Fires on Desert and Lava was written by the late Dr. W. T. Hornaday and served to focus attention of sportsmen on the mountain sheep in Mexico, resulting in near extinction

14 Big Game and Major Predatory Animals of the bands which inhabited northwestern Chihuahua, Sonora, and Baja California. Through the efforts of Madison Grant and Dr. Hornaday of the New York Zoological Society, and Dr. A. L. Herrera of the Mexican National Museum, a permanent closed season throughout Mexico on both mountain sheep and antelope was enacted during 1922 by proclamation of President Álvaro Obregón, who appointed the writer Federal Game Guardian to enforce the decree. One species of pronghorn antelope, Antilocapra americana, is sparsely distributed in regions of Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, and Coahuila. The wapiti, Cervus canadensis, was not a native big game animal of Mexico. Suitable habitats were located in the states of Coahuila and Nuevo León, and during a period of years from 1941 to 1956 several herds were brought in from Oklahoma and Montana. These were protected by law but only a few survived due to illegal hunting. One species of mule deer, Odocoileus hemionus, occupies part of its former habitat in Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, Sonora, and Baja California. A species of whitetail deer, Odocoileus couesi, is distributed throughout the Republic, where it inhabits regions forested with pine and oak, tropical evergreen forests, and desert mountains. Two species of peccaries, Dicotyles angulatus and Dicotyles pecari, are widely distributed southward to Central America. The former species predominates throughout the Republic and the latter occupies limited areas from southern Veracruz through the peninsula of Yucatán. Two species of bears are represented: black bear, Ursus americanus, and grizzly, Ursus arctos. Black bears inhabit extensive regions throughout the forested sierras in Chihuahua, Coahuila, Sonora, Durango, Zacatecas, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas. Grizzly bears, which once ranged south through the Sierra Madre Occidental from northern Sonora and Chihuahua to Durango, and also inhabited forested mountains in Coahuila, now inhabit isolated regions that comprise the headwaters of Río Yaqui in Sonora and Sierra del Nido in western Chihuahua. Wild turkeys are distinctly a game bird of Mexico. They originated in the Republic, and the mountain species, Meleagris gallopavo, occupies wilderness regions of Sierra Madre Occidental and other forested mountains on the west coast through the states of Sonora and Chihuahua to central Michoacán. Their present habitats in eastern Mexico extend from forested mountains in northern Coahuila, and in Sierra Madre Oriental from southern Nuevo León, through Tamau-

Big Game and Major Predatory Animals 15 lipas and San Luis Potosí. The other species, Agriocharis ocellata, inhabits tropical forests in Yucatán, Campeche, and Quintana Roo. The jaguar, Felis onca, inhabits the west coast from the foothills of Sierra Madre Occidental in northern Sonora, southward through tropical forests that border the Pacific coast in Central America. It also occupies coastal regions along the Gulf of Mexico from northern Tamaulipas through the peninsula of Yucatán. The mountain lion, Felis concolor, ranges through most of Mexico and South America. Its habitat extends through the Sierras and their foothills southward through tropical forests to the border of Central America. It also inhabits the forested slopes of Sierra de San Pedro Mártir in northern Baja California and other habitats in desert mountains on the peninsula and in southwestern Sonora. One species of the timber wolf, Canis lupus; the coyote, Canis latrans; and the bobcat, Lynx rufus, inhabit many areas occupied by big game animals. They are included in this book for that reason and because they are of general interest to sportsmen, naturalists, and others interested in wildlife. The section on wild turkeys is included because these game birds also inhabit several regions occupied by big game animals. Jaguars and mountain lions are major predatory animals but are classified as big game animals and listed by Prentiss N. Gray in Records of North American Big Game (John P. Holman, ed.; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1939). Ocelots, tiger cats (margay), and jaguarundi cats are not common throughout the tropical areas occupied by big game animals along the coasts of Mexico and are not listed in Records of North American Big Game. Brocket deer, Mazama americana and Mamma gouazoubira (which

may prove to be a single species), range through the tropical evergreen forests along the east coast in Tamaulipas, Veracruz, and southern Yucatán, where they inhabit the domain of the whitetail deer. These deer have short spikelike antlers and are smaller than the whitetail. Their habits are similar. They are not numerous throughout their range in the three states mentioned. The largest numbers occur in southern Yucatán and farther south in Central America and northern South America. They are not listed in Records of North American

Big Game.

Tapirs inhabit limited tropical regions in the states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, and Yucatán but are not numerous enough to be of general interest. They are not included in Records of North American Big Game.

16 Big Game and Major Predatory Animals

MAP 1. Sierra Madres

Big Game and Major Predatory Animals 17

18 Big Game and Major Predatory Animals Mention is made of the numerous depredations on young game animals by golden eagles. They destroy young whitetail deer, wild turkeys, and antelope fawns on the plains near the foothills of the northern and central Sierras. Eagles have uncanny eyesight and coast in currents of upper air until the moment arrives to strike. Then with folded wings they plummet down, striking the small animal to earth, ripping with beak and claws at the eyes, throat, and belly of the victim. We saw an eagle kill a fawn in this manner while "topping out" on a bluff overlooking Río Sonora. Far below a whitetail doe and fawn were crossing an open glade when the eagle hurtled from its perch in a dead pine tree, killing the fawn while its mother fled. While driving a herd of cattle across the antelope country in northern Chihuahua during the springtime, we saw a lone doe and two fawns running toward a group of mesquite trees, pursued overhead by two eagles that were no match for their fleet prey. The deer gained cover while the eagles circled above until we frightened them away.

4. Life Zones

As the Sierra Madre ranges south from the border of New Mexico it rarely attains altitudes of over 9,000 feet until reaching the region of volcanoes far to the south, where it gains elevations above 12,000 feet. From here groups of highlands at lower elevations decline southward to the border of Central America. Traversing northern Mexico the mountains descend to desert regions of the Lower Sonoran zone and, in central and southern parts on both Atlantic and Pacific watersheds, to regions in this zone and the Tropical. The northern end of this continuous mountain chain is called Sierra Madre del Norte and Sierra Madre del Tarahumara; the central part, Sierra Madre de Nayarit; and its southern end, Sierra Madre del Sur. These collectively comprise the Sierra Madre Occidental. Other ranges eastward facing the Gulf of Mexico from Monterrey to Veracruz are designated as the Sierra Madre Oriental. Many smaller detached ranges flank the Sierra Madres east and west along their entire length. These are given local names in various districts and are included in the chapter on big game animals that inhabit the particular life zones. The "backbone" of mountains in Baja California commences with Sierra de Juárez and Sierra de San Pedro Mártir in the north, terminating with Sierra de la Giganta and Sierra de la Victoria at the peninsula's southern end. Sierra de San Pedro Mártir is the only range in Baja California that attains an altitude of 10,500 feet. This singular Transition zone area is limited to a few square miles, descending rapidly southward to elevations in the Lower Sonoran zone of less than 4,500 feet with lower deserts along the shores of the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of California for its entire length. Wildlife is dependent on flora supported by climatic conditions peculiar to their ranges. Their life zones in Mexico range chiefly through Lower and Upper Sonoran, Tropical, and Transition, and these zones contain the majority of Mexico's big game animals. The Sierra Madre and detached mountain ranges with outlying deserts and highlands which border tropical lowlands, including mountains and plains on the peninsula of Baja California, have four principal life zones inhabited by big game animals and wild turkeys:

20

Life Zones

M A P 2. Baja California

Life Zones

21

22

Life Zones

1. Tropical. Forests of cedar, pine, oak, mahogany, and other hardwood trees with wild fig and fruit-bearing shrubs along watercourses. Various agaves, vines, cacti, and spiny shrubs constitute the flora of the more arid reaches. 2. Lower Sonoran. A zone of desert thorn trees, notably paloverde, palo fierro, mesquite, and torote. These with several species of cacti, ocotillo, choya, tunas, and agaves, chiefly maguey and yucca, and such desert shrubs as jojoba, catclaw, and canutillo comprise the flora in much of northern Mexico. In central and southern regions of the Republic much of the flora listed in the Tropical zone prevails. Altitudes of these two zones range from sea level to about 4,500 feet and comprise deserts in northern parts and both highlands and jungles in tropical regions. Mountain sheep, antelope, whitetail and mule deer, peccaries, and mountain lions inhabit the Lower Sonoran zone in northern regions. It is the only life zone occupied by the mule deer, which occurs exclusively in low desert regions of northern Mexico. Whitetail deer, peccaries, wild turkeys, mountain lions, and jaguars inhabit both this zone and the Tropical zone in central and southern parts of the Republic. 3. Upper Sonoran. A life zone of piñon, pine, juniper, and oak trees, intermingled with thickets of manzanita bushes and other shrubs, coconut grass, and several kinds of agaves-sotol and yucca being the most common. This zone is in intermediate altitudes from 4,500 to 7,500 feet. It is the habitat of whitetail deer, black and grizzly bears, peccaries, wild turkeys, and mountain lions, as well as a wide assortment of small birds and mammals adapted to the area. 4. Transition. A zone where growth of flora changes between intermediate and higher elevations at altitudes from 7,500 to 9,500 feet. The Transition zone contains the greater part of Mexico's yellow pine forests, with several varieties of oak and evergreen trees. In the northern Sierras its abundant food and water make this zone an ideal wildlife habitat, and being largely remote from civilization it is occupied by big game animals and birds, many of which also inhabit the Upper Sonoran zone. Here, melting snow, springs, and ciénagasmudholes-form headwaters of many trout streams on the western slopes of Sierra Madre del Norte, and the waterways contribute to the welfare of its wildlife. These four recognizable life zones, or vegetation types, comprise the game habitats of northern Mexico. Farther south in the Republic a

Life Zones 23 few of the larger volcanoes reach up into the boreal zones; some even crest above timber line. But no such lofty highlands grace the northern Sierras.

5. Natural Game Foods

Infinite quantities of flora which produce game food in various life zones of Mexico remain for botanists to classify and name. Several kinds of this plant life grow in the Upper Sonoran and Tropical zones, while much of the flora in the Transition and Lower Sonoran zones flourishes in western America and has been classified. These with others peculiar to parts of Mexico are tabulated separately in this chapter. Regions in the Tropical and both Lower and Upper Sonoran zones occur in central and southern parts of the Republic where ample rainfall supports a multitude of wild shrubs, plants, and vines on highlands and jungles. Those with palms, agaves, oak, pine, cedar, and other trees supply a variety of food for whitetail deer, peccaries, and wild turkeys. Jaguars and mountain lions pray on all wildlife inhabiting those regions. Habitats of these game animals and birds are near heavily populated centers of both ancient and modern civilization; consequently, there are few animals. Also, no particular flora supplies food, which is a major contributing factor to their life span, such as are the cacti and mast-bearing trees to wildlife in desert regions and the forested sierras of northern Mexico. Several kinds of oak trees with piñon, pine, juniper, cedar, wild cherry, and madrone abound throughout forested regions of the northern Sierra Madres, and these supply mast and fruit for whitetail deer, black and grizzly bears, peccaries, and wild turkeys. Gooseberry bushes and wild grape and blackberry vines flourish along the mountain streams. Thickets of manzanita and other shrubs which produce game food grow on south exposures and rocky slopes. Groups of wild palms are numerous at lower altitudes and bear clusters of small dates. These ripen during October and fall to the ground where deer, bears, peccaries, and wild turkeys feed on them. This is an important food crop as the palms bear annually regardless of dry seasons. Several kinds of agaves flourish in the Sierras, and both the yucca and sotol are numerous. Young fruit stalks of these plants are eaten

Natural Game Foods

25

by deer, and the sotol, commonly called "Spanish dagger," bears a sweet juicy fruit similar to a persimmon, which is eaten by bears and peccaries. The bears stand u p to eat low clusters of the fruit and bend taller stalks until they can reach them. During late October the ground is littered with fallen fruit, and peccary trails wind through the thickets. Many kinds of wild grass are abundant. Both white and black grama grow on exposed mountain slopes, and lower mesas are covered with sacatón and buffalo grass. Cattlemen say that these two are more nourishing than the gramas and that they often remain green until midwinter. Both deer and wild turkeys are fond of the blades and seeds. On the north slopes of the Sierras, coconut grass (Cyperus esculentus) is abundant in places which retain moisture, especially near springs and ciénagas. The stems are eaten by deer, and the roots bear nodules which are food for wild turkeys who scratch them u p from the moist earth. This grass is a valuable game food but flourishes only when and where there is sufficient moisture. Other grasses lose much of their nourishment after the first severe frost, while coconut grass remains green and moist throughout the year. Desert regions of Mexico provide several kinds of cacti which furnish its wildlife with a yearlong supply of both food and moisture. A great number of these are capable of surviving dry years as they absorb and store moisture during rainy seasons; the viznaga or barrel cactus is outstanding in this respect. This cactus does not grow in thickets that cover large areas but flourishes on rocky hillsides and valleys, generally among clumps of thorn trees and greasewood brush. Its shell is covered with curved hooklike thorns. The flesh is much like that of a potato in taste and contains a large amount of juice which is palatable to both animals and humans. Peccaries root out the barrel cactus, exposing the thornless base through which they eat the flesh. Mountain sheep, antelope, and deer feed on rejected portions, and during dry seasons parts of the thorny outer shells mark their trails. These animals also secure food and moisture from fruit and buds of choya and tuna. They relish young fruit stalks of the yucca and maguey. The latter is prevalent in northern Baja California, and the base of its flowering fruit stalk is roasted and eaten by dwellers in the hinterland. Fruit pods of the saguaro and pitahaya are filled with a sweet, jellylike substance that contains small black seeds. These are a valuable game food. However, as both are giant cacti the fruit must ripen and

26

Natural Game Foods

fall before it can be eaten by desert animals. If the crop is light, birds consume much of it on the plant. If bountiful, ripe fallen fruit provides food and moisture for all wildlife. Centuries before the advent of the white man, this fruit was harvested annually by Papago and Pima Indians who lived in these regions. Employing a long rib from these cacti, with a short loop of rawhide or pliable root tied to its end, they snared the ripening fruit just before it was ready to fall. After transporting it to their villages and camps they removed the pods and packed the contents in ollas, sealing them with deerskin for future use. Today, the few Papago Indians who live in isolated regions of the Sonora desert still harvest this fruit. These cacti and the cardon store u p large quantities of moisture, which trickles out if the skins are punctured immediately after a rainstorm. Both moisture and flesh are bitter and thus do not benefit animals or man. Various thorn trees, such as mesquite, paloverde, palo fierro, ocotillo, milapa, catclaw, and jojoba grow in valleys and canyons. Their foliage, buds, blossoms, and seed pods are sought by many desert game animals. Torote trees are peculiar to northwestern Sonora and Baja California but are not numerous in this part of Sonora. In the sierras of Baja California, forests of these trees survive many dry cycles, and in both regions their evergreen leaves furnish browse for mountain sheep and deer when foliage on thorn trees is scanty. Several kinds of nourishing grass grow on these deserts when rainfall is sufficient. White grama is more abundant and common during normal years of rainfall. Stands of galleta grass are ever present on plains and valleys where the soil is sandy. Both kinds are eaten by mountain sheep, antelope, and deer while green, but are rejected when dry and brittle as neither retains moisture or nourishment during dry seasons. When dry the galleta grass is infested with dead insects that lodge in the mouth and throat of grazing pack animals, causing irritation. The cook remedied this condition by thrusting in the mouths of the horses a lump of biscuit dough, which clung to the insects and enabled the animals to swallow them. Canutillo (Ephedra) and brittle brush (Encelia) grow in many localities. These sprout new shoots if there is ample rainfall, and they are eaten by mountain sheep, antelope, and deer when both green and dry. Uniform rainfall generally occurs over desert regions every third or fourth year. During intervening dry years some areas will receive lit-

Natural Game Foods

27

tle or no rain, while other localities blessed with rain produce bountiful food and are soon found by desert wildlife. During a recent autumn the writer had the good fortune to camp in the center of an oasis created where abundant rains had fallen over an extensive area of the central western part of the Altar Desert. At other times game animals are scattered throughout this region, but on this occasion they were concentrated near the oasis. Herds of antelope had assembled on the open grassy swales and maneuvered like cavalry battalions when I appeared on the skyline or when they detected me crouched in the grass. Several times during midday the cook observed peccaries and mule deer drifting across a meadow near our tent, and I flushed numerous whitetail deer in the surrounding hills and chaparral when twilight turned my steps toward camp.

TABLE

1. Natural game foods Food parts

Utilized by

Piñon nut pine (Pinus edulis)

Mast

Deer, bears, peccaries, wild turkeys

Gamble oak (Quercus gambelii)

Mast

Deer, bears, peccaries, wild turkeys

Shinnery oak (Quercus undulata)

Mast

Deer, bears, peccaries, wild turkeys

Gray live oak (Quercus grísea)

Mast, leaves

Deer, bears, peccaries, wild turkeys

Juniper (Juniperus pachyphooea)

Berries

Deer, bears, peccaries, wild turkeys

Berries Oneseed juniper (Cedar) (Juniperus monosperma)

Deer, bears, peccaries, wild turkeys

Manzanita (Arctostaphylos pungeus)

Berries, leaves

Deer, bears, peccaries, wild turkeys

28

Natural Game Foods

TABLE 1. (continued)

Wild cherry (Prunus serotina)

Fruit

Deer, bears, peccaries, wild turkeys

Prickly pear (Opuntia sp.)

Roots, fruit, young leaves

Deer, bears, peccaries, wild turkeys, mountain sheep, antelope

Sotol, maguey, and other agaves (Agave sp.)

Blossoms, fruit, green stalks

Deer, bears, peccaries, mountain sheep, antelope

Saguaro (Cereus giganteus)

Ripe fruit

Deer, peccaries, mountain sheep

Pitahaya (Cereus thurberi)

Ripe fruit

Deer, peccaries, mountain sheep

Choya (Opuntia bigelovii)

Roots, fruit, buds

Deer, peccaries, mountain sheep, antelope

Viznaga (Echino cactus sp.)

Fruit, flesh

Deer, peccaries, mountain sheep, antelope

Ocotillo (Fouquiera splendeus)

Blossoms, green leaves

Deer, mountain sheep, antelope

Milapa (Ciro)

Green leaves

Deer, mountain sheep, antelope

Paloverde (Parkinsonia microphylla)

Green leaves, buds, blossoms

Deer, peccaries, mountain sheep, antelope

Desert willow (Chilopsis)

Leaves

Deer, mountain sheep, antelope

Mesquite (Prosopis velutina)

Leaves, buds, blossoms, fruit

Deer, peccaries, mountain sheep, antelope

Ironwood (Palo fierro) (Olneya tesota)

Leaves, buds, blossoms, fruit

Deer, peccaries, mountain sheep, antelope

Natural Game Foods 29

TABLE 1. (continued)

Torote prieto (Tore binthus)

Green leaves

Wild fan palms Fruit (Washingtonia filifera)

Deer, mountain sheep Deer, peccaries, bears

Catclaw (Acacia greggi)

Green leaves, blossoms, fruit

Deer, peccaries, mountain sheep, antelope

Brittle brush (Encelia farinosa)

Dry stems

Deer, mountain sheep, antelope

Canutillo (Ephedra sp.)

Green shoots

Deer, mountain sheep, antelope

Leaves, buds, Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) fruit

Deer, peccaries, mountain sheep, antelope

Grass: Coconut (Cyperus esculentus)

Stems, nodules

Deer, peccaries, wild turkeys

White and black grama (Buffalo galleta)

Stems, seeds

Deer, mountain sheep, antelope, wild turkeys

6. Life Sketches of Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

DESERT BIGHORN SHEEP Desert mountain sheep are the one rare species of North American big game animals found in Mexico. They inhabit desert mountains in the states of Chihuahua, Sonora, and Baja California. Their habits and habitats are universal throughout their ranges, and they reach the extreme southern terminus of their habitat on the continent in the desert mountains of Sonora and Baja California. Three authentic subspecies are recognized, separated on the basis of difference in size color, form, texture of horns, and skull formation. From November to April the bighorn pelage is heavy and smoky brown in color with white patches on nose and rump. It fades to dull gray during summer when temperatures frequently reach 120 degrees and the hair becomes thin and brittle. Both sexes bear horns which they never shed. As the males (rams) mature, their horns form massive bases, separated only by narrow strips of skin. Some horns curl out from the eyes, thus retaining length without obstructing vision. Others curl in toward the eyes, and the ram protects his vision by breaking off or wearing down the tips on cliffs and standing boulders as the horns form. There is a patch of oval-shaped muscle at the junction of the head and spine which apparently helps to support the heavy horns. Horns of females (ewes) are short, slender, and backward curving. The discussion of each subspecies includes data on the horn and body measurements of several specimens taken in different habitats, along with details on horn formation and dating. The sheep's stimulus and behavior during rutting season is also reported from my observations. Habits of these desert mountain sheep differ from those of mountain sheep in Alaska, Canada, and northern ranges in the United States. They are similar to those of the desert mountains of Nevada, southern Arizona, California, and southwestern New Mexico, where their habitats, plant foods, and supply of available water are alike. These same conditions prevail wherever these sheep are found in Mexico.

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys 31 All of the specimens I have listed were collected prior to the declaration of closed season in 1922. Several of these have been donated to public museums, among them the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology and the University of Arizona. Six representative types comprise a private collection. During the years when hunting was illegal the writer made numerous trips into bighorn habitats, and these have been interesting and informative concerning the present status of the bighorn.

Ovis canadensis mexicana (Merriam)Northwestern Chihuahua A few small bands of desert mountain sheep inhabit Sierra de Samalayuca in the northwestern corner of Chihuahua. These mountain sheep were the first to bear the onslaught of foreign sportsmen and meat hunters with repeating rifles when they attracted the attention of pioneer settlers who founded the cities of Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, Texas, on the Rio Grande. They were brought to scientific attention by Dr. E. W. Nelson, who collected eight specimens in 1899, and were classified a few years later by the late Dr. C. Hart Merriam. Their survival is nothing short of a miracle, but they are gradually disappearing due to encroaching centers of civilization and inadequate protection. In former years these sheep traveled back and forth to the Big Hatchet mountains in southwestern New Mexico, and others came south from these mountains into Mexico. Today, their travel is restricted by highways, fences, and ranches, and their numbers in Mexico cannot be augmented from this northern source, which is now rigidly protected and increasing. The small, isolated mountains of granite and lava inhabited by the bighorns have a limited supply of permanent water, and the vegetation of thorn trees, cacti, and bushes is typical of desert ranges these sheep occupy in Sonora and Baja California. Their habits in all these regions are alike. However, due to their habitat in Chihuahua being more temperate throughout the year, the pelage of the sheep there is slightly darker. Their physical appearance differs little from the mountain sheep of Sonora, but they are smaller than those of Baja California. There is a mounted head of a mature male (ram) in the National Collection of Heads and Horns which was collected by the writer in 1921 in Sierra de Samalayuca. The body measurements of this animal are: age 10 years (calculated by deep creases on horns); height at

32 Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys 33

34

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

shoulder 37 inches; length tip of nose to tail 55 ½ inches; girth at foreleg 44 1/4 inches; circumference of muzzle 10 ½ inches; circumference of front hoof 6 3/4 inches; length of tail 7 inches; and weight 2371/2 pounds (weighed on folding scales, less loss of blood). Previously I collected another in this locality which was similar in size of body and horns. Both head specimens are listed in Records of North American Big Game, 1932 and 1939 editions, and the horn measurements are: 1915 specimen Length of front curve 33" Basal circumference 15 3/4" Greatest spread 21"

1921 specimen 35" 15 7/8" 20"

When I camped for a month in Sierra de Samalayuca on my first trip, I counted 21 mountain sheep, which composed 5 separate bands consisting of 5 rams and 16 ewes. In 1921 the total number seen had decreased to 11. Recently only a single band was sighted, consisting of 2 rams and 3 ewes. However, the native guide, who has a ranch nearby, states that he has seen others.

Ovis canadensis gaillardi (Mearns)Altar Desert, Sonora In the state of Sonora the few remaining bands of desert bighorns make their habitat in sierras of the great desert region that lies westward of the route followed by the Southern Pacific Railway of Mexico from Nogales, Sonora, to Guaymas. The rail line traverses a region that lies between spurs of the Sierra Madre Occidental and the eastern edge of the Altar Desert. This vast region is called the western Altar Desert and is composed of many detached mountains of granite and lava, some of which lie close together, others separated by wide plains and valleys. Their ranges, named in order, commencing near Tiburón Island and continuing north to the border of Arizona, are: Sierra Colorai, Sierra Picu, Sierra del Viejo, Sierra del Alamo, Sierra Pinta, Sierra de San Francisco, Sierra del Pozo, Sierra Cubabi, Sierra Blanca, Sierra del Pinacate, Sierra del Tuseral, Sierra de la Lechugulla, and Sierra del Rosario. In the northern end of their range several of the sierras are separated by narrow valleys, and the mountain sheep frequently migrate from one to the other, using well-defined trails between Sierra

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys 35 de la Lechugulla and Sierra del Tuseral, and between Sierra del Pinacate and Sierra Blanca. In the southern end wide plains confine the bighorns to isolated ranges, and these sheep never venture across the intervening deserts. These desert sierras rise steep and rugged from level valleys, and this with their sharp, bare crests gives them the appearance of great height. Several attain altitudes of 4,000 feet. Where vegetation is scanty, the mountain sheep, like those in Baja California, frequent canyons and valleys during twilight hours and at night. This is due to the desert flora of thorn trees, paloverde, palo fierro, mesquite, and torote, which are intermingled with cacti, choya, viznaga, tuna, pitahaya, saguaro, and ocotillo, with patches of jojoba, catclaw, and encella bushes. In the springtime the cacti are ablaze with flowers, the trees a riot of yellow and purple blossoms and, on sunlit days, murmurous with the drone of wild bees. During this season I have often camped in one of these valleys and on one occasion went out during late afternoon with the cook to help locate our pack mules. The ocotillos were in bloom, and we saw fresh mountain sheep tracks ahead. Cautiously scanning the chaparral we saw a ram feeding among the ocotillos; apparently unaware of our presence he cropped a mouthful of red blossoms, looking our way, but before the camera clicked he saw us and bounded away. After sunrise the sheep climb the slopes and stand or bed down on level spots below cliffs or solitary thorn trees where there is shade; they will stand for hours viewing the expanse of desert and the sparkling waters of the gulf. Native fishermen frequently see them on the slopes of Sierra Colorai and the mesas that overlook the sea. Sierra del Rosario lies among great dunes of drifting sand at the extreme northern end of its range and contains no permanent water. Seasons of rainfall (which averages less than three inches annually) fill several temporary tinajas and revive the cacti on which the sheep depend for moisture. Tinajas are cisterns worn in solid rock by erosion. The nearest permanent water, at Tinajas Altas twenty-five miles north, is on the other side of a wide, sandy plain covered with greasewood; there is no evidence that the sheep traverse this plain during prolonged dry cycles. The plain is tunneled with badger holes for miles and requires two days to pack across. A traveler finally reaches Tinajas Altas with pack animals exhausted from stumbling and thirst. The one tinaja on the west side of Sierra del Tuseral and a tinaja in the Tule mountains ten miles north of it in Arizona are frequently dry after a season of little rain. Four water cans (in their pack boxes) abandoned by the late Charles Sheldon when he found the tinajas dry

36

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

M A P 3. Altar Desert

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys 37

38 Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys look as if left there but yesterday and tend to show how scanty the rainfall is over a period of time. And the wind-polished skull of another desert wayfarer was found nearby when I last visited the tinaja. Tinaja de Los Papagos on the north end of Sierra del Pinacate and Tinaja del Tule on the west side are both in open canyons; these tinajas and Tinaja del Cuervo on the south in a cavelike canyon are permanent watering places. The few bands of mountain sheep in this range and nearby Sierra Blanca, which is waterless, visit these tinajas when convenient. Sierra del Pinacate not only affords the best supply of permanent water and game food of all mountain sheep habitats in Sonora, but it is also the most colorful and interesting with its numerous volcano craters, salt deposits, and shallow wells of fresh water such as La Choya, La Soda, Salina del Pinacate, Pozo Caballo, Salina Grande, Tornalli, El Doctor, and Santa Clara. These wells were dug along the gulf shore in the past by a tribe of Papago Indians, who at times lived along the beach as fishermen and at other seasons in caves among the lava as hunters of mountain sheep. When there was sufficient rainfall during the spring, patches of green grass and shrubs sprouted on the volcano floors, and bands of mountain sheep descended into their depths by narrow trails. The hunters sent their squaws down to drive the sheep up while they blocked the trail's entrance and killed the frightened sheep with spears, arrows, and ironwood clubs. There is no permanent water available to mountain sheep in Sierras Cubabi, del Pozo, de San Francisco, Pinta, de la Espuma, del Alamo, or other ranges south of these until Sierra Picu is reached, with Tinaja del Picu on its western slope and Tinaja de la Golondrina on the south end. Sierra Colorai and the small desert mountains at the terminus of their habitats in Sonora are waterless. The sheep do not depend on the scanty supply of open water that is available in a few places along Río San Ignacio, Río Altar, and Río Sonoita, or springs at Quitovaquita where nomadic natives dwell at intervals. Water can be obtained in several places along these streams by digging shallow pits, and numerous wild burros frequently do this. At these places water is available to all desert animals for a short time after the burros, hunters, or prospectors have excavated. After they move away, the holes soon fill up with sand. Mountain sheep and antelope will not visit these water holes while a human is camped near them. Mule and whitetail deer are less wary and venture to them during the heat of daytime and at night if convenient. But herds of them never gather around open water because of the multitudinous cacti to which they can turn for moisture when

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys 39 need be. Part of chapter 8 is devoted to how the animals obtain water from cacti. Experiments have been made to determine if sources of open water are an essential factor in the existence of these animals. Mountain sheep in the northwestern part of Sonora are smaller in body and horn than their kin in Baja California; they diminish in these respects as they range south on the Altar Desert. Those inhabiting Sierra Pinta compare favorably with others in the Pinacate region and ranges north and east. Wide expanses of open desert, broken by separated small desert sierras (called the Costa Rica) which mountain sheep do not inhabit, prevail from Sierra Pinta south through the Costa Rica to Sierra del Alamo. Here the sheep commence to dwindle in stature and horns, and this smaller type is common in other isolated sierras in this region and to the end of their range in Sierra Colorai and in Sonora. Climate and conditions of food and water are the same in the northern end of their range. Whitetail and mule deer that inhabit terrain near their isolated ranges are robust, the latter species being the largest on the Altar Desert. Consequently, there is a hint of retrogressive evolution which has produced dwarf mountain sheep. Recognized scientists-Ε. W. Nelson, Madison Grant, C. Hart Merriam, and Charles Sheldon-have advanced the theory that climatic conditions and malnutrition have reduced all mountain sheep in Mexico to a smaller stature than their Canadian kin. Thus measurements of specimens from three regions in Sonora may prove interesting (table 2). The specimen from Sierra Pinta is listed in Records of North American Big Game in both the 1932 and 1939 editions. It is the largest of eight rams collected by the writer from their habitats in the Altar Desert during a period of twenty-five years. The three tabulated are among thirty-one seen during many trips into this part of Sonora. Throughout their ranges in Mexico the rutting season generally occurs during October and November. During this period the rams are bold and reckless, roaming the sierras seeking the ewes. They butt and rub their horns on giant cacti, inflicting deep scars which exude bitter moisture. They are belligerent, jealously guarding their bands of ewes against intrusion by other males, and alert to everything that moves in their domain. During late October 1921, while hunting on the western side of Sierra del Pinacate and following fresh tracks of a ram, I saw two ewes several hundred yards ahead. Surmising that the ram might be nearby, I gained concealment behind a stunted paloverde tree. Suddenly the ewes hurried up the slope and were halting for a moment

40

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

TABLE 2. Desert bighorn sheep Ovis canadensis gaillardi (Mearns)-Altar Desert, Sonora Where and when collected North end Intermedi- South end of range, of range, ate range, Sierra del Sierra Sierra Rosario Pinta Colorai (Jan. 1918) (Nov. 1919) (Dec. 1921) Age

13

Body measurements Height at shoulder 37 1/2" Length tip of nose to tail 56 1/2" Girth at foreleg 44 1/4" Circumference of muzzle 10 1/2" Circumference of front hoof 6 3/4" Length of tail 6 1/2" Weight 230 1/2 lb. Horn measurements Length of front curve Basal circumference Greatest spread

37 1/2" 15 3/4" 20

11

11

37" 54"

49"

45 1/2" 11"

8" 6 3/4"

226 l/2 lb.

35 1/4"

37 1/2" 8 1/2" 5 1/2" 5 1/2" 186 1/2 lb.

39"

2 9 1/2"

201/2"

13 1/4" 18"

151/2"

to watch me when the ram came trotting to them. Uttering guttural bleats he came down until he spied me. Then, seeing the invader was a human, he wheeled and fled with his family at his heels. I was so entranced that I forgot to shoot and never saw them again that day. During another season I left camp during the cold hours of dawn. As the sun illuminated a valley near a high mountainside, I was resting in the chaparral scanning the slopes, when a ram came into view. Watching with the glasses I could see he had detected the presence of something below and was coming toward me when another hove into sight to the right and above, directly in the rays of the rising sun. He was quickening his pace to overtake or pass his rival when they evidently determined that what they spied in the chaparral was not a mate, and both fled to the heights out of range and sight. Few humans, if any, have ever seen the actual mating of desert sheep. After the rutting season has passed the rams seek solitude

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys 41 and remain apart until this season is again at hand. Many of the younger rams remain with their mothers until "butted out" of their company in the fall, or they wander away when the period of family life ends and bachelorhood commences. The young are born during late spring and at times during February if rutting commences earlier. As a rule the ewes bear one each, occasionally twins. They seek high sheltered places for this event, spending several days in these spots getting their offspring strong enough to travel. During a trip in the Sierra Blanca in February, I saw nine ewes, each with a youngster just able to follow her through the maze of boulders and cacti. In the northwestern corner of Sonora near the shores of the Sea of Cortez lies a mass of desert mountains. In the heart of these is a beautiful valley walled in by steep ridges. Its north end is blocked by an interlocking ridge surmounted by jagged peaks. Among these, on a windy March day, 1938, I witnessed the birth of a mountain sheep. When the old ewe had nudged the youngster to his feet, two golden eagles came swooping down and attempted to seize him. The old ewe fought them off with hoof and horn, once filling the air with flying feathers, finally coaxing the tiny fellow into a low cave. The eagles winged off in search of other prey. This valley's south end opens out to the sea through a deep canyon; once in a decade its flood waters go roaring down to mingle with the tide. Papago Indians of Sonora have camped in this valley and hunted mountain sheep during centuries past. Isolated families of this tribe now live in the Altar Desert to the east and call it "Valley of the Lost." They tell of a Spanish ship wrecked by storm near its portal to the sea; how their hunters were camped in the valley during the storm that swept the ship ashore and how they watched the Spaniards salvage a scant supply of water, food, and four horses; and how they dogged their travel northward along the lonely desert coast. Hovering near, but never in sight, the Indians saw coyotes killed with muskets. This awesome sight forestalled an attack, and they scouted the seamen to the mouth of the Colorado River, which was at flood stage. This flood and the fearful tidal bore turned the Spaniards back toward the point where parts of their ship lay along the beach. After two days of dense fog the Papagos lost contact and left for the village without seeing them again. The following hunting season the Indians returned to the valley, finding three muskets, the remains of two saddles, a bit, and three spurs in a thicket of palo fierros. Along the valley's floor were human

42 Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys bones, scattered by coyotes, some partially buried in the sand with bits of other gear. They packed several of these articles back to their village. During the war between the United States and Mexico they gave the padre at Misión Kino near Caborca one of the muskets which had the name "Mendoza" carved into its stock, a small metal bell, and a silver shoe buckle. These vanished from the mission during 1854 when American filibusters, detached from the command of William Walker, used it as a fort during a battle with Mexican troops. Since that time flood waters from the Altar River have carried away parts of the mission's walls. On another occasion two friends and I were camped in this valley. We arrived late in the evening and after supper were standing around the campfire watching the moon rise when one of my companions saw something moving on a ridge crest. A desert ram stood looking down on us, no doubt as much enthralled by our flickering campfire as we were by his lithe form and curling horns outlined against the moonlit sky.

Ovis canadensis cremnobates (Elliot)Baja California Thirty years ago the mountain sheep of Baja California ranged south from the international border for nine hundred miles. Today, they occupy limited areas from Sierra de San Pedro Mártir in the north to the volcanoes of Tres Vírgenes and to the end of Sierra de la Giganta in the south. They are not numerous in Sierras de San Pedro Mártir, San Carlos, Columbia, de Calmajue y San José, de Calmalli, and Vizcaíno, and they have almost disappeared from regions north and south of these limits. The gulf slopes of Sierra de la Giganta now shelter a few where once there were many bands. This is due to an increasing human population which hunts for meat, to the existence of automobiles, and to passable roads in regions formerly accessible only with pack and saddle. A chapter devoted to modern ways of transportation into wildlife regions of Mexico details information on this subject. The bighorn's present mountainous habitation is a nearly continuous chain of granite and lava, broken up and separated only by narrow valleys. These mountains overlook the Gulf of California eastward and the Pacific Ocean to the west. However, mountain sheep seldom remain in lofty regions for extended periods of time where preferred food is scanty, and they bypass the high plateau of Sierra

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys 43 de San Pedro Mártir with its streams, forests of pine, thickets of oak, and manzanita for lower desert spurs clothed with thorn trees, shrubs, and cacti on its eastern slopes. They also occupy similar terrain below the peaks of Sierras Matomí, del Cocupa, San Juan de Dios, Santa María, San Borjas, and others farther south. This is due to abundant desert flora at lower altitudes where thickets of paloverde, palo fierro (ironwood), torote, prieto, mesquite, ocotillo, milipa (ciro), with acres of jojoba bushes and brittle brush (Encelia), offer browse. The milapa is distinctive to Baja California. Various cacti, choya, tuna (prickly pear), viznaga (barrel cacti), maguey, yucca, pitahaya, and saguaro afford succulent food, and the first three also supply moisture during all seasons. In this dense chaparral late spring is the regal season; all things thorny are covered with blossoms and later with fruit. There are several sources of open water available to sheep in their present habitat. A few small mountain streams bubble forth, like the creek near the ruins of Misión Santa María and the scattered springs cresting the central sierras, fringed with wild palms. Others are in deep canyons on both the Pacific and Gulf slopes. One of these is in the central region on the Gulf slope, where whaling ships put in for water more than a century ago. (The account of its discovery by the writer is included in the chapter on desert water.) There are tinajas, such as those in the Arroyo Grande, Arroyo San Carlos, and Arroyo la Tinaja. The streams are permanent, but during extended dry cycles some of the tinajas are dry and the mountain sheep depend on cacti for moisture, ranging far from water and using it only when convenient to their travels. Seasons of ample rainfall, which are few, fill many "potholes" in rocks and canyons; these holes are called temporales, and this water soon evaporates. There are several small streams of salty water in sierras east of El Marmol, but these are unfit for use by man or animals. During the late afternoon of a warm October day the writer and his native guide sighted one of these, glistening deceptively in a deep canyon. After drinking the last water in the canteens, we urged the mules down. These knowing beasts objected, reluctantly reached the stream, and, undoubtedly disgusted at our ignorance, headed willingly back toward camp. In these rugged sierras the mountain sheep spend the day on canyon slopes and ridges, resting in shady niches below cliffs and trees, where they can view the surrounding country and see everything extant. At twilight they descend into canyons and valleys, spending

44

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

night and early morning browsing on thorny bushes, trees, and cacti. If water is nearby they drink and ascend to daytime resting places, seldom betraying their presence by rolling rocks or breaking twigs. Their sense of smell is acute. Native hunters say the sheep never drink from tinajas or streams during daytime, and they seldom surprise sheep at the water. The few American sportsmen that venture into this wilderness, finding the hunting arduous and sheep scarce, frequently resort to hiding near the water without results, never reckoning with desert winds and the bighorn's sensitive nose. During college years a friend and I made a trip for mountain sheep in the sierras near the pueblo of Santo Domingo. After ten days of fruitless hunting we resolved to hide near a small, temporary tinaja where we had seen old tracks. Arriving just before sundown we found a hideout. At twilight we heard something coming down the trail. Our quarry paused. "Look at those horns," my companion whispered. I was doubtful as he aimed and fired. A dead burro blocked the trail, its long ears twitching, while two crestfallen big game hunters viewed this victim of a hasty shot and discovered it was branded. We returned to Santo Domingo and reported the accident. After paying the owner for his animal we hired him as a guide, and he proved to be a skillful hunter who schooled us in the ways of "borrego cimarrón." The following year the guide accompanied me on a trip farther south, and while cresting Sierra de Calmalli he pointed out mountains across the gulf in Sonora, relating that mountain sheep were plentiful over there but "very much smaller" in body and horns. This proved to be an interesting fact. Although their desert habitats are alike and are separated only by the narrow Gulf of California, those sheep in Baja California are generally uniform in stature and horns throughout their range, while those occupying mountains where their habitats terminate near the southern end of the Sonora desert are smaller in both respects. To present this fact, the body and horn measurements of typical specimens collected by the writer from mountains directly opposite from each other in Baja California and Sonora are tabulated for comparison (table 3). The specimen collected in Baja California is listed in Records of North American Big Game, 1932 and 1939 editions. It is one of three adult male specimens collected and among eleven sighted by the writer in Baja California over a period of years. For further comparison and to illustrate how the life span of mature rams has decreased in recent years, the horn measurements of two head specimens collected during previous years by others (also listed

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

45

TABLE 3. Desert bighorn sheep Ovis canadensis cremnobates (Elliot)-Baja California Where collected

Baja California

Sonora

12

11

Sierra de Calmalli Sierra Colorai

Age Body measurements

Height at shoulder Length tip of nose to tail Girth at foreleg Circumference of muzzle Circumference of front hoof Length of tail Weight

381/2"

571/4" 451/2" 12 1/4" 71/2"

6" 241 lb.

35 1/4"

49"

37 1/2"

8 1/2" 5 1/2" 5 1/2" 1861/2 lb.

Horn measurements

Length of front curve Basal circumference Greatest spread

32 1/2" 15 1/2" 241/8"

291/2 131/4" 18"

in Records) are included. The first, a record specimen taken by a native hunter during 1892 from Sierra de Calmalli (near the southern end of its range), from the collection of Dr. Η. Μ. Beck, measures: length of front curve 44 inches, basal circumference 17 inches, greatest spread 23 7/8 inches. The second was taken by Mr. George H. Gould from Sierra de San Pedro Mártir (northern end of its range) in 1894. It is in the National Collection of Heads and Horns and measures: length of front curve 42 1/2 inches, basal circumference 15 1/4 inches, greatest spread 25 3/4 inches. Why their horns vary in size and shape has never been determined. The writer has examined several sets with a basal circumference of 17 inches which measured less than 29 inches long and tapered off to narrow, blunted points, forming only half circles. Perhaps these formed tight curls with narrow spreads as they developed, and the rams splintered them off when they reached eye level and tended to obstruct vision. Other horns were broad and massive with wide spreads that turned back and away from the eyes in long, sweeping curls which formed complete circles.

46 Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys A few sets formed tight, thick curls which curved up to the eyes and were so heavy that they dwarfed the ram's head. The late Charles Sheldon collected one of these in 1916 and the writer another in later years, which is now in his collection of desert mountain sheep. The horns of desert mountain sheep grow over tapering, porous horn cores which are part of the head. The cores are thick and oval shaped at the base, ending in blunt points; they support the horn sheath of a full-grown ram to a point where it commences to bend downward. Every year added horn material forms, extending its curving length out and upward toward the eyes, leaving deep creases that mark a year of horn growth. Growth takes place during the winter and spring, when food and moisture are more plentiful. The creases are most evident on top of the horn curve. Among many sets examined the apparent age seldom exceeds fifteen, which probably indicates the adult life span. Apparently new horn growth starts during late October or early November, when the rutting season commences. At this time the porous horn core is saturated with blood, evidently causing a sensation in the head and horns, and the rams rub them on the giant cacti (chiefly saguaros) leaving deep scars on the thorny ribs. The rams engage in fierce butting contests that either gain or lose a harem for victor and vanquished. The moist condition of the horn core was determined by removing the scalp at the junction with the horn base, scraping the base clean, and drilling into the horn core with a knife blade. This was done on three specimens taken during rutting season. The same operation performed on four specimens taken when this season was past revealed the cores with much less blood and comparatively dry. Mr. A. W. North records a contest between two large rams which occurred in Baja California previous to the rutting season and describes it in his book Camp and Camino in Lower California.

Seasonal habits, behavior of males and females, and birth of their young are similar to those of the sheep which inhabit the Altar Desert in Sonora as previously described. The desert bighorn is only one of the magnificent big game animals occurring in northern Mexico, but certainly it is the king of the desert. Its welfare should be zealously guarded by a proud national government.

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

47

PRONGHORN ANTELOPE

Antilocapra americana Pronghorn antelope are distinctive to North America and are not closely related to antelope of Africa or other parts of the world. One subspecies {Antilocapra americana americana-Ord) ranges from Canada to the Mexican border. Another, Antilocapra americana mexicana-Merriam, inhabited plains and open valleys below the eastern slopes of the Sierra Madre Occidental, from northern Chihuahua to the Valley of Mexico. The first records of these were made by Spanish conquistadores. A famous antelope hunt was staged by the viceroy of Mexico during 1540 near the present railway station of Cazadero in the state of Hidalgo. Today, the few remaining herds that occupy a fraction of their once vast range in this part of the Republic inhabit semidesert regions of Chihuahua to southern Coahuila. Those in the corner of northwestern Chihuahua are separated from others in Coahuila by stretches of broken terrain unsuited to their livelihood and by intervening towns and fenced ranches. Fifty years ago numerous herds ranged on both sides of the National Railway through Chihuahua to the border of Durango. Now a few scattered herds occupy an isolated region in the northwestern corner of Chihuahua, and the others inhabit the plains east of the railway in Chihuahua and Coahuila. The original habitats of pronghorn in these states were the vast rolling plains. Today the animals are confined to small areas of this terrain and to valleys where grass is interspersed with ever-present cacti and mesquite trees. Shallow ponds made for cattle dot their range, and a few small perennial streams fringe sections that border Texas and New Mexico. Thus the antelope are not dependent on cacti for moisture, and their quasi-desert habitats present a striking contrast to the regions they occupy in Sonora and Baja California. During 1925 the writer assisted the Mexican government and the late E. W. Nelson, then Chief of the United States Biological Survey, in compiling a census of antelope in Mexico ("Status of the Pronghorn Antelope, 1922-24," U.S. Department of Agriculture, Department Bulletin no. 1346, January 1925, 64 pp.). From this census it was ascertained that about 1,300 antelope inhabited the regions of Chihuahua and Coahuila. At present there are less than 400. In the state of Sonora antelope are confined to the Altar Desert, where they range from the southern end of Sierra del Rosario south

48 Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys 49

50

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

and east to Sierra Blanca and Río Sonoita, thence eastward to the west slopes of Sierra de San Francisco and south through the Costa Rica to Arroyo de San Ignacio. The 1924 census in this area totaled 595 antelope. Now there are less than 150, scattered in small bands over their original range, where they largely inhabit a chaparral of thorn trees, greasewood, and cacti. In the northern parts of the desert this growth surrounds open flatlands called llanos, which are strewed with ash and cinders from nearby extinct volcanoes. The prevalent greasewood and thorn trees do not grow on these llanos, and their level expanses are sparsely covered with short seasonal grass and various creeping plants and vines on which the antelope feed during evening and early morning. In late morning the animals vanish in the chaparral to spend a watchful day. Here it is folly to trail them and easy to get lost. They are visible at long distances but always see the intruder first and, setting an effortless pace, fade on the horizon. Fifty years ago antelope in Baja California ranged from the south end of the San Felipe desert to Vizcaíno Bay. The explorer Cabrillo reported large bands near Misión San Tomás in 1542, and Jesuit padres recorded them ranging from this mission to Magdalena Bay during the seventeenth century. Today, they occupy remote plains and valleys in the northern district between the pueblos of El Marmol and San Ignacio, notably Llano Ojo Liebre on the Vizcaíno desert and Laguna Seca Chapala-areas which are dotted with thorn trees, giant cacti, and agaves. Today less than one hundred animals inhabit the territory where five hundred were counted in 1924. During all seasons the antelope browse on leaves and buds of mesquite, palo fierro, and paloverde trees; and several kinds of grass and cacti, chiefly the choya, tuna, and ocotillo. They do not feed on the greasewood leaves, nor do other game animals of the desert, and a human who tastes these will know the reason. During wet cycles they drink from pools of rain water that collect in dips and hollows, but like all desert animals they obtain ample moisture from cacti and shrubs. During dry cycles the pronghorns gather in bands, and the hunter or naturalist may travel many leagues before he finds a group, as small bands then combine into a few large ones. Less than fifty percent of their numbers have survived since 1925 despite the absolute closed season enacted during 1922 under the administration of President Álvaro Obregón. Some of this alarming decrease in their numbers is due to illegal hunting and predatory animals. Much of it is due to encroaching civilization made possible by

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys 51 new highways and roads, where in many instances the antelope range taken over by man did not afford him a livelihood and where he remained only long enough to kill or drive the antelope off. In many cases antelope have retreated because of overgrazing, which made the deserted country unsuited to immediate reoccupancy by the pronghorn. Nature is slow in restoring the desert ranges. A few of the cattle ranchers have protected antelope and shared the range; they are responsible for the few antelope that exist today. During a winter previous to the closed season, while trailing through the wilderness of greasewood west of Sierra de Calmajue y San José, we sighted a band of fifty-five on a llano. They were grazing leisurely against the evening wind. Halting the pack outfit, I was edging the greasewood when a large buck lifted his head; instantly the band wheeled and faced me. Knowing from past experiences that they were getting ready to depart, I singled out the buck and brought him down. At the rifle's blast his companions were away, running like quarter horses. The specimen was a typical prong buck of Mexico. It measured 56 1/4 inches tip of nose to tail, 36 1/2 inches height at shoulder, and weighed 124 pounds. Does are slightly smaller. The horn measurements of this specimen are listed in the 1939 edition of Records of North American Big Game and included on the table with those of other typical specimens collected by the writer in Sonora, Baja California, and Chihuahua (table 4). Both male and female antelope have deciduous horns supported on a base of solid bone. On the males the horns form a prong which forks off about midway, and they frequently grow sets that measure 15 inches or more on the outside curve. The present record set for antelope collected in the United States, Canada, and Mexico measures 20 5/16 inches on the outside of the horn curve and was taken by Mr. Wilson Potter in Arizona in the year 1899. The does have short, pointed horns that rarely protrude beyond the ears. Fawns produce tiny nubbins, and often the head pelage must be parted to see them. Both sexes shed their horns annually after the rutting season. This occurs during November in Mexico. The new horns appear covered with dark skin and hair, pushing the old, hollow horn sheath off. It is not certain if the antelope rub them on giant cacti or other flora during this period. However, shed horns are generally found under trees that fringe their feeding grounds. The rutting or breeding season occurs during late September or early October. During this time the bucks and does travel together. After the fawns are born, the does join other does with fawns, and

52

Major Big-Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

TABLE 4. Pronghorn antelope Antilocapra americana Where collected Chihuahua Sonora Baja California

Body measurements Length tip of nose to tail 55 1/4" Height at shoulder 37 1/8" Weight 127 lb· Horn measurements Length of outside curve Circumference at base Greatest spread Tip to tip Length of prong

15 1/2"

5_"

15" 13"

6"

53" 34 1/2" 119 1/4 lb. 14 1/2" "

5

11 1/4" 12 1/4" 6 1/2"

56 1/4" 36 1/2" 124 lb.

14"

4"

12" 11"

7 1/2"

later the bucks rejoin them. Occasionally lone does are seen with fawns, and bucks in pairs or singles are seen at any time of the year. The fawns are born during late April or May, in the dry cycle. After a wet season many does bear their young during March. Twin fawns are more common than single offspring; they are not spotted like the fawns of deer. The tan-colored winter pelage of both sexes blends with light yellow or white on the sides of the body and fades during summer. The patch of long, white erectile hairs on the rump is flashed when the animal is alarmed. Both sexes have a patch of dark brown hair on the topside of the muzzle, and the bucks have a spot of this color at the base of the ears, which the does do not have. The necks of both are boldly marked with two white bands and have short reddish-colored manes which are more pronounced in the bucks. Some, but not all, specimens have sharp pointed ears. The antelope habitat east of Sierra Madre Occidental is in a quasidesert country which has more annual rainfall than the desert range in Sonora and Baja California. However, all factors in the antelope life span are much the same. Apparently the Mexican government does not realize how rapidly the few bands of antelope are decreasing and how necessary it is to conserve those remaining with law enforcement and control of pre-

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys 53 datory animals, especially coyotes, which even in small numbers can contribute to extinction. Recently a herd of nine antelope drifted into a small mining town in the northern district of Baja California. Mining was suspended for a time while the workers secured rifles and killed the entire herd. Most of the meat was sold to the town butcher shop and general store for twenty centavos per kilo, and the workers spent the cash for canned fruit and beer. Within a few days they returned, buying the same meat back at forty centavos a kilo-on credit. Camping in the antelope country of Sonora and Baja California during winter months is a pleasant experience. Small bands of the beautiful animals appear on the horizon, gaze at the camp for a few minutes, then race with the wind, only to reappear from other directions, trying to satisfy their curiosity. At sunset a cool breeze blows softly from the sea, shrouding the giant cacti with campfire smoke as it drifts away in the twilight. MULE DEER

Odocoileus hemionus eremicus (Mearns)Sonora and Baja California In Sonora the mule deer inhabit the Altar Desert, which extends southward from the border of southern Arizona for nearly four hundred miles. Here their present range is essentially the same as that of mountain sheep, being confined to desert regions which lie west of the Southern Pacific Railway of Mexico from Nogales to Hermosillo. During 1858, when the international boundary was established, mule deer inhabited the northern parts of the desert westward along the boundary from Sasabe to the mouth of Río Colorado, where the first specimens were collected and classified by Dr. Mearns while afield with surveying parties. During intervening years these deer were nearly exterminated by Papago Indian hunters; only a few inhabited a valley south of Monument 177 and the country near the old Papago well and mine when naturalist Charles Sheldon camped there in 1912. I found a herd of five in this region during 1922; they were all killed by prospectors within the next five years. A few small herds still inhabit mesquite thickets along the delta of Río Colorado. These narrowly escaped a similar fate and are the only mule deer extant in this part of the Altar Desert. Apparently they never inhabited the valleys and plains surrounding Sierra del Pinacate, as Padre

54 Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

Kino does not mention them in the record of his journeys to Papago Indian villages which were scattered about Pinacate during the eighteenth century. Today a few small herds occupy regions southeast of this mountain, near Sierra de San Francisco, Sierra Pinta, and Sierra de la Espuma. South of these sierras the deer become more numerous in coastal uplands called the Costa Rica, which extends from Bahía de San Jorge to Río Altar. From the river their range continues southward to Bahía Kino, and this entire region is occupied by the largest number of mule deer in the Republic. A few deer still inhabit Tiburón Island despite centuries of hunting by Seri Indians. Their numbers decrease farther south in desert regions near Hermosillo and Guaymas, where their present range terminates on the west coast of Mexico. Their present and former range is an arid and interesting habitat for desert animals. In its northern reaches the only certain sources of running water are Río Colorado and Río Sonoita. The latter has surface water available to wildlife for a short distance down its course

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

55

during winter months, as does Río Altar in the central part and Arroyo de San Ignacio farther south. Río Yaqui reaches the Gulf of California at its extreme southern end. The only perennial springs are in hills at Quitovaquita on the border. Tinajas de Los Papagos, del Tule, del Cuervo, del Picu, and de la Golondrina are dependable sources of collected rain water. The present habitat of the Sonora mule deer is dissected with many dry arroyos which run westward toward the Gulf of California. The interior is broken by rugged mountains of lava and granite which the mule deer avoid, confining their range to valleys, flats, and sandy uplands along the coastline. At Cape Lobos or Puerto Libertad, a long vista of their coastal range can be seen north and south of the beachhead and forty miles inland. This region is an arboreal desert, where many kinds of perennial cacti and thorn trees afford an infinite variety of food and moisture throughout numerous dry cycles. During intervening wet seasons there is an abundance of green galleta grass; then thickets of jojoba, encelia, and canutillo (Ephedra) sprout new leaves, stems, and buds. Mule deer feed exclusively on them during lush seasons until fat and sluggish, often bedding down among the shrubs where Seri Indians once hunted them at midday, killing many with clubs and stones. Throughout the country are many of the Seri brush huts and piles of rotting deer horns, which are mute evidence of two vanishing native populations-the man and the deer. During the spring and summer, mule deer confine their feeding to late evening and early morning hours to avoid the heat. At sunrise they seek chaparral fringing their feeding grounds and bed down in the shade of trees and giant cacti, where the cautious hunter or naturalist can make a close approach. Antonio López, the famous Papago Indian hunter, and I were returning from a trek into the back country near Tiburón Island when he saw tracks of three bucks trailing into a group of pitahayas. It was high noon by my companion's reading of the shadow writing. He dismounted and, removing his boots, cautioned me to do likewise. In the cacti's shade we found the bucks bedded down for a midday siesta, which terminated when they detected our presence and went bounding over the low chaparral in stiff-legged leaps which are characteristic of these deer. Their "buck jumps" measured nearly sixteen feet in length until they reached a patch of choya, where they reduced their speed. Seeing them gradually slow down at a stretch of open desert ahead, we mounted and, pursuing at a fast pace for less than a mile, caught u p

56

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

with the winded animals. Antonio uncoiled his riata and the rawhide halo floated down, snaring the last buck by one antler. The hunter dallied once around the saddle horn and tumbled the deer. After laying for a moment as if unable to comprehend what halted it, the deer leaped up and was backing off, tossing its antlers, when Antonio suddenly played out more riata, rolling the straining animal on its back. Releasing the noose, he deftly flipped it off. Our released captive did not wheel and run but was ambling slowly away when it suddenly collapsed. I was sorry and thought it was dying until it regained its feet, leaving us happily watching its retreat. When cold winter grips the desert, the deer avoid summer haunts during daylight hours and frequent sunny hill slopes where they bed down and follow the shifting sun around. They leave the valleys and flats at dawn, and to observe them you must be far from camp and breakfast, shivering in the cold chaparral. However, the trips are opportune when chilly mornings rile u p the cook's rheumatism. Rain, wind, or fog drives these deer into clumps of trees along arroyos, where they are cautious and difficult to approach, as coyotes skulk the cover during adverse weather. The mule deer of Sonora and Baja California differ from the Rocky Mountain subspecies, Odocoileus hemionus hemionus (Say), in the following respects. Their winter pelage is a lighter hue of gray, and the rump patch of white hair is not as large. The entire coat is shed during April, and their summer pelage is thinner and less vivid, becoming heavier and darker during winter months. The cap or patch of brown hair on the brow is darker and well defined and the skull is not as wide. The teeth are larger and the tooth row a bit longer. Mature Rocky Mountain mule deer often weigh over 300 pounds, and the desert species average 220 pounds. All are distinguished by large mulelike ears from which their name is derived, and they are commonly called venado burro in Mexico. The males or bucks bear sets of double-branched antlers, and their tines form prongs. Desert mule deer shed their antlers during late April and May. These are replaced by September. They are covered with spongy skin, called "velvet," that peels off slowly, and they are clean by late October. The new antlers are generally larger and have additional tines, until their years of reproduction end. The horns are intermediate in size, between those of whitetail deer and elk, varying in the number of points or tines, because of which the age of mature specimens is difficult to determine accurately. Many bear heavy antlers with wide spreads and numerous long tines. Others collected in the same regions have light, narrow antlers with a few short tines.

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys 57 Thus, the amount of mineral (such as lime) available to them through food contributing to these bony structures in their desert ranges is a doubtful factor affecting antler size along with the age of the animal. This is one of many important and interesting features in their life span that remains unsolved until the horn of plenty endows science with the means to accurately determine the reason. Weight is based on forty-one specimens collected by the writer over a period of years. Antlers and horns of game animals are interesting and instructive to naturalists and sportsmen; hence measurements of antlers and weights of five mule deer collected by the writer from their various habitats in Mexico are selected from among eight in his collection and listed for comparison (table 5). On the deserts in Sonora and Baja California the rutting season occurs during late October and early November. Then, mature males join mixed herds, crowding out the young bucks who join those from other herds. When the older bucks commence to shed their horns in May, they leave the herds of females whose period of gestation is ending and range singly or in small groups until fall. As their fawning time approaches, the does disband and wander alone in the chaparral until

58

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

TABLE 5. Mule deer

Odocoileus hemionus eremicus (Mearns)-Sonora and Baja California Horn measurements Circumference Greatest of main beam spread Right Left

Locality

Length of outside curve Right Left

Number of points Right Left

Chihuahua*

26 1/2"

27"

25 1/4"

5"

5 1/4"

9

7

205 lb.

San Luis Potosí*

26 3/4"

27"

28 1/2"

4 3/4"

4 3/4"

5

4

222 lb.

Tamaulipas*

28"

271/2"

30"

6"

5 1/2"

7

5

216 lb.

Altar Desert, Western Sonora**

32 1/4"

32 1/2"

381/4"

5 1/4"

5 1/2"

5

5

236 lb.

Vizcaíno Desert, Western Baja California**

271/2"

271/4"

311/2"

5 1/2"

5 1/2"

5

7

221 lb.

Weight

*Odocoileus hemionus canus (Merriam). **Listed in Records of North American Big Game, 1932 and 1939 editions.

they find a suitable place for the event, lingering near it until the fawns are born. The fawns are commonly two in number, and rarely three. I am seldom in the desert during this season, due to exceedingly warm weather, but on one occasion when light rains fell on the Altar Desert during late April we stayed on, spending part of May tracking the does on sandy uplands east of Sierra Colorai. This required skill and patience, which my Indian companion possessed, and after following several trails without results we found wide, spreading tracks of one he predicted was heavy with fawn. After trailing from sunrise to midafternoon we found her under a paloverde tree, standing over two newborn fawns, licking their wet coats, nudging tiny heads and twitching ears. Leaving them undisturbed my companion suggested "un buen retrato/' Unfortunately, though, I had been so pessimistic on leaving camp that morning that I did not bring the camera. On the Baja California desert, mule deer inhabit brushy valleys and flats near the mountains. In several regions during fawning season the does follow old trails u p into these mountains where open mea-

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

59

dows are littered with huge granite boulders, clumps of torote, and mesquite trees. Here, there are no chamiso and red shank bushes to afford cover for mountain lions, and the swirling Gulf winds carry away scent. In a meadow that crests Sierra de Calmajue y San José, Alberto and I flushed a mule deer doe that ran up the shallow arroyo for a short distance and circled to watch us from a ridge. My companion knew why she did this and led up the arroyo, where we finally discovered two youngsters in a hideout flecked with light and shadow. These are the same species of mule deer that inhabit the Altar Desert in Sonora, and their habits and habitats are alike, for their range is separated only by the narrow Gulf of California. Forty years ago mule deer were numerous in several parts of the peninsula, ranging south on both the Pacific and Gulf slopes from Sierra de Juárez to the terminus of Sierra de la Giganta. At present small herds are widely scattered from the northern end of the San Felipe desert to the tip of the peninsula. Within this range they inhabit the open desert and valleys. They are more numerous in regions north, east, south, and west of Sierra Columbia, and in similar terrain which surrounds Sierra de Calmajue y San José, Sierra de Calmalli, and Vizcaíno. Much of the terrain these deer inhabit is accessible by automobile, and they have been subjected to intensive hunting by sportsmen from California and native market hunters; the latter have a ready market for venison in cafés and restaurants in border cities of Tijuana, Mexicali, and the seaport of Ensenada, which are patronized by over a million Americans annually. Market hunting is still a business in Baja California, being limited only by a dwindling supply of game. It reached a peak during the years of prohibition, when the large herds of mule deer were nearly destroyed to supply venison to the bars and cafés of border towns. The mule deer range on the peninsula is similar to the habitat in Sonora, and the flora of cacti and thorn trees which affords them food and moisture on the Altar Desert occurs as well in Baja California with three exceptions-the milapa, cardon, and maguey. These species of giant cacti are peculiar to Baja California. The first, a tall thorny tree cactus, offers green leaves for browse; the second affords neither food nor moisture to game animals; but the maguey offers succulent shoots and blossoms. A dense chaparral of chamiso and red shank bushes covers valleys and mountain slopes. These and small forests of torote trees are more prevalent than on the Sonora desert. Open water is not essential to the mule deer's livelihood, and there

6o

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

is little available throughout their present habitats. The deer rarely frequent the few small streams as these are situated in the upper reaches of deep canyons and disappear before reaching the lower foothills where the deer live. Good examples of this situation are the Arroyos Santa María, del Rosario, San Fernando, Santa Catarina, and Delfino in the Distrito del Norte. There is one small spring near a group of wild palms in a mountain meadow east of Rancho Santa Ynez where the does water during fawning seasons, but they seldom go there at other times.

Odocoileus hemionus canus (Merriam)Chihuahua and Coahuila south through Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosí At present the habitats of mule deer in eastern Mexico are distributed through quasi-desert regions in the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Tamaulipas, and San Luis Potosí. In Canada and parts of the western United States mule deer inhabit forested mountains, whereas in this part of Mexico and in Sonora and Baja California, they occupy deserts. Hence conditions and seasons which govern their habits in Mexico are like those in Sonora and Baja California, discussed in the previous section. Previous to the Madero revolution of 1910, their range exceeded the present and extended eastward to bottom lands along the Rio Grande, thence south into desert valleys and plateaus which fringe the western slopes of Sierra Madre Oriental, where Dr. E. W. Nelson recorded the limits of their southern habitats in the state of San Luis Potosí. His observations were made during years previous to 1910, and these deer diminished rapidly during years of civil warfare and more so afterwards when market hunters invaded their easily accessible haunts. From 1915 to 1935 they were subjected to market hunting on a large scale. Many pioneer merchants, cattle ranchers, and railway employees have estimated that market hunters shipped over one hundred mule deer carcasses per month each year from October until March into the markets of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua City, Parral, Torreón, and Monterrey. A great deal of this hunting was done near stations on the Mexican Northwestern and national railways, where the meat was packed on burros to the railroads and shipped to market. During November 1921, I was returning from a trip afield in

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys 61 Chihuahua and saw a flatcar at Sabinal station loaded with seventyeight mule deer carcasses, consigned to markets in Ciudad Juárez. At this time mule deer were fairly plentiful throughout their present habitats. However, these herds have declined rapidly near civilization, and today only limited numbers occupy remote regions of their original habitats where higher, quasi-desert valleys and plateaus near the sierras are covered with seasonal grass, perennial cacti, and clumps of live oak and mesquite trees. Small tributaries of Ríos Casas Grandes and Conchos, which are dry during the summer, border the mule deer range in Chihuahua. The habitats farther south have limited sources of permanent water available to them, which is not important with the ever-present cacti. On casual observation these beautiful deer appear to be like others in Sonora and Baja California, but upon closer examination they are somewhat smaller in size and their grayish pelage is lighter in color. The measurements of typical antlers and weights of three specimens collected from different localities are tabulated with others from Sonora and Baja California (table 5). A few naturalists and sportsmen call them gray mule deer and the males "cactus bucks." True, they do inhabit a land of cactus; however, this term is generally applied to any buck whose antlers have many small tines or points. We often drove cattle to and from the Sonora ranch through the deer range in northern Chihuahua, and the first buck I collected was taken in this region. During the early 1920's they were still fairly plentiful, and we would see small herds bounding through the chaparral or watching from clumps of live oak and mesquite trees as we passed or camped. Many fine old bucks inhabited this picturesque country, which fringes high ramparts of the Sierra Madre Occidental. During those years we employed an old cowboy from Arizona named Alfonso, who was a keen hunter but seldom shaved. The ranch foreman called him "Cactus Al" as he was always talking about bagging a "cactus buck." If we camped in the region he would hunt before breakfast and after supper. Often upon returning with a deer the foreman remarked, "Here comes Cactus Al with a cactus buck." But he always scored on small ones and missed the coveted trophy. This finally became a standing joke, and when inquiring what each cowboy wanted at Christmas time, the foreman always suggested a cactus buck for Al. The old cowboy passed away on the ranch, and we all hoped he would sight a cactus buck when his eyes opened on the land beyond the sunset.

62 Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys WHITETAIL DEER

Odocoileus virginianus texanus and couesiSierra Madres Occidental and Oriental and other habitats These whitetail deer are widely distributed throughout the Republic to the border of Central America. At present they are fairly plentiful through northern and central Mexico but are not numerous on the west coast from the state of Guerrero south to Guatemala, and on the east coast from the state of Hidalgo to Campeche. However, they are still numerous in Quintana Roo and Yucatán. This vast game area is largely comprised of high, forested mountains, deserts, and tablelands that range from northern Mexico to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Within this range the whitetail deer occupy mountains forested with pine and oak where food and water are plentiful; arid desert sparsely forested with thorn trees, various aga-

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys 63 ves, and cacti; and tropical evergreen and rain forests with abundant food and moisture. Thus, their habitats and food are varied, but their seasonal habits are similar. During normal seasons they live in the high mountainous country throughout the year. But if the winters are severe they migrate into lower altitudes, which border the deserts and tropical regions. In central sections of Sierra Madre Occidental they can move from pines to palms within a few days. They are about one-half the size of the Virginia deer that inhabit northern regions of the United States, where mature bucks average 200 pounds. The Mexican whitetail average about 100 pounds. During the winter they have a heavy coat of brownish gray hair which is thinner in the summer and reddish brown in color. Their antlers are small with heavy beams which support a total of eight or more long points when the bucks are prime, and new sets are often colored reddish brown with sap from trees and bushes as the deer strip the velvet. Antlers of whitetail deer inhabiting the desert regions resemble those of deer in the forested mountains but are generally smaller with light beams and short, stubby points and are light brown in color. The season when whitetail deer shed their antlers varies in different habitats. Throughout their range in Mexico this generally occurs during April or early May. They seldom drop both beams at one time and are often seen with a single antler; perhaps this is the reason why shed antlers are rarely found in pairs. Porcupines consume those recently dropped, and few are found if these fellows are about. It is astonishing how large sets of horns are replaced by late August or September. The bucks rub the velvet off on trees and bushes, and during October the antlers are polished clean and the breeding season commences. During this period the bucks seek the does and are inclined to fight their rivals. If their antlers interlock during the struggle, both often die from exhaustion and starvation. Antlers are an interesting physical feature. The writer has tabulated horn measurements and weights for a few specimens from various habitats (table 6). When late spring arrives the herds disband, and one or two fawns are born in thickets of manzanita, pine, oak, or rank vegetation. While the fawns are too young to follow, the does hide them in patches of brushwood or among branches of fallen trees while they go to feed and drink. The youngsters are unafraid and often follow the vaqueros until left far behind or driven back to their hiding places. One of my vaqueros collected four while returning to the ranch, finally halting

64

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

TABLE 6. Horn measurements of whitetail deer Odocoileus virginianus texanus and couesi-Sierra Madre Occidental and contiguous ranges, desert regions of Sonora

Locality

Length of outside curve Right Left

Horn measurements Greatest Circumference spread of main beam Right Left

Sierra Madre Occidental, Chihuahua

18 5/8" 15" 15"

18 3/4" 15" 14 3/4"

17" 14 1/4" 141/4"

3 3/8" 4" 4"

31/2" 3 7/8" 3 3/4"

4 4 4

6 4 4

126 lb. 76 3/4 lb. 75 1/4 lb.

Sierra Madre Occidental, Sonora

17 5/8" 17 1/2" 15 1/8"

18" 17 5/8" 15 1/2"

18" 19 1/2" 161/8"

3 5/8" 3 1/2" 3 1/4"

31/2" 3 1/2" 3 1/8"

4 5 5

5 6

4

124 1/2 lb. 127 1/4 lb. 106 1/2 lb.

Altar Desert, 14 3/4" Sonora

14"

12 3/4"

3 1/2"

3 1/2"

3

5

811/2 lb.

Sierra Madre del Sur, Colima

101/4"

12"

3"

3"

3

3

71 lb.

101/4"

Number of points Right Left Weight

Listed in Records of North American Big Game, 1932 and 1939 editions.

them by closing the gate, and the other vaqueros called him "Juan Doe" for several months. Deer have keen eyesight and an acute sense of smell and hearing, and these faculties are highly developed in the whitetail. Native Mexican and Indian hunters claim the slightest sounds and vibrations are transmitted through the glands on the legs and hoofs of these deer. However, this function remains to be determined. In wilderness regions does and fawns are comparatively tame and curious. The bucks are wary, taking advantage of cover to skulk away undetected. If surprised, they utter a whistling blast that makes the leaves quiver. They are wingfooted and "muy bronco" and generally detect the hunter long before he sees them, bounding away before he can bring rifle to shoulder. If mortally wounded their white "flag" is lowered for an instant. True sportsmen never overlook this distress signal, and a bit of careful tracking will soon locate the coveted trophy. For years there has been a tale that a species of "dwarf" deer inhabit the Mexican wilderness. According to many narrators these are the size of jackrabbits; their antlers are three or four inches in length, their hoofs the size of a man's thumbnail, and so forth. Strange to

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys 65 relate, no specimens have actually been collected and it is doubtful if they exist. Whitetail deer are the most common and interesting of Mexico's game animals. If protected with seasonal hunting they are an asset. The regions they inhabit not only attract sportsmen and naturalists but have a fascination for campers and others who want to be where the Red Gods make medicine for everybody. Few countries in the world possess such an extensive sylvan wildwood so ideal for wildlife, abounding in mast-bearing trees and other sources of natural game foods. In the northern part of Sonora and Chihuahua perennial springs form small streams teeming with rainbow trout. These streams converge with others in deep canyons and form rivers that journey to the sea. Northwestern parts of Sierra Occidental were once inhabited by prehistoric cliff dwellers who hunted the whitetail deer for food. Previous to 1900, the deer were hunted by the Apache Indians from Arizona, and during recent years by hunters of the Tarahumara tribe from eastern Chihuahua. At present there are no highways into the pristine wilderness areas which comprise the western watersheds of Ríos Yaqui, Mayo, and Fuerte. Parts of this back country where old Spanish and Indian trails cross the Sierras have been invaded infrequently with pack and saddle by ranchers and others from outlying settlements. Many other areas are seldom visited, and they offer a field where the whitetail can be studied under ideal, primitive conditions. This opportunity was presented to me during the period I served as Federal Game Guardian in Mexico and while I was cattle ranching on the upper Río Yaqui. Whitetail deer are plentiful in similar country near the ranch; however, we have made many trips into the upper country of the Ríos Mayo and Fuerte and other regions which they inhabit in the sierras, deserts, and tropics of Mexico. These trips have extended over a period of more than thirty years. During this time eight skulls were collected from these habitats and presented to Madison Grant, then President, New York Zoological Society. Many more accessible sections of the whitetail habitats throughout Mexico were hunted for the market, and there were no laws regulating the seasons or bag limits for many years. This is why the whitetail deer are not more numerous today. Another factor contributing to their decrease in the sierras was the bands of Pancho Villa's armed soldiers that roved the countryside after he was assassinated. Red Salazar, who had been one of his numerous lieutenants, gathered six hundred of his horsemen and be-

66

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

gan to raid small towns and ranches. He left a trail of robbery and rapine throughout Chihuahua. The federal troops were close on his heels. West of Chihuahua City he encountered the lofty ramparts of Sierra Madre del Norte. Here the federals quit the chase. Salazar ascended the sierra and raided several of the Mormon colonies that fringe its crest. Southwest of Colonia Pacheco he found the old Sonora trail and also my ranch. Early one morning he appeared at my doorstep and offered to "buy" two hundred head of cattle to feed his hungry men. The payment for these being dubious, I told the foreman to gather the poorest he could find. These Salazar rejected and slaughtered my entire herd of fat Aberdeen Angus bulls. However, he invited myself and the vaqueros to the feast and departed leaving several thousand pesos of worthless money printed by Pancho Villa. While at breakfast the next morning the cook inquired, "How didja like them fat steaks, Mr. Tinker?" After Salazar's departure the vaqueros found his incoming trail, and six of his camps were littered with piles of whitetail deer horns, hides, and bones. The soldiers had killed does, fawns, and bucks which totaled two hundred or more.

Odocoileus virginianus couesiDesert region of Sonora These whitetail deer also inhabit the mountains on the Altar Desert in Sonora, where their arid ranges intermingle with those of the mule deer. This arid country differs from whitetail habitats elsewhere in Mexico, but the animals' habits remain similar. These features are consolidated in the previous chapter. The whitetail's life span and reproduction are not affected by the extreme heat and prolonged dry cycles, as these deer can obtain food and moisture from the perennial cacti and shrubs. They have never occupied Sierra del Pinacate or other mountains in the extreme northwest corner of the Altar Desert, where the southwestern slopes of Sierras del Rosario, de la Lechugulla, and del Tuseral are swept with prevailing Gulf winds which breed violent sandstorms, forming belts of high dunes along their bases and on several smaller ranges. According to Papago Indian lore this condition made the entire region uninhabitable for deer. Southeast of this region, in the northern end of their range, a few inhabit Sierras Cubabi, de San Francisco, Pinta, de la Espuma, del Plomo, de la Manteca, and de la Campaña. In the central parts of the

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

67

Altar Desert they are more numerous in groups of low mountains called the Costa Rica, fringing the Gulf of California, and farther south they inhabit Sierras del Alamo, del Rajón, del Cajón, de Jojoba, Picu, del Viejo, and Colorai, broken sandy uplands east of Puertos Lobos and Libertad, and numerous hills south of Arroyo de San Ignacio to Sierra Tepoca, where their present range on the Altar Desert terminates. As a large part of this country is remote from civilization, these deer have not been hunted extensively for the market. Very few, if any, now inhabit ranges farther south near the cities of Hermosillo and Guaymas, where they have been hunted for the market over a long period of years. Desert whitetail deer have no seasonal ranges, and although they occupy mountain habitats throughout the year, they have a peculiar habit of feeding from dusk until dawn in the nearby valleys and outlying stretches of open desert where vegetation is more abundant. At sunrise they return to the mountains and spend the summer days on shady canyonsides where prevailing winds aid in combating flying insects; during the winter they seek the sunny slopes. En route to their daytime haunts mixed herds of does and fawns are less wary and easily observed, but if the bucks detect your presence they play hide and seek among patches of chaparral, with only flashes pf white rumps and tails visible as they maneuver back to the mountains. The sportsman or naturalist, unfamiliar with their habits, is apt to seek them in the mountains during daytime with little success, for here they are alert. The first week I spent in their habitats on the Altar Desert, I climbed mountains with only fleeting glimpses of several flushed from their day beds. The cook had prospected in this country previously, and when I reached camp at the close of another luckless day, he solemnly listened to my story and then pointed to the mountains. "Wal, while ya been lookin' up thar fer deer, ah been huntin' the mules down here. Them onery critters knows whar the feed is, en ah sees a heap o' deer tracks on the flats. Go a-huntin' out thar termorrer." Following this logical advice, I collected two adult bucks. These compared favorably with specimens from the extreme southern parts of the Republic but were smaller physically than several collected in the Sierras. A table of body measurements is included (table 7). In their desert habitats spring arrives during late February and warm weather prevails until late October, but these conditions have

68

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys 69 TABLE 7. Body measurements of whitetail deer Odocoileus virginianus couesi-Sierra Picu, Altar Desert, Sonora, and Sierra Madre Occidental, Sonora

Height at shoulder

Length tip of nose to tail

Girth at Length foreleg of tail

Sierra Picu, Altar Desert, Sonora

29"

48 1/2"

28 1/2"

6 3/4"

Fruit of viznaga and jojoba; leaves of mesquite, palo fierro, and desert willow

Sierra Madre Occidental, Sonora

33 1/2"

52 1/4"

311/4"

7 1/2"

Mast and leaves of gamble oak; juniper berries (Juniperus pachyphooea); several kinds of grass, coconut grass (Cyperus esculentus) being the only one identified

Locality

Contents of stomach

not changed their seasonal habits. Their antlers are replaced by late September or early October, when the rutting is at hand. During these months the bucks rejoin herds of does and older fawns, remaining with them until spring when they disband and the does each bear one or two fawns. The winter pelage is light gray in color and replaced with one of faded brown during the summer. The small antlers are typical of this species. They have light beams, small tines, and narrow spread.

Odocoileus virginianus couesiBaja California The peninsula of Baja California presents a vista of desert sierras which extend over nine hundred miles southward. Before the revolution of 1910, whitetail deer inhabited many of the sierras, from Sierra de Juárez and Sierra de San Pedro Mártir in the north to Sierra de la Victoria in the south. Today, they are sparsely distributed over parts of this area. In northern Baja California they occupy remote sections in Sierra de Juárez, where stands of oak at higher elevations are intermingled

70

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

with desert flora, and Sierra de San Pedro Mártir, which is forested with oak and pine. Both of these ranges were the ancient hunting grounds of Cocupa Indians from the Colorado desert, who came annually for a supply of meat and buckskin. Farther south on the Pacific slope the whitetail deer inhabit Sierra San Miguel and high desert mesas southwest of Misión San Fernando, notably Mesa San Carlos; Sierras Columbia and Vizcaíno; both gulf and Pacific slopes of Sierras de Calmalli, Tres Vírgenes, de la Giganta; and groups of lower sierras between the southern end of Tres Vírgenes and the northern end of Sierra de la Giganta. Northern parts of this country are occupied by ranches, and in the south the ranches are near old centers of civilization, such as San Ignacio, Santa Rosalía, Mulegé, Comondú, and La Paz. On the gulf slope small herds occupy remote mountainous regions from the peaks of San Juan de Dios southward to Sierra Santa María and through Sierra de Calmajue y San José. Here there are few ranches, but a passable road has opened sections of this range to hunters. The habits and desert habitats of the whitetail deer in Baja California are similar to those of the whitetail inhabiting the Altar Desert in Sonora, which have been described. Their habitats in Sierra de Juárez and Sierra de San Pedro Mártir differ as previously noted.

COLLARED PECCARY

Dicotyles tajacu The range of the collared peccary extends from northern Chihuahua and Sonora into Central America. The species has been recorded in every state in Mexico except Baja California. The other Mexican species of wild pig, the white-lipped peccary, Dicotyles pecari, inhabits only the wetter regions of the east coast, from southern Veracruz through the peninsula of Yucatán. In Sierra Madre Occidental, Oriental, and other mountains in northern Mexico, the collared peccaries inhabit forests of pine, oak, piñon, and cedar, where their food is largely mast and where water is plentiful. Their range also extends through foothills and outlying mountains where similar conditions prevail, and southward into tropical evergreen forests where wild figs, nut palms, and other fruitbearing trees provide abundant food. They also inhabit desert regions where the mast of thorn trees and the fruit and flesh of various cacti and agaves afford both food and water.

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

71

They are commonly called "javelinas" throughout northern Mexico. The collared peccary occupies much of its original habitat, and it is numerous in many remote regions. Like the whitetail deer, this species is remarkably able to withstand heavy and persistent hunting by local people who are ever in need of meat for the pot. Adult specimens are seldom over three feet in length, weighing forty to sixty pounds. Their large heads and forequarters taper to slender hindquarters. There is a large gland on top of the center of the rump which emits a strong odor. The odor permeates the flesh soon after death, and this gland should be cut out at once if the flesh is to be eaten. The bristly pelage varies in color from grizzled gray in desert habitats to rusty brown in forested regions. There is a market for the hides, and previous to 1940 hundreds of the animals were killed annually by native hunters and the hides sold to American factories manufacturing leather goods and brushes. The breeding season is not clearly prescribed. Presumably they mate during the late fall, as the young animals, generally one or two in number, are seen with the females during the spring. This prevails throughout their habitats in Mexico. We have captured several young ones, and after being penned up at the ranch for a few months, they were tame and helped the dogs greet our guests. Inaccurate tales are related of their ferocity-how they attack hunters, forcing them to climb trees, and so forth. These yarns are thrilling

72 Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys to inexperienced listeners but have no place in the annals of truth. In the wilderness the peccaries present a belligerent, truculent appearance but will flee from humans. They use their tusks only on wild animals or if molested. Peccaries have keen sight and sense of smell; their hearing is somewhat deficient, and a careful observer stalking against the wind can easily approach a band if the animals are feeding. They are interesting to watch while foraging, but rather difficult to photograph as they are always in motion. They utter low grunts while moving about or poking their snouts into thickets of rank vegetation or crevices inhabited by reptiles, which they seem to relish. Apparently these animals are not nocturnal, for we often aroused them, while returning to camp after sunset, in caves along the rivers and in secluded nooks in desert mountains and tropical thickets. Daylight inspection of these places revealed that peccaries had bedded down during the previous night. During a trip on the Altar Desert we were caught short of our destination by darkness and camped at twilight near a granite mountain honeycombed with caves. Suddenly a sharp squeal came from that direction, and we found two large boars fighting on the bank of a nearby arroyo. Reared up and braced against each other, they slashed like fighting dogs for several minutes until they saw us. Jaguars, mountain lions, timber wolves, and coyotes prey on them to some extent. However, they are canny beasts and alert to the natural enemies that come into their daily existence. BEAR

Grizzly, Ursus arctos Prior to 1900, grizzly bears inhabited forested regions of the Sierra Madre Occidental from Sonora and Chihuahua to the southern border of Durango. They also occupied a limited range in northern Coahuila. A few now exist in the wilderness areas that comprise the upper watershed of the Río Yaqui in Sonora and Chihuahua. This status also prevails in a region of Sierra Madre Occidental in western Chihuahua called Sierra del Nido, where several have been bagged by Mexican and American sportsmen during a long period of years. The grizzlies will soon become extinct in these habitats if not protected with an absolute closed season. During the past thirty years none

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys 73 have been seen or collected, as far as known, in former habitats south of this region. For many years grizzlies were killed at all times of the year, and much of this senseless slaughter was done by ranchers who claimed the bears were killing livestock, which in several instances proved to be the kill of mountain lions. A few bears of both species (Grizzly, Ursus arctos, and Black, Ursus americanus) do revert to killing cattle, horses, and pigs and if proven should be hunted down and killed. Grizzlies have never molested livestock on my Sonora ranch, consequently I never saw them kill livestock, but the ranch foreman has seen grizzly kills many years ago on ranches in Wyoming and Montana. He states that they seize the animal by the head, holding on to bite and mangle the neck and back of the skull with blows of their powerful paws. Both the grizzly and black bears occupy similar forested habitats and utilize the same natural foods which are available. Thus their life history and habits are alike. These features are discussed in the section of this chapter relating to black bears, which at present are more numerous and inhabit a wider range in the Republic than grizzlies. Average Mexican grizzlies are similar in size to those of the western United States and somewhat smaller than those of Canada and Alaska. Their pelage varies in color from pale buff to dark brown with hair tips of lighter color, which gives them a grizzled appearance and accounts for the name "silvertips." On specimens collected in the Sierra Madre Occidental the grizzled marking is most conspicuous on foreparts of back, forequarters, and sides of belly. The skins-if they are properly removed, and if care is taken not to stretch them while fresh or "green"-are generally a bit wider than long. Those of three mature grizzlies taken by native hunters and a like number taken by the writer averaged 7'2" in length, and 7''4" in width. Four were male and two were female specimens, all being similar in size. These averaged 655 pounds, including stomach contents and less loss of blood. A large male collected by an American sportsman on the Sonora slope of Sierra Madre Occidental and another taken in this region by a prospector appeared to be larger, but unfortunately neither of these was measured or weighed (table 8). Grizzlies have long, semicurved claws that are often 21/2 or 3 inches long on the front paws and shorter on the hind paws; these prevent tree climbing, which has been reassuring on several occasions. Many have forepaws that measure 5 or 6 inches wide and 7 or 8 inches long. Their hind paws are equally as wide but longer and in some

74 Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys 75 TABLE 8. Bears

Grizzly, Ursus arctos, and Black, Ursus americanus

Locality

Skull measurements Greatest Width across length zygomatic Skin measurements overall arches Length Width Weight

Grizzly Sonora Chihuahua Durango Sonora

15 1/4" 15 3/16" 147/8" 14 1/4"

ack Coahuila Sonora Chihuahua Durango

13 12 12 12

3/16" 13/16" 1/4" 7/8"

9 1/8" 8 1/2"

7'3"

7'3 3/4" 676 lb. 5/8" 665 lb. 6' 9 " 653 lb. 7'2

8 5/8"

7'1 1/2" 6'10 1/2"

8 1/4"

6'8 3/4"

6'10 1/4" 641 lb.

7 5/8"

6'3"

6'4 1/2"

7 1/4"

6' 1/2"

6'2" 5'8 1/2"

7 1/8" 7 3/4"

5' 10"

5' 5'

5'6"

471 lb. 4 6 0 lb.

447 lb. 396 lb.

Sex

Male Male Female Female Male Male Female Female

instances measure 9 or 10 inches. These measurements do not include the claws, which are utilized in feeding and as a weapon. Many years ago, when Geronimo surrendered to the United States troops in Sierra Madre Occidental, the grizzly was considered "muy bravo," and many of the warriors wore necklaces made of grizzly claws. When the soldiers offered to buy these the Apaches informed them that necklaces were badges of courage. Grizzlies are generally nocturnal and, being so few in their present habitats, are seldom seen abroad during the day, unless dogs are employed to find them. At present there are no good dogs available south of the border, and the sportsman must bring his own. The few native packs will trail a bear but never overlook other interests en route, and you are apt to find Pepe Le Phew or Molly Cottontail at the trail's end. Previous to 1900, grizzlies, being more numerous than at present in the primitive wilderness, were bold and were often seen by trappers and ranchers who soon realized that their black powder rifles and soft lead bullets were inadequate to assure a kill of one of these powerful beasts. They avoided the "silvertips" after several men were killed or mauled. But during more recent years, settlers and prospectors with modern firearms have encroached on their domain, driving the big bears into remote regions where they have become wary and secretive. Since grizzlies are more intelligent and courageous than black bears, self-preservation would be the only plausible reason for this,

76

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

but they are to be respected at all times. If not wounded or with cubs the grizzlies generally attend strictly to their own affairs; however, they are capricious and their attitudes vary toward humans. A Mormon rancher from Colonia Pacheco and I sighted one at some distance on a ridge crest and watched it dig around a boulder until my horse snorted, when it ran into the timber and disappeared. We tracked it for some distance, and heard it crashing among dead wood and sliding rocks ahead, but never saw it again. This one was extremely wary, but another we happened upon was rooting under a rotten stump, and after routing the pack train off the trail, I observed it with the glasses as we rode away. Finally the big fellow discovered us and reared up to watch as we disappeared in the pines; then it resumed its search and paid no further attention to the outfit. On another occasion in the springtime, a female shunted her small cubs into a clump of manzanita, quickly returning to contest the trail, which we willingly gave her. During a hot day in July I was riding down a steep canyon slope to water my mount in the stream. Hearing a subdued splash I pulled up short and saw a big male grizzly emerge from a pool and vanish among the wild grape vines. At this time my horse began to "cut capers," and I was so occupied trying to stay in the saddle that I lost all interest in the bear. One day in late spring we were moving camp up to the head of a stream that flows into the Río Aros. We halted the pack outfit at a point where the trail followed the canyon bottom, to tighten pack cinches. While thus engaged we heard a boulder crash down into the canyon ahead. "Snows loosened up a boulder," said the cook. Within a few minutes another rolled down, this time so close that one of the mules bolted. We climbed a short distance u p the opposite slope and saw a female grizzly with one cub turning over boulders on the canyon rim. After licking u p the insects they moved away slowly, disregarding the outfit, and we had no cause to molest them. To meet a grizzly in the wilderness is an experience to be remembered, and more so during the late fall when they are prime and seeking a place to hibernate. During this season they are belligerent, and when six or seven feet of jaws, claws, and hair rear u p at close range you must decide "muy pronto" to shoot or retreat. Apparently this big male I encountered was ready to "hole u p " for the winter. A late October day in the sierras was ending. Clouds overcast the wintry sky. With a whitetail buck roped in the saddle, I was afoot and far from camp when I saw fresh grizzly tracks ahead

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

77

and followed them across the mesa to a point where the trail rimmed off into a canyon. Suddenly a grizzly reared up in a thicket of brush, directly below me, swinging his front paws studded with long claws, swaying as he sniffed the wind. Tying the mule to a scrub oak and wishing it could be climbed, I chambered a cartridge. As the bolt clicked the bear dropped to all fours, coming slowly up, growling as he raised his head. This fellow was truculent. The heavy bullet ripped through hide and bone, sprawling him, but being uncertain I delayed the death shot and the grizzly regained his feet, coming u p in swift lunges. Anticipating the unexpected I knelt down to steady the rifle and fortunately the second bullet connected, crumpling him less than twenty feet down slope, which is jittery latitude. The mule was demonstrating the same opinion. This pulsative climax ended the trip afield. Before the round trip from camp to skin and bring in the grizzly was completed, the sierras were swathed in white, and we trailed 150 miles back to the ranch, leaving a silent wilderness to the bears.

Black, Ursus americanus At the turn of the present century black bears inhabited the Sierra Madre Occidental from the northern terminus near the border of Arizona and New Mexico to the state of Jalisco. They occupied a limited range in Coahuila and parts of Sierra Madre Oriental from the state of Nuevo León to southern San Luis Potosí. Their present range extends through Sierra Madre Occidental from Sonora to Zacatecas. They are most plentiful in central Sonora, Chihuahua, and northern Durango. They are also fairly numerous in the forested mountains of Coahuila and in the Sierra Madre Oriental from northern Nuevo León through the states of Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosí. Black bears are agile, strong, and generally harmless, but like the grizzlies they are temperamental when with cubs or if wounded. On rare occasions they will raid pigpens on isolated ranches and kill young pigs as they forage among the oaks. These bears are prone to linger in the vicinity until the rancher resorts to trapping and lures them into baited V-shaped log pens with steel traps cleverly concealed at the entrance. Mature specimens seldom weigh over 450 pounds and average much less. Among seven collected over a period of twenty years, the largest weighed 471 pounds. This skin measured 6'3" long, 6' 4 1/2"

78 Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

79

wide; the smallest was 5'5" long, 5'6" in width, and weighed 396 pounds (table 8). Forty-seven skins of this species have been examined. These were from various parts of the Sierras and other Mexican mountains. A few of the skins were in the possession of native hunters; others belonged to fur buyers who knew little or nothing concerning their origin or history. Many had been stretched out of shape, and no accurate measurements as to size of the largest could be determined. Most of the skulls had been either lost or left where the bears were killed, thus losing valuable data. Cinnamon bears are a color phase of the black, and they occur in litters with black cubs. Their pelage varies from light to rusty brown. Occasionally black bears have brown spots on the muzzle and a patch of white on the nose and chest. The majority are entirely black. They have short curved claws which are rarely visible on their tracks and they are tree climbers. Their paws are smaller than those of grizzlies, the hind ones generally 5 1/2 to 6 inches long, and 3 1/2 or 4 inches wide. The front paws are an inch or so shorter and 4 or 5 inches wide. Both the black and grizzly bears have keen hearing and sense of smell, but poor eyesight. They rear upright when alarmed or suspicious to see what might be disturbing their peace and security, and when they want to reach high clusters of wild grapes and berries. The forested regions which both species occupy in Mexico are ideal habitats, and nature has provided them with abundant food and water. Thickets of blackberries, wild cherries, and grapes grow in deep canyons, and wild strawberries flourish in secluded nooks. Mastbearing trees, pine, oak, juniper, and cedar forest the upper regions. Manzanita, piñon, and one species of agave called sotol or "Spanish dagger" cover lower altitudes. The latter bears fruit much like a persimmon, which ripens during late October. At this season careful stalking often reveals bruin feasting on the fruit. Black bears are omnivorous and, being especially fond of anything sweet, search for hoards of wild honey, which is eaten avidly despite the protestations of swarms of bees working in the comb. Deer carcasses killed and concealed with leaves and twigs by mountain lions are sought out, and the bears dig out lizards, crawling insects, ground squirrels, chipmunks, badgers, and coatimundi. They leave skunks and porcupines strictly alone. Permanent water is essential to their existence, and throughout their habitats in Mexico are many perennial springs that feed streams bordered with willows and wild flowers. During midsummer the

8o

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

bears cool off in deep pools, which are secluded by willows or grape vines. We frequently flush them from their bath and they hurry away, leaving wet tracks and drops of water on grass and leaves along their trails. It is difficult to determine when their mating season actually occurs in the Mexican wilderness. Probably it takes place at a different time than for those in captivity. At times full-grown males of either species are observed alone, but they frequently congregate with the females and young cubs during all months previous to their hibernation. The period of hibernation of both black and grizzly bears is alike; they are outdoors until snow mantles the sierras, and then they vanish into caves and dens among rocks and fallen timber. Hibernation appears to be governed by weather conditions. In the sierras it commences with the first snowstorm, generally during November, and terminates in early May when spring unlocks the snowbound wilderness. During this period the bears occupy widely separated dens. The young cubs remain with their mothers through the following winter and disband when she emerges with the newborn cubs. The cubs are born during midwinter, commonly one to four per litter, and are so small at birth that one can be laid on the palm of your hand. It is a month or more before they grow a coat of hair and open their eyes. When spring arrives they leave the den and wander with a mother who is hungry and often belligerent. Unless you desire personal contact, best let her go her way and you do likewise.

WILD TURKEY

Meleagris gallopavo Wild turkeys are the aristocrats of North American game birds. Two species occupy extensive ranges in the Republic, and both still occur in much of their original habitat on both the east and west coasts. The common wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) inhabits the Sierra Madre Occidental and other forested mountains on the west coast, from northern Sonora and Chihuahua to central Michoacán. The bird is numerous in the more remote regions but has been sorely depleted in accessible areas, especially on the east coast, where its present habitats are located in forested mountains of northern Coahuila and parts of the Sierra Madre Oriental, from southern Nuevo León through Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosí.

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys 81 The other species, the ocellated turkey (Agriocharis ocellata), occupies forested regions in Yucatán, Campeche, and Quintana Roo, where it is locally numerous in tropical evergreen and rain forests. Here lush vegetation affords ground cover and a wide variety of food in the form of mast, wild fruit, berries, and seeds. The high-forested sierras on the east and west coasts are natural habitats for the wild turkey. Here they dwell among pine and oak forests that mingle with thickets of juniper, cedar, and piñon at lower altitudes. The mast supplied by these trees is important to their livelihood, especially during the winter. Wild grapes, blackberries, strawberries, manzanita berries, and wild cherries are plentiful during the summer and fall. Several kinds of grass furnish an abundant supply of seeds throughout the year. There are many small streams and springs. Thus, both food and water are abundant, as they must be in regions that the turkeys inhabit permanently. If the supply of either dwindles, they migrate to areas where these necessities are available. During normal seasons turkeys inhabit higher elevations throughout the year. When heavy snowstorms blanket the high sierras, they move to lower altitudes and linger there until the storms are over. Wild turkeys go afield for food during hours of early morning and evening, foraging for mast, seeds, berries, and insect life scratched up from under the forest's carpet of pine needles; they fly to roost in

82

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

high trees at twilight. Evidently they prefer the pine trees for roosting places, selecting limbs that are twenty feet or more above the ground, for here they are safe from prowling timber wolves, mountain lions, bobcats, and coyotes. Likewise, they are sheltered with needled canopies from rain and snow. Late one evening we were seeking a campsite and saw an owl vault from its perch in a pine and wing off across the canyon. When it vanished a flock of turkeys flew into the trees to roost. The old birds were not completely satisfied and heckled the younger ones with sharp pecks, urging them to abandon the lower limbs with scanty cover. After much conversation they hopped up among high branches and settled down for the night. At midday they seek water, preferring small trickling streams and springs. From their watering places they travel to thickets of oak and pine on the canyon slopes, where they spend the afternoon hours watchfully, nestled among leaves and needles, and ready to sail off across the canyons if danger approaches. Frequently they fly a mile or more after the takeoff and alight on the opposite canyonside, running at a fast clip until their panic ceases. One afternoon a turkey landed on the trail just ahead of the pack outfit, followed by others, causing the mules to stampede while the flock raced up the slope and out of sight. Evidently they were flushed from a resting place by some animal and were all set to land when the outfit appeared. Wild turkeys are much the same in color as domesticated fowls. However, the wild species is more colorful with its glistening bronzetipped plumage, which is variegated with splotches of black and white on the tail and wing feathers. A few albinos occur among the wild flocks. These do not survive many years and are the first to be struck down by predators. Timber wolves, mountain lions, bobcats, and coyotes are the mountain turkeys' natural enemies. These cunning, restless hunters will hide and wait for a flock to pass their way. If it happens to be a hen with young birds, which hop about before following her in flight, many are killed and the predator goes back over the trail to feast. Eagles and hawks prey on the young birds and often catch them despite the marvelous natural instinct of the hens, which are always vigilant for the swift swoop of feathered talon or tearing claw. Wild turkeys are about the same in size as their domesticated kin. When the year is favorable and food is plentiful, they are big and fat. During a period of twenty years we have weighed forty-five mature

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

83

specimens of both sexes. The largest gobbler and hen weighed 37 and 29 pounds respectively, and the entire number averaged 23 pounds. All were fat and in prime condition. In the sierras they mate during the months of March and April. During this period, the male birds sound their mating call or "gobble" at dawn and again in the late evening. At both times they are at roost in the pines, and their call travels through the forest to the female, who answers with her peculiar piping note. Evidently the evening call is made by the male bird only to satisfy his conceit, for as soon as he gets a response he will not gobble again until morning. Also, if storm clouds obscure the sun during daylight hours, the male birds will often fly to roost and commence gobbling, assuming that the sun has set and no time is to be lost locating a mate for tomorrow. As the mating progresses, the hens leave the gobblers and seek heavily wooded ridges to build their nests of grass, twigs, and their own feathers. These are on the ground, generally in thickets of oaks and low shrubs, where flecky light and shadows blend to conceal them. How clever the hens are in selecting nesting places can be estimated by the fact that pioneer woodsmen seldom find them. The nest is often located near a spring or stream. Each nest contains eight to twelve eggs. These are usually laid during early April and are speckled with brown splotches like domestic clutches. During the latter part of May the eggs commence to hatch. As cold, wet weather at high altitudes is highly destructive to her young brood, the wild hen artfully times her nesting period so that the brood is hatched when the late spring rains have terminated, and before the chilling showers of early summer have commenced. Sometimes her timing is off and the eggs or birds are destroyed by the elements. She is also menaced by extreme droughts, which create forest fires that sweep the timbered ridges clean of all wildlife. Snakes, predators, and rodents also prey on eggs and newly hatched chicks. A diamondback rattlesnake will swallow an entire clutch of eggs or eat the young chicks, and will linger near a nest waiting for the hen to go for food and water before he starts the work of destruction. After the young turkeys are able to navigate, the hen leads them from the nest out into their wilderness home for a look about. During a period of two or three weeks, they frequent the area of the nest at evening; after that time they are strong enough to roam the forests and roost wherever nightfall finds them. Male birds do not accompany the hens with chicks, but often two or more hens unite their

84

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

broods and remain together until the following mating and nesting season. If hens with young broods are afield when the late rainstorms come with their blasts of thunder, they scurry into any tree nearby and huddle in groups while the storm rages. Often these are low evergreens. If a mountain lion or bobcat happens along, the hen flies away, but the young birds will flutter among the branches rather than fly out into the storm with her and escape. The killer snatches with tooth and claw until many are slaughtered. Instinctively wild turkeys are averse to wet weather, but flocks of mature birds will fly out into rain or snow if animals or humans approach their shelter. The unrivaled value of their flesh as food is generally recognized by everyone and probably more so by those who live or frequent their remote habitats. When severe winters set in, the turkeys are reluctant to leave their high mountain homes and depart for lower altitudes long after the deer have migrated to the lower country. Trappers and placer miners who are abroad in these regions depend on wild turkeys for meat, and when snowstorms drive the flocks down, they make extended forays after them rather than subsist on tortillas and frijoles. While pursuing Geronimo and his Apache warriors in Sierra Madre Occidental during 1885, Capt. Marion P. Maus had several Apache scouts with him who carried bows and arrows along with their rifles. He related how, at the close of a snowy day, the column was seeking a bivouac and, entering a forested pass, found a large flock of wild turkeys at roost. Maus estimated that there were more than one hundred birds in the flock, and the bowmen killed several on the roost and others as they winged out into the storm. At this time the column had long since lost contact with their supply base at the Lang ranch and, great caution being employed not to alarm the Apaches, were depending on venison killed by the archers for daily food. Due to prolonged snowstorms the deer had migrated into lower regions and the men had not eaten for two days when they happened on this flock of turkeys* Even where plentiful, wild turkeys are difficult to hunt, and they take full advantage of natural cover and lack of skill by the hunter. While feeding they fly quickly into the nearest tree, then hop upward into heavy foliage and fly out through the tops. *Related by Captain Maus to John H. Tinker, a newspaper publisher in Arizona during and after the Apache uprising.

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys 85

86

Major Big Game Animals and Wild Turkeys

Stalking them on the roost is more difficult than might be surmised. During the early morning or evening they will fly away before clearly visible. Often a few linger in the treetops and come hurtling out while you are scanning the country ahead. They are easier to locate during the mating season, when they go to roost and gobble at sunset. Then the hunter must roam the forest, locate the roosting place, and return to it before dawn. At daylight the birds gobble again, and you must wait at a distance until there is sufficient light to see them. Good binoculars are invaluable. Luring the birds with a "turkey caller" requires a good hiding place and the right notes sounded at the proper time. A few of the native ranchers used trained dogs to hunt turkeys. In this manner the hunter, either afoot or on horseback, follows the dogs. Ranging ahead the dogs detect the birds while they are feeding in thickets of brush or high grass, and dashing among the flock cause them to fly hurriedly into the trees. Holding the quarry aloft by barking and running beneath the trees, the dogs gain time for the hunter to shoot. If the shot is well placed you have collected a specimen of North America's finest game bird.

7. Life Sketches of Major Predatory Animals

JAGUAR

Felis onca At present the habitats of the jaguar on the west coast extend from the foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental in northern Sonora down into the tropical forests that border the Pacific coast, and southward to Central America. On the east coast jaguars inhabit tropical forests in the coastal regions bordering the Gulf of Mexico from northern Tamaulipas through the peninsula of Yucatán. The few jaguars that drift u p into northern parts of Sierra Madre Occidental are not a serious menace to its wildlife as they do not remain in these high, timbered mountains for long periods of time but prefer the tropical forested regions where they prey on all forms of wildlife. However, jaguars are great travelers, and their sporadic journeys extend into lower regions of Sierra Madre Occidental, where they have been observed and recorded for nearly a century. Many years ago several were seen in foothills of the sierra near Nácori Chico, Sonora, by Capt. Marion P. Maus and his scouts, who were pursuing Geronimo and his warriors in northern Sonora. During later years seven specimens were collected in and near this region. These were acquired by the United States Biological Survey and are now in the national museum. Today jaguars are occasionally seen in this part of Sonora. During 1958 a small specimen was taken by hunters in the mountains of southern Arizona. The jaguars are not numerous throughout their habitats, although their food, which largely consists of deer, peccaries, and wild turkeys, is fairly plentiful and there is sufficient water. While hunting jaguars in the states of Sinaloa, Nayarit, Jalisco, Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Chiapas over a period of seasons, I noted skeletons of peccaries and deer killed by them, and these averaged about five peccaries to one deer, discovered among mazes of jaguar

88

Major Predatory Animals

spoor. Whether this is due to preference or availability cannot be accurately stated. Jaguars also kill many tropical game birds, and they frequent beaches along the southern west coast seeking the eggs deposited by sea turtles and other edibles cast up by the sea. Their mating season is generally April or May. During this season, and when the tropical moon lights the forest and jungle, the males utter a subdued roar as they seek the females. Then, the few native hunters who know how to imitate this cry can lure the male within shooting range by sounding their mating call with wooden horns (or old coffee pots). This method of hunting is interesting but not always successful. We have never found a den with cubs and only two which they

Major Predatory Animals 89 once inhabited. The natives find dens and in rare instances have found litters of from two to four cubs during July and August, which makes the period of gestation less than four months. At present jaguars seldom kill livestock, but in the past this frequently occurred, and many of the rancheros employed "el tigre" hunters and their dogs to control them. A pack of dogs trained to hunt jaguars is the most successful method that can be employed to hunt them. The jaguar is a nocturnal beast and spends the daylight hours among crags and caves or in vine-covered trees, where its keen sense of hearing and smell warns of danger. Jaguars do not remain very long aloft when "treed" by dogs, and will quickly descend to lower branches and get ready to leap and run. During a trip in Nayarit the dogs bayed a big male in a hardwood tree which had many low branches. The native guide (and his dogs) cautioned us to shoot quickly, but my companion wanted a "close-up" action picture and was climbing up as the jaguar came around on his side climbing down. The big cat paused directly overhead with open jaws, so close that our photographer forgot his picture and leaped to the ground as the jaguar jumped and climbed another tree, where I was lucky to bag him. His winter pelage was a deep yellow, well marked with black spots and rosettes, and typical of a prime skin. He was a good specimen, weighing 116 pounds, which included the remains of two black curassows and a large peccary he had eaten; the skin measured 6'7 1/2" in length. This subspecies (Felis onca hernandesii) and two other Mexican subspecies (veraecrucis and goldmani) are smaller than the races that range further south in various parts of Central and South America (twelve subspecies). A few rare, large specimens from Mexico are 7 feet long, though many are less than 6 feet, and weigh less than 125 pounds according to how well they have dined. Measurements of three jaguars collected by the writer in Mexico are presented in table 9. The largest jaguars inhabit southern Matto Grosso, Brazil, where they frequently measure over 7 feet in length and weigh 250 pounds or more. Black jaguars also occur in the dense, humid forest of South America. These are not a distinct species, only a color phase. None of this color has been seen or killed in Mexico according to accurate records. Jaguars are not truculent and ferocious like African leopards. They are cowardly and shy like mountain lions. Often natives who dwell in their tropical habitats fear "el tigre" but admit they have never seen or heard of them attacking or harming humans.

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TABLE 9. jaguar Felis onca

Locality

Skull measurements Greatest Width across length zygomatic overall arches

Length of skin

Sex

116 lb.

Male

Sierra Madre 10 3/4" Occidental, Nayarit

6 7/8"

Sierra Madre 101/8" del Sur, Guerrero

61/2"

6'5"

1111/2 lb.

Male

Sierra Madre 111/4" del Sur,

71/4"

6'6 5/8"

113 lb.

Female

6'7

1/2"

Weight

Oaxaca

Jaguars do not inhabit or range over any part of the Altar Desert in Sonora or in Baja California, and the padres left no records of them inhabiting the peninsula during their time.

M O U N T A I N LION

Felis concolor-

Sierra Madre and contiguous ranges

The mountain lion, also called puma or cougar, occupies an extensive range throughout the Sierra Madre and outlying timbered mountains. At present the species is more numerous in the northern areas of these sierras in the states of Sonora and Chihuahua, and farther south in Durango and Zacatecas. They are quite plentiful in the forested sierras of Michoacán, Guerrero, and Oaxaca. On the east coast their habitats are widely distributed through forested regions from Coahuila to Tamaulipas, Veracruz, and Yucatán, but they are not numerous. Their range on the continent is unequaled by any other American mammal. They dwell in a vast territory that extends from Canada to the tip of South America. Throughout their range in Mexico they prey on many forms of wildlife, but mostly on whitetail deer, peccaries, and wild turkeys wherever they occupy the same habitats. Native hunters and cattle

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91

ranchers estimate a mature lion will kill from fifty to one hundred deer annually as well as many wild turkeys. During many years of cattle ranching in the Sonora mountains, the vaqueros and I have found many of their deer kills, but we have never kept an accurate record of them. We undoubtedly overlooked many as they often bury the carcass in hollows, cleverly covering it with brush, twigs, and leaves. I have never seen them kill an animal; several of the vaqueros have and say they strike a deer or cow down with one powerful leap and start to devour the victim by ripping out its throat or belly while it is still struggling. I have noted several instances where lions stalked the antelope in their habitats east of Sierra Madre Occidental. These forays probably occurred while the lions were trailing across the plains into outlying mountains, and generally were without success, as the pronghorn are too wary to be caught off guard on their open ranges. Mountain lions are restless travelers. Though game is plentiful in the ranges of their birth, they make long journeys into new territory, remaining for extended periods only to return and wander again. This we accurately observed while driving lions off our cattle range with dogs, traps, and poison, often noting the return of several by their peculiar habits or deformed tracks. We have found feathers and remains of wild turkeys among their spoor near ciénagas and springs. Early one morning we watched a lion intercept a flock that ran u p a canyon slope ahead of the outfit. Leaping among them he seized one and bounded out of sight while the survivors sailed away across the canyon. On another occasion the ranch foreman and I stopped to lunch near a ciénaga carpeted with a lush growth of coconut grass occupied by a covey of Mearns quail that called softly as they scratched out the roots and nodules on which they fed. We were bedding down to nap when they "whirred" away, and we saw a lion slouching down a deer trail toward the ciénaga. As I reached for the rifle the lion spotted us and I missed the shot. In other regions this would have been a rare event as they are beasts of the night and are seldom seen abroad during daylight. In this wilderness (upper Río Yaqui) they often roam during daytime. The vaqueros see them but seldom have time to draw and shoot. Recently we flushed a lion from a thicket of small pine trees edging a canyon where it disappeared before we could dismount. Mountain lions are powerful enough to hold their own against man, but they are timid and skulk away when he approaches.

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Their habitat in the sierras is largely comprised of high, timbered mesas surmounted with craggy peaks, ridges, and of deep canyons honeycombed with caves and cracks where they dwell for short periods while whelping their cubs. These are born during late spring or early summer. They have light brown coats, splotched with dark brown on body and tail. We have never been able to ascertain how long these cunning fellows retained their spotted coats or remained in their dens, as it was impossible to eliminate signs and smell of our visit. Upon returning to a den once visited we usually found the family had moved. Neighboring rancheros were highly indignant that I did not kill the cubs when found. Their views were supported by the vaqueros, who rate "el león" as a cowardly killer of livestock and deer. I agreed, keeping other finds a secret, if I was alone. At times during the mating season mountain lions utter a screaming cry which is seldom repeated and not often heard by those who, like myself, have lived in a wilderness where lions are plentiful. Adult specimens taken in Sierra Madre Occidental during the winter have light gray pelage with a reddish, irregular streak down the center of the back and tail which fades a bit during summer. During

Major Predatory Animals 93 these seasons they closely resemble others collected in desert sierras of Baja California, while specimens taken in forested mountains of central and southern Mexico are distinguished by darker hues of gray and brown. Among twenty-six mountain lions collected by the writer over a period of years from various regions of Mexico, two were donated, through Mr. Max C. Fleischmann, to the Santa Barbara branch of the American Museum of Natural History, and four remain in my personal collection. Specimens from the northern end of their range are generally less than 8 feet long and average a bit over 150 pounds in weight. Those inhabiting the sierras of northern Mexico are larger than those occupying the southern sierras, differing in this respect from jaguars, which are larger as they range southward into South America (table 10).

Many Mexican cattle ranchers believe that the size of a mountain lion can be estimated by its tracks; however, this is not true. Several years ago a lion moved into the high, forested country above the ranch. The vaqueros caught fleeting glimpses of it, and on several occasions examining the tracks, which were long and wide, vowed it was "muy grande." After several unsuccessful runs, the dogs chased TABLE 10. Mountain lion Felis con color -Sierra Madre and contiguous ranges

Locality

Skull measurements Greatest Width across length zygomatic overall arches

Length of skin

Weigh

Sex

Sierra Madre 7 5/16" Occidental, Sonora

5 3/16"

7'2"

146 lb.

Male

Sierra Madre 6 5/8" Occidental, Sinaloa

4 9/16"

6'8"

131 lb.

Male

Sierra Madre 6 7/16" del Sur, Guerrero

4 3/8"

6'1"

121 lb.

Male

Sierra de la Giganta, Baja California

4 7/16"

7'1 1/2"

138 lb,

Male

7 1/4"

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it into a cave. Manuel promptly blocked the entrance with boulders, and I sent him back to the ranch for a pick to open the cave back from the entrance, thus giving the lion a chance to make a short getaway so the dogs could tree it in the nearby timber. This was done to save "dog damage" in a fierce fight if the entrance was suddenly exposed. When the lion was treed and killed, it proved to be a half-grown female with oversized paws. While we were engaged with the "digging out," a Mexican friend arrived at the ranch and the cook informed him that I was out "somewhar playin' peek-a-boo with a polecat."

Felis concolor-

Altar Desert, Sonora

Strange to relate, mountain lions are few and far between on the Altar Desert of southwestern Sonora. Although it is the habitat of mule deer, mountain sheep, antelope, whitetail deer, and peccaries, only a few lions venture into this unique region. Seasonally, during winter months, mountain lions migrate into this section of the Altar Desert from the timbered mountains eastward. Here the mountains are largely of volcanic formation and disintegrated granite, exceedingly rough and dry. This and the sparse vegetation of thorn trees and cacit apparently make it unsuitable for summer occupancy. While riding through a mesquite forest near Carbo, Sonora, en route from the ranch in the Sierra Madres to Tiburón Island, we happened upon a large female and killed her with a lucky shot as she passed into a clearing. When we were returning homeward a month later over the same route we were informed by a ranchero at Granados that he had seen her tracks along the Bavispe river, one hundred miles east of Carbo, and that she had killed a yearling cow on another ranch. I was dubious as to this being the same lion until he described a peculiar crease on one of her front paws, a mark that confirmed his identification. Evidently the lion was migrating from Sierra Madre Occidental into the Altar Desert. This tends to show how accurately the Mexican rancheros observe movements and habits of any wild beast that preys on their livestock; and how the information they gather, if accurate, is valuable to both hunters and naturalists. Mountain lions seldom remain near desert ranches for extended periods as their unusual tracks are soon discovered by cattle rancheros, who kill them with traps and poison before they become a menace to livestock and game animals. Both species of deer are scarce in the northwestern end of this desert, which is remote from the haunts of mountain lions in the Sierra

Major Predatory Animals

95

Madre Occidental. No mountain lion has ever been seen or killed in this region during the memory of civilized man. When Padre Kino visited the ancient rancherías of Papago hunters and fishermen who lived along the Gulf shore and in the Pinacate region during the eighteenth century, he made no record of mountain lions. The Papagos had legends about all the wild animals in their regions but none about lions. The late Mr. Rube Daniels, an old friend of mine, spent his lifetime in this region and had a cattle ranch near the Growler Mountains at Wall's well. Both he and José Juan, the famous Papago hunter who lived at Quitovaquita for many years, had never seen a lion or its tracks in this section of the Altar Desert, and this has been my experience during the many times I hunted there.

Felis concolorBaja California Mountain lions inhabit only a few regions of Baja California, and their present habitats are widely separated. Those in the northern end of the peninsula occupy remote regions of Sierra de San Pedro Mártir. This is the only part of Baja California that is extensively forested with pine and oak. There are several trout streams. Grassy meadows and glens are numerous on the northern slopes, and you expect to see many deer. But they are scarce and "muy bronco" and so are the mountain lions. During the late years of the seventeenth century the Dominican brotherhood built the now-deserted mission of San Pedro Mártir de Verona on the southwestern slopes of the sierra. At that time there was an Indian village at the mission, but it was abandoned when the padres departed. Mountain lion, deer, and mountain sheep were plentiful for many years after the padres were gone, but Cocupa, Kaliwa, and País hunters came here annually from their villages in the desert to hunt and to harvest piñons and acorns. Their visits continued until the early years of the present century, when finally native ranchers invaded their hunting grounds with sheep and cattle during the spring and summer. This depleted all the wildlife to such an extent that the Indians no longer visited this region, and now it is mostly deserted throughout the winter. Today the only permanent inhabitant is a Kaliwa Indian squaw named Chepa, who has a small adobe house and apple orchard high u p on the headwaters of San José Creek. When the apples are ripe,

96

Major Predatory Animals

she packs them down to San Telmo on two burros. Recently, during the harvest, a mountain lion left its haunts on lofty San Pedro Mártir and killed one of the burros in the orchard. Chepa had no gun, but she waited until sundown when the lion returned to feast and killed it with an axe. Phil Meling and I rode up shortly after the incident, and Chepa gave us a graphic description while she was fleshing out the lion skin. At present mountain lions are not plentiful in central Baja California, where they occupy limited habitats in Sierra de Calmajue y San José, Sierra Calmalli, and Sierra Vizcaíno. The few still extant prey upon the few mountain sheep and deer that occupy these regions. During recent years they have commenced to raid the small bands of antelope occupying the plains below Sierra de Calmajue y San José and others farther south on the wide llanos of Ojo Liebre. In previous years they seldom ventured out into open country, and this was probably due to lack of cover on the antelope ranges where the alert pronghorn sees everything that creeps, walks, or flies. A few mountain lions still inhabit Sierra de la Victoria, at the southern end of the peninsula. When the Jesuit padres constructed the missions along El Camino Real, the big cats were plentiful throughout the sierras of Baja California. The padres' journals rate the lions as dangerous and relate how Indians living near the mountains feared the lions and seldom ventured along the mountain trails after nightfall. During recent years two Americans from Alta California annually visit all the ranches, farms, and towns to buy hides and pelts of wild and domestic animals. Hence the lure of pesos has added an incentive to trapping, and this, with rapidly disappearing big game, has reduced the lion along with other predatory animals. TIMBER WOLF

Canis lupus Timber wolves once ranged south through the forested sierras on both the east and west coasts to mountains near the Valley of Mexico. Now their habitats on the west coast are sparsely distributed through Sierra Madre Occidental, where they occur in isolated areas in Sonora, Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas. On the east coast their present habitats are in mountainous regions of Coahuila, Nuevo León, and San Luis Potosí. Although not plentiful in their present

Major Predatory Animals 97 habitats, they leave their mark on the population of deer, peccaries, wild turkeys, and, occasionally, domestic flocks. Today wolves are beasts of the forested mountains, but when both buffalo and antelope thronged the plains of northern Chihuahua wolves followed the Apache buffalo hunters and occupied the barren foothills near the plains. During the winter of 1938 a pack of wolves came down from Sierra Madre Occidental into the rolling country near Ascensión, Chihuahua, and preyed on the herds of antelope and cattle. In the spring they moved farther south, spending several days killing prairie dogs which infested a region near the prehistoric ruins of Casas Grandes. When the "dog towns" were cleaned out the wolves departed. They are not dangerous to man, but this pack created a reign of terror among the townspeople of Casas Grandes Viejo. While mending a fence one of the vaqueros left his lunch on a boulder and returned to find it gone. He noted tracks where two wolves had cautiously circled about until one finally seized the lunch bag. He never found out whether they ate the red hot chili with the meat. I have frequently seen wolves skulking through the timber but have never been fast enough "on the draw" to kill one. I had given up the idea when I secured two unexpectedly. This occurred during a trip when we were camped up on the headwaters of Río Yaqui in Sonora. The native guide had gone hunting and killed two whitetail bucks. Being quite a distance from camp and afoot, he hung them in an oak tree. Early next morning we went to bring them in and saw

98

Major Predatory Animals

three wolves running around the tree, but the bucks were hanging too high. The wolves were so engrossed in leaping and running around the tree that I killed two and wounded the other, which we trailed without finding. The specimens were adult males. The larger skin measured 5 feet 11 inches tip of nose to tip of tail and weighed 96 pounds. The skull measured: greatest length overall 11 2/16 inches, width across zygomatic arches 7 2/16 inches. The forepaws measured 4 1/2 inches wide, 4 3/4 inches long; the hindpaws measured 3 inches wide, 4 1/8 inches long. The other individual measured 5 feet 4 inches in length, weighing 81 pounds, with slight differences in other measurements. The larger one compared in size to one I collected in the Endicott Mountains of northern Alaska. This big fellow bit off large green willow branches with its powerful jaws as it ran mortally wounded through the thicket. It was 6 feet long with heavy dark hair and weighed 102 pounds; sourdoughs called it a black wolf, which is a color phase of the gray wolf. I have never seen one like it in Mexico. Recently while trout fishing on the upper reaches of the Liard River in Yukon Territory, I discovered a wolf was following my trail among the willows along the stream. Nearing an open spot it ran u p the timbered canyonside, pausing once to look down at me, but the rifle was at camp. Wolves are wary of humans but curious. A similar incident happened in Sonora. We had gone to move a bunch of steers which were in the mountains above the ranch. En route home I frequently heard a rustling sound in the oak thickets which flanked the trail for some distance. Every time I stopped to look and listen it ceased. Mounted, visibility was zero, so I dismounted and, "bellying down," saw a wolf standing in the thickets a few yards off the trail, with only its paws and legs visible. Sensing something was afoot it crouched for a moment and vanished. Wolves are silent hunters except during the winter when we hear them howling and thus detect their presence on ridge crests and open meadows near the ranch. Mr. Ben Black, who has lived alone for many years at the old Lang ranch, says he often hears them during this season in the high timbered mesas in back of his house and sees others running atop the ancient earthen dam that spans a nearby valley. This dam was built by prehistoric people who terraced other areas in the sierras, but its purpose and history are unknown. His ranch was a meeting place for cattle rustlers and gunmen when Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Curly Bill were making Tombstone

Major Predatory Animals

99

famous. Señor Black digs out old soft-nosed bullets from the adobe house walls as he directs attention to many happenings during those lusty times. Native hunters claim that when timber wolves mate they remain together until death separates them. There is no positive proof if this is a fact, but it is plausible and commonly believed. We have not been able to determine a definite mating season. Timber wolves generally den up in caves or dig burrows under outcropping rock ledges in secluded canyonsides where they whelp six to ten pups during early spring. At this time the female stays at home tending the youngsters while the male fetches any bird, rodent, or animal he can catch. When the pups are old enough they run with the parents. Old dens are littered with bones of deer, peccaries, squirrels, and wild turkeys. As these animals and birds are plentiful in high regions of the Sierra Madre, we seldom find remains of livestock which wolves have killed, although rancheros on lower reaches of Ríos Yaqui and Mayo, where wildlife is scarce, frequently do. Jim Anderson, a Mormon cattle rancher, who was my companion while trout fishing on a stream which flows into Río Aros, discovered two pups romping near a jutting ledge above the creek. We tied our horses and with a favorable wind detoured afoot to a higher point. Here we watched a litter of seven youngsters frolicking around their mother while she crouched outside the den. Such a sight was too interesting to last. A vagrant breeze or her keen eyes betrayed our whereabouts, and she hustled them inside the den. We returned to the horses in a quandary what to do about our find, which was solved by Jim's logical question. "Whot ya gonna do ef ya' gits 'em?" Timber wolves do not inhabit or range over any part of the Altar Desert in Sonora or Baja California, as these desert regions are remote from their habitats in the forested sierras.

COYOTE

Cants latrans This type of small wolf was called coyotl by the Aztecs, and the present name is a Spanish corruption of the original. Coyotes inhabit an extensive range in Baja California, on the west coast from Sonora and

100 Major Predatory Animals Chihuahua to southwestern Chiapas, and on the east coast from eastern Chihuahua and northern Coahuila through Tamaulipas to southern San Luis Potosí. These cunning beasts have no fixed habitats and occupy forested mountains, tropical lowlands, and deserts. At present they are plentiful in the northern states where mesquite and grasslands fringe the foothills of Sierra Madre Occidental, and also throughout Baja California. They are less numerous in similar regions on the east coast near Sierra Madre Oriental. Coyotes are omnivorous, and they are one of wildlife's important natural enemies. In the forest they prey on the fawns of whitetail deer, peccaries, and mature wild turkeys and their broods of young birds. In the desert regions they feast on mesquite beans and cacti fruit and prey on the newborn fawns of whitetail, mule deer, and young peccaries. They also go up into the rugged desert mountains during the springtime to feast on mountain provender, including occasionally a newborn mountain sheep. During the spring months they frequent the beaches along the Gulf of California and eat the eggs deposited by sea turtles and other forms of marine life cast u p by the tide. Coyotes are cunning, tireless hunters and sense when mature animals are in distress, particularly when or just before offspring are born, or when these animals are old, with impaired sight, hearing, or

Major Predatory Animals

101

smell. Coyotes stalk these animals, awaiting the opportune moment to kill. When the coyote families disband, the parents remain and hunt together. While hunting in Sierra de San Francisco, I observed such a pair stalking an aged mountain sheep. My native guide sighted a mountain sheep traveling slowly on an open game trail instead of seeking security on the rocky slope. "Un viejo," whispered Juan. While taking advantage of cacti and brush to approach, we saw two coyotes stalking the trail ahead. As Juan's shot echoed, the coyotes leaped into cover and were out of sight before he could reload. The sheep proved to be an old ram with worn teeth, ears plugged with wax, and blunted horns. We had taken the coyotes' meat, which was much too tough and stringy to tempt Juan's appetite for either fresh meat or "carne seco." Whether game is plentiful or scarce, the coyotes continue to take their toll of domestic fowls and young livestock. Farmers and ranchers war on them with every method of destruction, but due to the coyotes' intelligence and fecundity they continue to multiply. When the going gets rough the coyotes move farther back into the wilderness and continue their raids. A friend of mine whose ranch is on the lower Río Yaqui imported a flock of expensive chickens. Hearing a commotion in the pen early one morning, he ran to the door. Three coyotes were inside, and one had a chicken in its jaw. While he turned to get his rifle the other two caught one apiece and loped off leisurely under an ineffective barrage of bullets. Apparently their habits and mating are like those of the timber wolf. The young are born in caves or dens which are always in secluded locations. Coyotes whelp from six to ten pups during the spring months. During this period the female guards the den, while the male hunts for anything edible and fetches it home. My vaqueros captured two young ones and brought them to the ranch, where they lived contentedly with three dogs, two cats, fowls, and livestock until they were about three years old, when they finally disappeared overnight. A family of Pima Indians, who lived some distance away on Río Mulatos, kept a young coyote for six years until it was caught in a trap set for its kin and killed. Evidently the parents teach the pups how to stalk their prey and haunt the ranchers' premises, where hunting is good but fraught with danger of sudden death. At present there is no bounty on coyote scalps in "Mexico's Coyote Land," where coyotes will long salute the dawn and darkness with their whimsical laughter.

102 Major Predatory Animals

BOBCAT

Lynx rufus These animals are commonly called wildcats, and their habitats are widely distributed throughout the sierras on both the east and west coasts and desert mountains in Sonora and Baja California. They have a short bobtail tipped with black on its upper half, a cinnamoncolored body with dark spots on the belly and legs, and tufted ears tipped with black and white. The bobcat is a timid animal unless cornered. Normally it will seek every method of escape, running from both man and dogs, which explodes the popular saying, "He can whip his weight in wildcats." Adult specimens seldom weigh more than twenty-five pounds, thus they are not a serious foe of mature deer. They prey on young fawns during the summer months when the does leave the youngsters among fallen pines or oak thickets while they go to feed or drink. The bobcat will trail a herd of does and fawns to kill any that lag behind. We frequently find remains of their kills, and many caught in traps are gorged with venison and bits of spotted fawn skin. We have never found remains of a peccary killed by them. Apparently they are unable to kill the truculent wild pigs. In the Sierras bobcats frequent the daytime haunts of wild turkeys and will stalk a hen with young birds if these are caught off guard or

Major Predatory Animals 103 in distress. I saw this happen when trout fishing on the Río Negro. I had found shelter during a storm in a thicket of junipers and was concealed among the low branches when a hen and her brood flew in. After they had settled in the next tree a bobcat appeared from nowhere and seized one that was perched on a low limb, only to drop it for another. He was catching number three when I shouted. Instantly the marauder saw me and leaped down and away as the birds flew into another tree. The bobcat had killed the three small birds. This incident occurred during midsummer, and the bobcat probably had a den and family nearby, which I was unable to find as dens are cleverly concealed under piles of dead timber or in caves hidden by brush. Bobcats often establish their dens near remote ranches or farms, where they can raid the chicken houses. When they fall into this habit they eventually are caught in traps or otherwise dispatched. We have never found a den without the dogs, nor with parents at home. Bobcat trails during the early summer wind over devious routes which lead the dogs away from their dens. If the den is near the trail the dogs will follow the scent and dig out three to five youngsters. They make cunning pets but when released from their cage soon meet an untimely end with dogs and livestock about.

8. Desert Water

People who come in casual contact with the deserts of northern Mexico often have no idea how such desert animals as mountain sheep, antelope, deer, peccaries, and numerous rodents thrive in lands covered with cacti, thorn trees, and creosote bush, remote from springs, streams, and the waterholes called tinajas. Nature located tinajas in deep canyons with walls that shelter them from the sun. They retain the precious drops that fall during seasons of rain but are often empty after protracted dry cycles. The few sources of open water are visited by denizens of the desert, but if it were not for the various species of cacti, many dry spots on the map would be devoid of animals. Several types of cactus store up moisture that is used by animals and one, the viznaga, is used by both man and animal. Saguaros, pitahayas (giant cacti), choyas, tunas (prickly pears), and viznagas (barrel cacti) gather moisture during rainy seasons. Water from the first two is not palatable to man and seldom utilized by animals which eat the fruit, but these store u p the largest amount of dew and rain. The choya is protected with more thorns than its cacti cousins and cannot be eaten by rodents until desert winds disjoint mature sections (they grow in short joints or sections), exposing an unprotected core where rodents can gnaw into the juicy pulp. Desert mountain sheep, antelope, and deer nip off the barbed thorn tips, eating the joints and buds of these cacti and tunas, thus obtaining both food and moisture. During extremely dry years on the vast deserts of Sonora and Baja California these animals migrate to regions where thickets of the plants are abundant. Cattle ranchers fire only the thorns with torches, destroying this barrier to tons of nourishing stock feed. The viznaga contains the best combination in quantity and quality of water fit for man or animal. Water for humans is obtained by cutting off the thorny crown and crushing the pulp with stick or stone until sufficient water collects inside the top or by chewing slabs of the flesh, which tastes like raw potato. The flesh of the viznaga is utilized as a base for delicious "cactus" candy.

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How do animals penetrate this thorny armor and slake their thirst? The ancient law of starting at the bottom and working up is applied by rodents and peccaries. The small animals dig under the thornless base, gnawing out the core. Peccaries root them up and consume both roots and flesh; the leftovers provide for other game animals that follow peccary trails. During extended dry cycles hollow viznaga shells are strewn about the valleys and hillsides. The great Altar Desert of Sonora fringes the Gulf of California with leagues of sand dunes. Here, in the springtime, clusters of slender green stems dot level spots among the dunes. These grow from a tuberous root that affords man both moisture and food. They have a pleasant flavor and were called "roots of the sand" by a tribe of Papago Indians that once lived in this region. The roots were an important addition to the meager diet of cactus fruit, game, fish, and sea turtles. The abundance of cacti on the deserts of Sonora and Baja California substitutes adequately for drinking water in the lives of many desert animals. The following experiments tend to show how relatively unimportant drinking water is to them. During a recent fall and winter I dug out the ancient Seri Indian water hole on Arroyo de San Ignacio at Arivaipa and camped at a distance from it. These water holes dug in arroyos where surface water has disappeared are somewhat peculiar to the Altar Desert and generally occur after their courses reach sea level near the Gulf of California. In the period from September to November, seven mule deer, five whitetail deer, and three peccaries visited the water hole. The mountain sheep and antelope that ranged nearby never came to it during that time. After mid-November I moved camp nine miles down the arroyo and dug a well, camping three miles away from the well at another well the Seri had dug in the mesquite forest at one of their numerous hunting camps. During the balance of November and December I visited the water hole once a week, cleaned it out, noted fresh animal tracks, and blotted them out. During that period five peccaries, nine mule deer, and eleven whitetail deer came in to drink, but no mountain sheep from Sierra Colorai or antelope from plains northward ventured to the water. The next winter I camped at a distance from two watering places on the Altar River and packed water for camp use (as infrequently as possible) from these excavated watering places. During a period of two months, a total of eight mule deer, three whitetail deer, and six peccaries came to the water. No mountain sheep or antelope came to

106 Desert Water water though the former were fairly plentiful in Sierra del Alamo, and antelope ranged in the rolling country roundabout. I concluded from these observations that most of the game was obtaining its necessary water from numerous cacti. Several years previous during September, October, and November, I had tried the same experiment at two places on the lower Sonoita River, and no animals excepting coyotes and wild burros came in to drink. Antelope were plentiful within three miles of these water holes. The nearest mountain sheep ranged in Sierra Blanca a few miles westward, and there are no deer in this part of the desert. Wild burros came in by the score, making day and evening hideous with their braying. The present major habitats of big game animals in Baja California are largely waterless, and the few small streams that occur on Sierra de San Pedro Mártir with others in Arroyos del Rosario, San Fernando, Santa Ynez, Santa María, Santa Catarina, Delfino, de Las Ballenas, Escondido, and de San Ignacio are only available to wildlife in mountainous areas where the streams originate. When the streams reach the lower country they are surrounded by small settlements and ranches. Several of these streams are perennial, and there the doughty padres erected Misiones del Rosario, San Fernando, Santa María, San Borjas, and San Ignacio. From Arroyo de San Ignacio southward, permanent streams are more prevalent throughout southern Baja California; consequently, much of this region is inhabited, and the desert gradually loses aspects of a wilderness. A few tinajas are sparsely scattered over the deserts in Sonora and Baja California. Their supply of water depends entirely on rainfall, which is often less than three inches annually. A protracted dry cycle lasting six years was broken by the wet winter and spring of 1967-68, which filled these tinajas. Rains that fall during normal seasons will partly replenish evaporated water and that which animals consume. Often the supply has diminished to a few gallons when wet seasons arrive and refill the tinajas. Some tinajas that are large enough to be permanent sources of water are located in narrow box canyons where towering walls shade them from the sun and protect them from desert winds, thus retarding evaporation. Others, like Tinaja de Los Papagos and Tinaja del Tule, are in open canyons. The former is composed of three tinajas located in a rocky lava canyon. They contain about 10,000 gallons of water when brim full. Their water levels are frequently low during years of little rain. But they have never been dry according to Papago

Desert Water 107 Indians, who up until recent years have camped here annually since time immemorial. Nearby on the gulf shore is a large deposit of salt, and in the long ago the Indians came here during the winter from western Arizona and Sonora for salt. Along their still-visible trail across the desert are sets of weatherworn mountain sheep and antelope horns. Tinaja del Tule, which lies in a canyon 15 miles southwest of Tinaja de Los Papagos, is also on the western slopes of Sierra del Pinacate. It contains about 12,000 gallons of water when filled to capacity, and its greatest depth is eight feet. An uptilted lava butte casts a shadow over the water during morning hours, and the sun's rays have little effect on water temperatures due to its depth. According to Papago Indian lore these tinajas have never been without ample water to sustain human or animal life, and I have never found them dry. At low levels a thick coating of algae covers much of the surface, which retards evaporation to some extent. These Indians used the algae for food, knowing them to be not only moist but nourishing, a fact that modern research has just discovered. Tinaja del Tule is not to be confused with a small tinaja of the same name located in western Arizona north of Monument 187 on the international boundary. Many times mountain sheep fall into the tinajas and drown while attempting to drink when the water is low. We fished the carcass of a mature ram out of one that is shaped like a huge funnel with a wide mouth and narrow bed. This is Tinaja de Emilia, located on the east slopes of Sierra del Pinacate. Its sides of waterworn lava are smooth as glass; evidently the ram in descending had lost his foothold and plunged head first to the bottom, where his horns wedged in the lava. On another occasion we found a young ram drowned in Tinaja Tuseral, and another in one of a group of small tinajas in a canyon that intersects the Arroyo Grande. This group and others in sierras of Baja California, like San Mattias and Ruiz, do not compare in size to those mentioned in the Pinacate region. But on the peninsula there are more small temporary tinajas than in northwestern Sonora. If open water is conveniently available, desert mountain sheep will visit it at all hours of the day and night. But evidently they are extremely wary of the situation, and native hunters seldom approach the water holes with sufficient caution to find them drinking. Deer seldom visit tinajas, and antelope avoid the rocky terrain. Sometimes odd watering places in the desert are used by wild animals. We surprised a herd of five mule deer drinking from a tiny seepage inside a long abandoned mine tunnel. Here some hardy

108 Desert Water prospector, while following a small stringer of gold and silver ore under a mountain slope in the Altar Desert, tapped a small spring that flowed for a short time during winter and spring. En route to Arroyo Grande, nightfall compelled us to camp at a distance from a small group of tinajas, and I left camp early hoping to find sheep at the water. Approaching the canyon rim cautiously facing the wind, I saw fresh tracks leading down and discovered a band of seven at the water. A ram stood on a low bluff above the tinaja watching four ewes and two young rams jockeying for a narrow trail leading to the water. Finally two ewes and a youngster were drinking while the others climbed about seeking to reach the water; they did not succeed and returned to the entrance trail, awaiting their turn. After a few minutes of drinking and gazing about, those at the water filed out and the waiting group slaked their thirst, following the others down canyon. Then the ram came cautiously down, sniffing the water, taking short sips to raise his head and watch before he finally quenched his thirst and followed his family. Along the western shores of the Gulf of California where mountains rim the beach, ruins of a stone house stand on a rocky promontory. When high tides roll over the meadow of crab grass in front and boom in the vaulted caverns below, a family of raccoons nestle in their hideout among the walls, awaiting the retreat of the sea to harvest marine life stranded on the meadow. After trailing the pack outfit over the mountains we often camp here for a period of rest on the beach, but our stay has always been limited due to lack of fresh water. Finding the raccoons here was a surprise which revealed a supply known only to them and the long-departed tenant, Señor Otero, who lived here alone for many years. Alberto, my native companion, had visited the hermit once previously, learning that when he migrated here from his ranchita near the delta of Río Colorado he packed a pair of pet raccoons with other belongings on his burros, and settled down to live on game killed in the mountains and fish from the sea. He also trapped coyotes, making infrequent trips to Mexicali to trade skins for provisions. Señor Otero was a taciturn individual, inhospitable to the few prospectors and fishermen who ventured here by land and sea, and consequently no one knew where he obtained water. He passed away at a mining camp without telling his secret. His former habitation is a pleasant place to linger, commanding a view of desert islands near the shore and the shadowy canyons of Sierra San Miguel westward. So we resolved to find the water but, af-

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110 Desert Water ter looking for an old trail leading to his well, finally gave up. We returned to find low tide and the raccoons gone, and we hiked toward the beach for a swim. En route we saw their fresh tracks, which led along the beach for a distance and vanished in the crab grass. Hoping to see them at work we traced connecting trails on open patches of sand, following their tracks back toward the promontory. Inside one of the caves, Otero's hidden spring welled up at the base of the cavern's wall. When you want to learn about desert animals, winter is the time to be afield; but winter drifts rapidly away, and you press on, knowing that shimmering heat waves will engulf the deserts too soon. Then even the galloping jackrabbits will need canteens. During the days, weeks, and months spent in desert solitudes, there are sure to be times when procrastination, bad judgment, or accident makes the supply of food and water short, and both must be obtained to fend off the inevitable fate of mankind. Afterwards you wonder at foolhardy adventures and laugh at situations that might have proved disastrous. Taking chances on uncertain water holes often brings you to grips with the reality of thirst and hunger in the desert. Both are stubborn companions, and if Lady Luck provides you with water, the Red Gods seldom serve you food on a silver platter. The native guide and I halted at sunset in a sierra that overlooks the Gulf of California, pitching camp in a mountain valley beside a deep arroyo. Our pack train of mules was two days beyond their last drink, and water for the native guide and myself had dwindled to less than a gallon. A wilderness of unknown desert mountains stretched southward for six hundred miles. The arroyo that wound its twisting course below might have a small stream or tinaja somewhere in the shadowy depths, though others we had explored were dry. In one, a human skull polished thin as an egg shell rested on a ledge above a dry tinaja beside a rusted rifle dating sixty years previous. One more dry camp and the long trek back to the last water could bring disaster. "It was a long night, Señor Americano, now the morning sun shines on Mar de Cortez. Shall we search for water?" I viewed the piles of granite and malapais, gave my companion a cigarette, and nodded. He had an urge to risk it again even if thoughts of the glistening skull and rifle refused to be whistled away. All day the dim game trail led down steep rock slides that forced detours up slopes bristling with cacti and thorn trees. A mountain lion, flushed from his bed, disappeared into the chaparral. Leagues below the mules halted on the brink of a deep tinaja. No water lay cool

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and inviting below; only swarms of wild bees clung to the damp sand. After digging down to bed rock, the native shook his head. Long after sunset the trail ended where the arroyo's mouth spewed into the sea. The mules headed for the beach, sniffed the clear salt water, and turned shoreward. Camp was pitched in a grove of ironwood trees; less than a quart of water remained in the canteen. The desert night was cold. Huddled around the campfire, listening to the rolling breakers, we napped until midnight. The native slept on his back, sucking in the moist night air. I tilted a sombrero over my eyes to shield them from a rising moon that traced webs of foliage on the camp and aroused the restless coyotes to hunt and cry out as it lighted the wilderness. At daybreak the Mexican aroused me. "Mira, mira, no mas mulas." After a cup of coffee, which emptied the canteen, and a breakfast of canned tomatoes, we found the mule tracks along the beach; finally their trail veered off toward the west, where a narrow canyon dented the shore and rusty cask hoops piled among rotting staves strewed the tide line near a tall cardon that stood alone on a rocky point. Below its crown an ancient whaling harpoon pierced the core, pointing toward the arroyo. The mules, trailing in that direction, hove in sight alongside a tiny stream that trickled among groves of tall palms. Fresh spoor of mountain sheep and the whaler's signpost were discussed as we moved camp. One hundred years had rolled away, and the whaling ships that filled their casks at this remote oasis lay fathoms below, resting somewhere in the unending sweep of coral and sand that fringes the seven seas. But as years passed the tall cardon tightened its grip on the harpoon, raising its barbed finger higher to guide those that ventured here by land or sea through another century of wind and sun. Evidently the whalers killed mountain sheep to augment their supply of meat, as several sets of horns, split and blackened by time, lay rotting under the palms. Here the rugged dry terrain gives the wary bighorn advantages that must be offset by the hunter's stubborn determination to secure meat. The whalers probably found the hunting much the same as it was for me the next sixteen days, until a climax came unexpectedly. During these days I was hunting before sunrise, returning to camp after dark weary and empty-handed. Today I eyed the westering sun from atop a high mesa and, cautiously descending, turned toward camp. As the sun dipped behind the mesa, casting long shadows, I hunted along watching the chaparral that garnished the slopes. Suddenly a rock rolled and a ram emerged from the thicket of magueys,

112 Desert Water crowned with horns that formed massive curls, their blunted points shading his eyes. He trotted into the shadows, stopping for a moment to turn and look below. Bolting a cartridge, I drew bead. It was a long shot, the animal blending with his background. As I lowered the rifle the ram turned up slope, disappearing in the chaparral. The rifleman's low " d a m n " was hardly uttered when the quarry skylined on the mesa's rim, halting broadside. This time the wavering sight finally rested on his broad forequarter, and the bullet spun true, splotching the malapais with crimson. At camp my companion solemnly turned a steak in the frying pan. "Now we have water and meat. The mules are contentos. And you, Señor?"

9. Trout Fishing

SIERRA MADRE OCCIDENTAL Many sportsmen think of northern Mexico as a land of deserts. Few know of the immense pine-forested watershed that comprises the headwaters of Río Yaqui and the trout fishing in its streams. Among the millions who yearly purchase fishing licenses, there are thousands willing to travel reasonable distances to reach unfished streams and solitude-that is what the Sierras offer. This beautiful mountain country can be reached by turning off the Central Mexican Highway south of the border at Ahumada and motoring via Casas Grandes to Colonia Juárez, or by traveling the Hermosillo-Chihuahua highway south from Nogales or Agua Prieta, Sonora, to the same points. From Colonia Juárez a winding mountain road ascends the eastern slopes of Sierra Madre Occidental, cresting the high mesas at Colonia Pacheco and continuing for seventy-five miles through the Sierras, where these streams originate. If English financiers had not planned to cut the forests of yellow pine, this road would probably not exist today. The steep grade from Colonia Juárez to Pacheco was constructed for a railroad in 1910 by lumber interests of the Pearson Co., which obtained vast timber concessions from the Díaz regime at a time when revolution was brewing in Mexico. A few months after the rail bed was scooped from the mountainside, the Madero revolution swept through the country. Ten years of fighting and destruction permanently suspended completion of the railroad, thus conserving for a later day the forests and their abundant wildlife. After the revolution, Mexican and Mormon colonists repaired the rail bed to its terminus at Colonia Pacheco and hewed a road through the mountains to a group of ranches at Siete Estrellas, seventy-five miles south. Motoring is slow going but amply rewarded by the vista of mountains, forests, and streams along the way. There are more than one hundred streams in the canyons that wind east and west from the heights of Sierra Madre. The best trout waters flow westward from the continental divide and comprise the headwaters of Río Yaqui. Many are unnamed, but the larger streams are

114 Trout Fishing the San Juan de Dios, Tres Ríos, Chico, Garavato, Chuichupa, Gabilán, Bonita, Paraíso, Oso, Bandería, Largo, Perdido, Escondido, Arco, Aros, Kern, Nelson, Goat, Río Negro, Alta Dolores, and Cañada del Oro. These were named by Spanish conquistadores, native prospectors who wrung the gold from their waters, explorers who ventured into this wilderness, and vaqueros chasing Geronimo and his warriors in 1885. After four hours along the miles of shadowy streams, the creel bulges with hefty rainbows that fought right u p to the landing net. Many are sixteen inches or longer. To end the morning with this catch, the angler has wet his hands and carefully released a dozen trout less than ten inches long, which if unhooked with dry hands consigns the fish to trout heaven and helps send good fishing to the other place. During the summer this lofty region is ablaze with wild flowers and violets, tiger lilies fringe the streams, columbine nod in sheltered nooks, and sunny slopes are covered with wild strawberries. A grizzly and her cubs revel in a blackberry patch; deer pause in the thickets to watch the lone angler. This is the season when trout of the Sierra Madre are leaping for the fly. Good fishing is at its best from midsummer until late fall winds whistle in the canyons and summer drifts away.

BAJA C A L I F O R N I A Trout fishing lures a horde of fishermen to every stream in the United States that can be reached by motor, air, or pack train. Not long after the seasons open, there are more fishermen than trout. Time and pesos are hindering factors to many who would go to the wilderness streams of British Columbia and Alaska, where anglers are less and good fishing more. It is surprising how few sportsmen know that there also are trout streams in Baja California. Two hundred miles south of Tijuana (by road), lofty Sierra de San Pedro Mártir rears its crest 10,000 feet above the outlying desert, and forests of tall pines cast their shadows on hurrying streams where rainbow trout dart among the boulders or rest in deep pools. Here are seven trout streams: San Rafael, San Antonio, La Grulla, La Sanja, San José, Protrero, and Tasajaras. The first three offer the best fishing, as their watersheds are more extensive, consequently trout are more numerous and larger. The catch varies

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116 Trout Fishing with the weather throughout the year. The other streams offer the best fishing during the early summer, before the spring "runoff" has subsided and the water is lower. San José Creek can be reached by motoring over a rough, narrow road, thirty miles up canyons and mountains from San Telmo, which is ninety-five miles south of Ensenada. Ranchos Coyote and San José and Mike's Sky Ranch are at the road's end; a short road through the ranches takes you to this creek, and also to sections of San Rafael canyon. The fishing is only fair due to the ranches nearby and their few visitors who trail the narrow camino u p the outlying desert mountain. The other streams mentioned are in a country of no roads, and pack outfits and guides are required to reach them. These can be secured at Ranchos San José and Coyote, at a reasonable price. One or two days on the trail are necessary to reach the best spots, and sore muscles are soon forgotten if you like the wilderness and all that goes with it. Remember that the hardy fisherman will experience thrills, both fishing and otherwise, that the angler who must motor to his fishing will never know. The trout average fifteen inches for the big fellows with a liberal sprinkling of smaller fry. Native ranchers say the original trout streams of Sierra de San Pedro Mártir were San Rafael and San Antonio creeks. Many years ago, E. W. Utt, a naturalist-rancher of Baja California, transplanted trout fry from these streams into the others; these trout have survived and multiplied through many dry years. This is largely due to the fact that during the late summer the trout ascend these creeks to higher levels where groups of perennial springs maintain a normal flow. However, many small fish are trapped and die in isolated pools as the streams recede. With the exception of San José and San Rafael, the other streams are seldom visited by fishermen; and if nature did not balance the trout supply with stages of low water, their natural food in these streams would diminish. There would eventually be too many fish for the amount of food available, and the big fish would then feed on young trout. This is an adverse condition for fishermen as it makes the trout sluggish. Often when they surface for the lure, and it is not too tempting, they lazily flip tail fin and hie for the bottom. However, in other trout streams, minnows will tempt the big fellows and not the smaller ones. In a season of normal rainfall, during the winter and spring, the streams of San Pedro Mártir flow for many leagues down their deep

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canyons, and it is remarkable how so much water disappears in the lower canyon levels once summer has arrived. If the government of Baja California would build inexpensive check dams along these streams where material such as rock, sand, and timber is available, the water conserved would have a decided bearing not only on the trout fishing but also on the welfare of the many ranchers and farmers who inhabit the quasi-desert country below, a region where water is priceless.

10.Antiguas

SIERRA MADRE OCCIDENTAL Leagues south of the international boundary in the remote wilderness of Sonora, the Sierra Madre guards the silent pueblos of a race long vanished. After living in apparent security for centuries they disappeared in a mysterious manner, for household implements lie by firesides as though left there but yesterday. Today, this former realm of industrious people remains isolated, a pleasant land of forests, streams, and wild flowers, alive with shy tenants of the wilderness. The one short road that rims the sierras for a few leagues terminates at a group of small ranches in a valley ringed with mountains. From here it is saddle and pack over mountains slit with deep canyons, whose numerous streams spill their waters into the Bavispe, Mulatos, and Aros rivers. These flood Río Yaqui in its long trek to the sea and drain a wilderness where grizzly bears, mountain lions, and timber wolves share their domain with whitetail deer, wild turkeys, and a few roving Apache Indians. After five days of "diamond hitching," punctuated with barbed Mexican cuss words that change the destiny and opinions of pack mules, the dim game trail "rims out." A thousand feet below, a small stream joins Río Aros. Up the opposite mountainside atop a parapet of cliffs, in a cave of red sandstone, stands a row of huge urn-shaped jars ten feet high and seven in diameter. They are made of clay reinforced with yucca fiber, and hands that shaped them centuries ago left prints in the moist clay. Inside the cave, buried in dust, are tiny corncobs and bits of plaited cord. Here, perhaps, a stored harvest awaited when spring winds called the vanished antiguas. The large cave adjoining has a series of stone retaining walls. Buried behind these are bundles of cornstalks bound with yucca fibers. This state of preservation suggests storing by the few Apache Indians who have used some of the dwellings, although no evidence of recently planted ground is seen in the outlying country or along the different routes traveled. On the mountain slopes, miles of canyons and their tributaries are terraced with rock walls to retain patches of rich soil for planting corn.

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These wind upward like miniature stairways and control erosion over a wide stretch of wilderness. Under the stream that flows into Río Aros, screened by a waterfall, is a large cave. In the center, a circular pit lined with clay and ten feet in diameter contains hundreds of oval-shaped stones. The walls are decorated with crude paintings of spotted jaguars, wolves, bears, deer, and wild turkeys. Numerous seats carved in the sloping walls are worn smooth with use. There are no dwellings in sight, for these ingenious people built their homes in caves scattered among the deep canyons, whose steep cliffs they would ascend by narrow trails with footholds worn in solid rock. Here, facing the east, are many dwellings made of pine and cedar plastered with clay. In the center of each dwelling, two round holes pierce the outside wall a foot above the floor; they are eight inches apart, one inch in diameter, and their purpose is unknown but undoubtedly important. Several dwellings have small replicas of the large storage jars resting on ledges plastered on the outside and inside of their walls. The doorways are three feet high and shaped like an old-fashioned keyhole. On the outside of each cave are clay fireplaces shaped like a horseshoe. The stone floors are honeycombed with mortar holes; many contain the pestles. Nearby are heavy malapais metates and manos. Fresh tracks of wolves and mountain lions are stamped in dusty trails that wind through the narrow rooms. Many of the dwellings are in perfect condition. Earthquakes damaged several when large blocks of stone tumbled from the cave roof. In one instance, the tremors had blocked the cave entrance, leaving the dwelling undamaged and a single doorway clear, which gave access to other rooms through connecting doors. The rooms were littered with broken pottery. Excavation revealed several pieces still intact, among them a large olla buried in a corner. It was heavy; breaking the clay seal exposed contents of yellow metal which, after much excitement, proved to be bronze. Another large dwelling contained forty metates with manos lying beside them. Parts of a human skeleton and skull were unearthed below a shallow layer of dust, alongside whole pieces of pottery. The adjoining abode revealed more pottery and a clay box filled with balls composed of clay, corn fiber, and a peculiar herb. These were the size of baseballs and disintegrated a bit when exposed. The pottery was similar to pieces taken from the ancient ruins at Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, and purchased many years ago from natives by a private collector living in El Paso, Texas.

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Antiguas 121 This type of excavating should be supervised by an archeologist. The impatient layman, hoping for rich finds, hurries from one site to another, leaving the work incomplete and a trail of broken relics in his wake. A careless move with pick and shovel often ruins much. The dwellings undoubtedly contain artifacts that would add to the history oí antiguas of Sierra Madre and should remain in Mexico's national museums. Several days of searching failed to reveal the burial grounds of these ancient people. However, they are here, somewhere-perhaps buried under rock slides or lying exposed for the lucky one to find without effort. Clothed in nature's pristine dress, this is indeed a rugged wilderness of overgrown trails, antiguas, Apaches, and wild animals. Apparently the Apaches who occupied this region in the near past avoided the silent ruins, for most dwellings show no signs of molestation by man. Many have beautiful locations. One in particular is three stories high and on a point where two streams converge, standing in a stone façade like an ancient castle, watching the winds of centuries sweep past.

11. Ammonites

BAJA C A L I F O R N I A - G I A N T FOSSILS A deposit of ammonites, shelled animals of the Mesozoic seas, has been discovered in Baja California. It is located 450 miles south of the border and lies along the bed and banks of a shallow arroyo, in an area one-quarter mile wide and one-half mile long. It is said to contain some of the largest specimens in the world, weighing from forty to sixty pounds each, and formed in brilliant-colored stone. These animals lived during the Mesozoic era, the time of dinosaurs, and were numerous during the Triassic period, 170 million years B.C. They were the most beautiful marine invertebrates of that era, becoming nearly extinct shortly before the Jurassic period, due to attack by marine reptiles, dolphinlike ichthyosaurs. Fourteen orders of these existed during this time (today there are only four) and dominated the seas for over a hundred million years. The ammonites, excavated from their bed of over a million years, are cased in hard, black shale formed like huge oyster shells. This furnished the only clue to their contents, as many irregular-shaped formations of this same rock were numerous around the deposit. Consequently many of those picked into were found to contain nothing. The perfect and near-perfect specimens required extensive pick-andshovel excavation to unearth the rock casings, which in several instances had an estimated weight of five hundred pounds, with only a few inches visible above the surface. Great care was employed in chipping this off, as a single hard blow with the pick would crack the spiral-shaped ammonite inside. Where the protective casings had been exposed to the air and erosion, shattering resulted. A slab of reddish-colored stone with imprints of many small forms of marine life also was excavated nearby. One hundred miles of the road traversed to this important and interesting deposit is all but impassable, since no rain has fallen in this part of Baja California desert for over a year. For many miles the vehicle wallows in dust at running-board level. Numerous arroyos, large and small, and beds of rock through canyons and over moun-

Ammonites 123 tains require driving in second and low gear for seemingly endless miles. Water must be transported for the entire trip from a well twenty miles north of the deposit.

12. Guide to Big Game Habitats and Wilderness

Commencing in northwestern Baja California and following the international boundary to the port of Nuevo Laredo, I propose to offer a gazetteer of ports of entry, highways, passable motor roads, railroads, and airline routes in Mexico which bring the naturalist or sportsman to or near places where native guides and pack outfits can be secured to reach major habitats of wildlife classified as big game animals. In Baja California this fauna comprises desert mountain sheep, pronghorn antelope, whitetail and mule deer, and mountain lions. There are three ports of entry into Baja California. Commencing at Tijuana the Trans-Peninsula highway is now paved to its terminus at San José de Cabo. One hundred and forty miles south of Tijuana a road turns east to the pueblo of San Telmo and winds up through valleys and canyons to Ranchos San José and El Coyote, which lie at the base of Sierra de San Pedro Mártir. In this region there are a few whitetail deer, mountain lions, and mountain sheep on the eastern slopes of San Pedro Mártir. Guides and pack outfits can be secured at either of these ranches. After one returns to the Trans-Peninsula highway, the few small pueblos and ranchos which border major habitats are farther south along this route. Guides with pack outfits of mules and burros can be secured at El Rosario, Rancho San Juan de Dios, El Marmol, Rancho Santa Ynez, San Borjas, San Ignacio, and Bahía de Los Angeles. From El Rosario south to San Ignacio there are mountain sheep, whitetail deer, and mountain lions in several groups of desert sierras on both Gulf and Pacific slopes. Mule deer inhabit limited areas in valleys, and a few bands of pronghorn antelope range near the dry lake bed at Laguna Seca Chapala and on the vast plains of Ojo Liebre, northwest of San Ignacio. Remember, none of the big game mentioned is plentiful and you must hunt to be successful. Southward from this ancient pueblo to the peninsula's end at San José del Cabo are several towns and ranches where guides and pack outfits are available. However, mountain sheep and deer are very

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scarce and wary in this region. Question the guide on this, bearing in mind that the adventurous often experience thrills which the timid will never know, but avoid the well-worn trails of other humans. Many of the guides and rancheros in Baja California have pack outfits composed of burros. These are more available than horses or mules, and they take what the desert has to offer in food and water, and like it. If this mundane world has not dulled your sense of humor or patience with the scheme of things, a jackass pack trip offers many laughs. Their owners often name the animals according to vocal attainments and ability to resist impulsive humans. There is a port of entry at Tecate, and the road south to Ensenada fringes the habitats of whitetail and mule deer in remote regions of Sierra de Juárez. Numerous dirt roads lead to ranches where saddle horses and guides can be obtained to hunt these regions. From Tecate a branch of the Trans-Peninsula highway runs eastward to Mexicali, and from this border city a paved road goes south to the fishing village of San Felipe on the Gulf of California. From there a road grader has roughed out a road southward which connects with the Trans-Peninsula highway at Laguna Seca Chapala. There are no outfitting points between San Felipe and this place. Inquiry concerning this road should be made at Mexicali and again at San Felipe before venturing south. The next port of entry is at San Luis, Sonora, twenty-five miles south of Yuma, Arizona. A good desert road runs eastward through the extreme northwestern corner of this state to Sonoita. Forty-five miles east of San Luis it passes within walking distance of Sierra del Rosario, and forty miles farther east it skirts the southwestern slopes of Sierra del Tuseral. There is no permanent habitation along this road, and consequently no guides or outfits are available. Both of these mountain ranges are occupied by desert mountain sheep, and if you stalk the canyons early and carefully, you are apt to see them. After passing the edge of the lava flow eastward, the road edges a wide treeless plain which is called a llano or playa. There are others like it farther south. These are feeding grounds of pronghorn antelope during winter and spring months, which are the best seasons to undertake this adventurous journey. North of this region a wide strip of desert has been set aside in Arizona as a federal wildlife refuge. Southward the hazy blue Los Picos de Pinacate and jagged white crests of Sierra Blanca and Sierra de San Francisco brood over a land of sand and lava inhabited by deer, antelope, and desert mountain sheep. This region lies near the

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Gulf of California and is entered via a motor road from Sonoita to the fishing village of Punta Penasco. Native guides with pack outfits or "jeeps" can be obtained at either place to reach the mountains and plains. This corner of the Altar Desert is filled with interesting natural phenomena. The numerous extinct volcanoes, flora, and fauna are described in Dr. W. T. Hornaday's books, Camp Fires on Desert and Lava and Tales from Nature's Wonderlands. For many years it was tierra incognita. During the revolution the road from San Luis to Sonoita was patrolled by Mexican cavalry to prevent smuggling of arms to opposing factions. At this time no permits were issued to enter Mexico, especially with firearms. However, a friend and I decided to explore the region regardless of these restrictions. Our last camp north of the border was made at Tinajas Altas, where we watered the pack outfit and filled canteens. The journey from there to the next water at Tinaja de Los Papagos required two days in the saddle and, being a rainless winter, the tinajas might be dry. Entering Sonora we reached the road and, with no signs of the cavalry, hurried on, to discover our largest canteen of water was missing. Retracing the trail we found it and its broken canvas strap lying by the roadside. We had hardly retrieved the canteen and turned south when the cavalry hove in sight and, following our trail through the chaparral, captured us. We were escorted to Sonoita and lodged in the adobe jail. Our fate was undetermined until I presented Captain Molina with my new custom-made rifle, whereupon we were released and permitted to resume the trip. The next three routes lead into big game regions farther south in Sonora. These enter the state via Sonoita, Mesquite, and Nogales. From Sonoita southward a passable motor road borders habitats of mountain sheep, antelope, deer, collared peccary, and mountain lion, which lie westward toward the Gulf of California. The other two roads, via Mesquite and Nogales, traverse regions sparsely inhabited by wildlife. After reaching the town of Pitiquito the two roads merge, and one bears southwest into big-game regions near Puerto Libertad and Puerto Lobos on the gulf. Pack outfits and guides are to be had at ranchos Primavera, Alamo Muerto, Pozo Moreno, and Pozo Serna for trips into outlying wildlife regions along the road and farther south near Tiburón Island. From the port of Nogales, Sonora, the International Pacific highway follows a coastal route southward. Pack outfits and guides are

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available along northern stretches of the highway at Imuris, Noría, Cornélio, Carbó, and farther south at Hermosillo, Ciudad Obregón, Navojoa, San Blas, Culiacán, Dimas, Mazatlán, and Tepic. The International Pacific highway connects with the HermosilloChihuahua highway near Hermosillo, and this road follows a rugged course eastward to Casas Grandes, Chihuahua. Farther east along the border, roads via Naco and Agua Prieta intersect it and can be used to reach extensive big game habitats on the western slopes of Sierra Madre Occidental by securing guides and pack outfits at Bavispe, Bacerac, Oputo, Bacadéhuachi, or Nácori Chico. From Nácori Chico a passable road leads to Sahuaripa, Mulatos, and Chiapas, where outfits and guides can be assembled to reach big game habitats farther south in the Sierra Madre Occidental. There is a small port of entry at Las Palomas, Chihuahua, across the border from Columbus, New Mexico. From there a motor road, passable in dry weather, but difficult in wet, proceeds south to La Ascensión and Corralitos, where guides can be hired at nearby ranchos. Scattered bands of antelope occupy limited areas of this region. Mountain sheep inhabit Sierra de Samalayuca, and mule deer inhabit its foothills and valleys. From these points the road runs south to Casas Grandes, thence to Colonia Juárez and up into Sierra Madre Occidental. After reaching the summit at Colonia Pacheco it winds through a wilderness of pine forests and canyons to its terminus at Siete Estrellas. Whitetail deer, black bears, collared peccary, mountain lions, and wild turkeys are distributed through this hinterland on both the Sonora and Chihuahua slopes. A few grizzly bears inhabit a region in the Sierra Madre Occidental in western Chihuahua called Sierra del Nido and the wilderness that comprises the headwaters of Río Yaqui in Sonora. The most primitive areas are in Sonora west of the continental divide. Guides and pack outfits can be secured along the road at Colonia Pacheco, Colonia García, Colonia Chuhuichupa, and Siete Estrellas. This region can also be reached through Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, via the Central Mexican Highway to Ahumada. Here a road runs west to Casas Grandes and connects with the route into Sierra Madre Occidental. By motoring south from Ahumada over the Central Mexican Highway and turning west at Parrita, you reach Madera, where guides are available, and thence to Colonia Chuhuichupa and other Mormon settlements listed above. Other areas in the sierras and near plains occupied by antelope farther south can be reached by proceeding over the Central Mexican

130 Big Game Habitats and Wilderness Highway to Chihuahua City, Camargo, Jiménez, and Parral, which are also entered via Presidio, Texas, over a branch of the highway to Chihuahua City. Numerous guides and pack outfits can be hired at ranches and small settlements near these towns. Other big game regions in the sierras are approached via the Central Mexican Highway to the city of Durango, thence north over passable roads to Santiago and Tepehuanes, where guides and outfits are to be had if you are patient. Through the ports of Del Rio, Villa Acuña, Eagle Pass, Piedras Negras, Laredo, and Nuevo Laredo, the Villa Acuña, Manzanillo, and Pan American highways (and branch to the Central Mexican Highway via Monclova) border big game regions in Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, and San Luis Potosí. Guides and outfits can be hired at Múzquiz, Barrancas, Monclova, Sierra Mojada, and Lineras. The Villa Acuña, Manzanillo, Central, and Pan American highways through central and southern states border various habitats where whitetail deer, peccaries, jaguars, and wild turkeys are so thinly distributed that no particular regions can be classified as major areas. Consequently, other routes and means of transportation, outfits, and guides are not listed. However, the best areas at present are in western Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Chiapas. After perusing this chapter, the reader should secure a recent map of Mexico and draw a line from Tampico to San Blas, and another from Veracruz to Acapulco. After noting numerous large and small centers of civilization, then recall the fact that large areas of this terrain were occupied by Indian tribes whose history antedated the arrival of Cortez. This condition largely prevailed to the border of Central America. Today, wherever man is populous, big game is certain to be scarce and could vanish in the near future if not adequately protected. Large areas in several central and southern states and on the Yucatán peninsula are clothed with forests and jungles which comprise natural game refuges, if set aside for this purpose, as the breeding stock still exists. These in the north are sections of Durango, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosí, and more notable in the south are regions of Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Chiapas. However, game protection is a difficult problem in a land where both the Mexican and the Indian population kill every edible animal for food and kill others for their skins-notably the jaguar. Tribes such as the Tzonthals, who dwell in the highlands of Chiapas bordering the Amatenago valley, hunt all animals, large and small, birds, and even armadillos for meat.

Big Game Habitats and Wilderness 131 There is no railroad transportation through Baja California. The Sonora-Baja California y de Sureste Railway has passenger service from Mexicali, Baja California, through the northwest corner of Sonora (Altar Desert) to Caborca and Pitiquito, and it connects with the Southern Pacific Railway of Mexico at Benjamín Hill. There is an outfitting point at Punta Penasco. Automobiles can be rented at Caborca and Pitiquito to reach other outfitting points listed on the road south of these rail points. The Southern Pacific Railway of Mexico and the National Railway reach several outfitting points near big game habitats listed on the International Pacific, Central, Villa Acuña, and Manzanillo highways in Sonora, Sinaloa, Nayarit, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Durango. The Mexican Northwestern Railroad via Ciudad Juárez can be utilized to reach Casas Grandes, Madera, and Chihuahua City. Aeronavés de México has a schedule from Tijuana, Baja California; Nogales, Sonora; and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, that reaches points near big game habitats previously mentioned. Chartered planes can be secured in either San Diego or Tijuana for trips in Baja California; also in Nogales, El Paso, and Juárez. However, landing fields are few near wildlife areas, and emergency landing strips should be ascertained before taking off. On several occasions the writer has experienced near disaster while landing and taking off from meadows atop the sierras and from open plains in the antelope country. In recent years I have quit courting calamity.