VITAL STATISTICS

Births

A female elk, one of a small band that wintered about the hotel at Longmire Springs, and became very well known to visitors and residents alike, Sunday presented the community and the Park with a new pet.

Today the baby elk managed to follow its mother wherever she went altho its legs are decidedly wobbly. The little fellow stands about 30 inches high, is a shade darker than its mother and, like the fan of other deer, is ferckled-that is, its sides are sprinkled with numerous small round spots of a light buffy color. These spots are smaller than those worn by the young of the common black-tailed deer.

The two communicate by means of a high-pitched rabbit-like cry which is the common call note of the elk. Such a strange little cry usually sounds absurd coming from an animal the size of the elk, but when directed toward this tiny wide-eyed wilderness baby it sounds very affectionate and motherly.

Some time ago Superintendent Tomlinson found along the road near Tahoma Creek a tiny-black-tailed fawn also. The little fellow was hiding in the ferns just off the road while its mother stood guard in the edge of the forest.

Deaths

Last week the Park Naturalist visited the State Fish Hatchery at Chambers Creek to secure some trout for the exhibit of live fish kept at the small museum at Paradise Valley. The only cutthroat trout available were young ones about three inches long. These, about a dozen in number, were placed in the same can with several large brook trout. When the fish arrived at Longmire Springs they were inspected and found to be in good shape except for the little cutthroats. They were in the brook trout. The cannibals have been sentenced to three months confinement in a glass walled cell as punishment.