Mammals of Mount Rainier National Park

Part 1

MAMMALS of MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK

MERLIN K. POTTS Assistant Park Naturalist and RUSSELL K. GRATER Park Naturalist

Copyright 1949 by Mount Rainier Natural History Association

Published by THE MOUNT RAINIER NATURAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION Longmire, Washington 1949

FOREWORD

There are few places remaining in this country today where one may observe wild animals in a natural setting, free to move about, unrestricted by bars or enclosures, and exhibiting little of the instinctive fear of man instilled through many wildlife generations by the advance and expansion of settlement and civilization.

The national parks are among the greatest wildlife sanctuaries of the world. Most wild creatures are quick to recognize the protection afforded by such a refuge, and thus become less shy and elusive than they are elsewhere. As a result of protection, it is not difficult to attain an acquaintance with these wilderness folk.

To know Nature in her various forms is to increase appreciation of the natural scene. It is for this purpose that Mammals of Mount Rainier National Park has been written, the third of a series published by the Mount Rainier Natural History Association.

JOHN C. PRESTON Superintendent Mount Rainier National Park United States Department of the Interior

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The writers of Mammals of Mount Rainier National Park are indebted to the following individuals for their critical assistance and encouragement in the preparation of the manuscript:

Dr. A. Svihla, Zoology Department, University of Washington,

Mr. Herbert Evison, Chief of Information, National Park Service,

Mr. Victor H. Cahalane, Biologist, National Park Service,

Mr. E. Lowell Sumner, Regional Biologist, Region Four, National Park Service.

Through their constructive suggestions the finished publication has been materially strengthened.

Photographs were obtained through the courtesy of Mount Rainier, Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain, and Glacier National Parks; and Mr. Joseph M. Dixon, Mr. E. Lowell Sumner, and Mr. F. J. McGrail.

Merlin K. Potts Russell K. Grater

CONTENTS

Page Foreword iii Acknowledgements iv Introduction 1 Wildlife Trends 2 Wildlife Problems 3 Life Zones of Mount Rainier 7 The Mammals 13 Hypothetical List 82 Bibliography 83 Index of Common Names 85 Index of Scientific Names 86

ILLUSTRATIONS

Page Cascade mantled ground squirrel cover Bench Lake, Hudsonian life zone frontispiece Black bear 5 Forest scene, Humid Transition life zone 9 Forest scene, Canadian life zone 10 Paradise Valley, Hudsonian life zone 12 Colonnade, Arctic-alpine life zone 14 Black-tailed deer and fawns 15 New-born fawn of black-tailed deer 16 Mountain goat 22 Black bear and cubs 24 Cascade hoary marmot 28 Hollister chipmunk 31 Cascade mantled ground squirrel 33 Douglas pine squirrel 35 Cascade flying squirrel 37 Beaver 39 Yellow-haired porcupine 45 White-footed mouse 51 Coyote 64 Cascade red fox, “silver” phase 67 Marten 69 Washington weasel 72

THE MAMMALS OF MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK

INTRODUCTION

In looking back through the years during which mammal studies have been carried on at Mount Rainier, three periods stand out in which considerable field research was accomplished. The first of these was in July and August, 1897, when a party headed by Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Vernon Bailey, Dr. A. K. Fisher and Walter K. Fisher made the first field studies of the mammals of the park. Following this very important piece of work there was a lull in field activities until the summer of 1919 when a party working under the auspices of the National Park Service and the Bureau of Biological Survey conducted studies on the local bird and mammal populations. In this party were such well known scientists as Dr. Walter P. Taylor, in charge, George G. Cantwell, Stanley G. Jewett, Professor J. B. Flett, Professor William T. Shaw, Professor J. W. Hungate and Mr. and Mrs. William L. Finley. Upon the completion of this study there was again a long period in which little of a systematic nature was accomplished. The last period of note came during the years 1934-1936 when Mr. E. A. Kitchin, a member of the Wildlife Division of the National Park Service, supervised field studies in various portions of the park. Many of these studies were concerned with observational data rather than extensive collecting. For the next few years only brief observations from members of the park staff were added to the park records. Then, during the summer of 1947, special studies were begun by the Naturalist Staff on the status of the mountain goat and the problems arising from a foot disease that occurred in the deer population. It is planned that other special studies shall be carried on in future years, designed to clarify the status of other important mammalian species in the park.

Because of the extensive data that have slowly accumulated through the years since the 1919 survey, the need for a publication to bring all information up to date has become increasingly apparent. This booklet is designed to answer that need.

The sequence of species used brings many of the larger animals ahead of the smaller and more obscure kinds, and thus does not in many cases follow in systematic order. However, it is felt that the order used best meets the needs in a publication of this type. Common names selected are those most generally accepted for the animals in question.

WILDLIFE TRENDS

Part 2

When the first wildlife survey was made in 1897 it is likely that the conditions of that year came nearest to representing the original status of the various species—a status that has changed drastically in many instances in the years that have followed. At that time the park was little known and the faunal relationships were relatively undisturbed. In the years since 1900, however, the region has experienced radical changes. Trappers have reduced the fur bearers in large numbers, logging activities in the valleys and on the mountain slopes near the park have entirely changed the ecology of the region. Many important predators, such as the wolf and wolverine, either became extinct or virtually so, while the changing forest scene due to fires and logging brought new species into prominence, such as the porcupine and coyote. Recently elk, released in the nearby valleys, have entered the park and are now firmly established, promising still new changes in the mammal picture as time goes on. In many respects Mount Rainier has become a biotic island in a region where the original conditions no longer exist except in the park. The smallness of this biotic island makes it impossible for even an undeveloped area of this type to represent really primitive conditions. Thus the park today cannot be considered as representing the original wilderness as seen by the first white men to enter the region. It is merely as near the original wilderness as it has been possible to keep it in the midst of all the changes brought about by man.

However, by the preservation of the natural environment, the National Park Service does much to conserve the wildlife as well. In many instances the national parks are among the last remaining refuges for rare and vanishing species of wildlife. The wolverine, the grizzly bear, and the wolf, now extinct over much of their range in North America, may still be found in these sanctuaries, and, along with other species, these creatures of the remote wilderness are fighting their battle of survival in the only areas left to them.

Extirpated species, those native forms which are known to have existed in some areas, but which have since disappeared, are being restored where possible. The muskrat, formerly present in Mount Rainier National Park, now not known to occur, is an example of an extirpated species which should be restored.

WILDLIFE PROBLEMS

Since the establishment of the National Park Service in 1916, it has become increasingly obvious that the occupation of the national parks by man and wildlife must inevitably result in wildlife problems. The act creating the National Park Service is specific in its language; it says that the Service thus established shall promote and regulate the use of the areas by such means and measures necessary “to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”

The apparent inconsistency presents itself immediately. Natural features must be conserved and protected, they must not be impaired, yet provision must be made for their enjoyment by the millions of visitors who come to the national parks each year. The course that must be followed, then, is one of permitting modification of the natural scene only to the degree required to provide for perpetual enjoyment of “the scenery, the natural and historic objects and the wildlife.”

The relations between man and the wildlife of the national parks are complex. Both occupy the parks, with equal rights to that occupancy. It can scarcely be argued that man is not a part of the natural scene; certainly there is nothing essentially unnatural in the progress of our civilization from the dawn of history to the present. In the national parks, however, the unimpaired values to be preserved are those of the primitive natural scene. Man can strive to maintain these values, unimpaired, because he has the power of reason. Through that power he can recognize the effect of his conflict with nature, and so prevent the destruction of the primitive natural scene by a proper regulation of his acts.

Continue reading Mammals of Mount Rainier National Park free in the Wunder reader →