Show ELK BISON ROAMED CENTURY AGO panthers still survive in the alleghenies washington D C it is barely a century since elk and bison became extinct in the alleghenies both were abundant in george day according to dr remington I 1 agton kellogg smithsonian institution whose report on the present day mammals of west virginia together with a report on the birds of the state by dr alexander wetmore has just been made public by the united states museum rt it beao become m e ap apparent tn the he course of at recent studies that tile the birds and small mammals of west virginia were poorly represented in the national museum and other museums and that knowledge of the ranges and habits of the birds and animals was based largely on assumption or on scattered records casually obtained the national museum therefore undertook in 1936 a definite program of field work to obtain morel com and definite information on the west virginia fauna the work on birds added much data on distribution of the various forms and led to the discovery of a new race of song sparrow the study of the mammals led to the publication of the present deport which is a complete list of the mammals known to be present either now or formerly in west virginia county histories studied the animals are the opossum three species of moles six of shrews ten of bats black bear raccoon eastern fisher two species of weasels two of minks otter three species of skunk two of foxes gray wolf cougar bobcat woodchuck chipmunk six species of squirrel beaver thirteen species of mice three of rats rock vole muskrat porcupine varying hare two species of cottontail rabbits whitetail white tail deer elk and bison besides seeking for the living fauna dr kellogg searched county histories and old diaries for the most recent references to the larger creatures who were unable to hold their ground against man the last record of bison he found was in 1825 when settlers chased a mother and her calf with dogs both were shot the last elk of which there is any record was killed in 1867 although it is claimed elk tracks were seen as late as A few of 61 these animals are still at large in the state but they escaped from a private park a few years ago bison were abundant I 1 bison were abundant in this p part art of the alleghany allegheny Alleg hany region dr this kellogg eu 0 gg says up to the time of the revolution in 1770 george washington found these animals in great abundance near the mouth of the great kanawha river other travelers told of meeting great migrating herds and settlers complained that the bison were destroying their crops although long hunted by the indians both the elk and bison apparently had little fear of man before the coming of the white settlers |