Part 21

Several cabin owners near the mouth of Icehouse Canyon reported seeing a lion in that area in 1950, and others said they saw huge cat tracks in Icehouse Canyon. State Trapper James Wolfort reported that he trapped two lions on the coastal face of the range in 1947. Authentic reports indicate that mountain lions occur in remote sections on both slopes of the range, and in these areas mountain lions probably are as common as they ever were.

Family CERVIDAE

=Odocoileus hemionus californicus= (Caton)

Mule Deer

Mule deer are common in chaparral areas on both slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains. The animals or their tracks have been observed from the coastal sagebrush flats up to about 9200 feet on Mount San Antonio, and on the desert slope down to the lower limit of the juniper belt.

Deer are plentiful in the upper chaparral belt, and large bands are often noted there in spring. These bands may form in the up-mountain migration and reoccupation of areas which were covered by winter snows. A band of fourteen was observed on March 17, 1951, one mile east of the mouth of Cattle Canyon, and bands of about half a dozen individuals each were often noted in March, 1951, at the base of Icehouse Canyon. Cronemiller and Bartholomew (1950) gave a good account of the mule deer in the chaparral belt of the San Gabriel Mountains.

On Blue Ridge in the fall of 1951, deer were plentiful, usually being observed near patches of snowbrush and sage. They were seldom found in the coniferous forests. On November 6, 1951, while tending a line of snap traps before sunup, I startled a deer from its bed at one edge of a several-acre patch of snowbrush. In synchrony with the noise made by this deer's rising five other deer in various parts of the brush patch leaped up and made off. When bedded down in these extensive brush tracts deer are probably safe from an undetected approach, for a noiseless approach through the brush is impossible.

Two deer skulls from the San Gabriels were examined: that of an adult male from Evey Canyon, and that of an adult female from the mouth of Palmer Canyon. Using as a basis for comparison the cranial measurements for the subspecies californicus and fuliginatus given by Cowan (1933:326), these skulls were subspecies californicus. In none of the cranial characteristics considered did they tend toward the southern race fuliginatus. A young adult male, however, which was killed by a car near Cajon Pass on October 2, 1951, showed pelage characteristics of fuliginatus. Its fresh winter pelage was dark, and had the distinct black mid-dorsal line and the broad dorsal line on the tail mentioned by Cowan (ibid.) as distinguishing marks of the race fuliginatus. Its cranial measurements were not taken. Judging from this limited material the deer in the central part of the range, that is to say, in the San Antonio Canyon region, are of the race californicus, while fuliginatus may penetrate the extreme eastern end of the range.

Deer hair and bones were often found in coyote feces from the sagebrush belt. Some of these records may represent deer eaten as carrion. On February 6, 1952, tracks across a sandy channel in San Antonio Wash demonstrated that a deer had been closely pursued by a coyote. The deer had leaped from a cutbank onto the sand, had whirled around in several sharp turns, and had run into the adjacent brush. The tracks of a running coyote followed every twist of the deer's trail. The trail was followed into the brush where it was lost. Two bobcats trapped near Graham Canyon on the desert slope had hair and bones of deer in their stomachs.

Specimens examined, 2: Los Angeles County: Evey Canyon, 2100 ft., 1 (PC); Palmer Canyon, 1900 ft., 1 (PC).

Family BOVIDAE

=Ovis canadensis nelsoni= Merriam

Bighorn

Bands of bighorn sheep occur on some of the higher and more rugged peaks of the San Gabriel Mountains. Although I never sighted the animals themselves, I have seen abundant signs of their presence on the ridge sloping west from Telegraph Peak at about 9000 feet elevation. Several bands reportedly range in the head of San Antonio Canyon, and to the south on Telegraph, Ontario, and Cucamonga peaks. The sheep usually stay in the higher sections of the range, generally above about 7000 feet elevation. According to district Ranger A. Lewis some bighorns summer in the lower East Fork of San Gabriel Canyon. The subspecific status of the bighorns in the San Gabriel Mountains has not been definitely determined. Following Grinnell (1933:211) they are here referred to nelsoni. If the band can be preserved without introduction of "alien" stock, the United States Forest Service and the California Fish and Game Commission will have registered an achievement that will be applauded by all persons who are interested in American wildlife.

LITERATURE CITED

BENSON, S. B.

1930. Two new pocket mice, genus Perognathus, from the Californias. Univ. California Publ. Zool., 32:449-454.

1949. The bat name Myotis ruddi Silliman and von Bloeker, a synonym of Myotis volans longicrus (True). Jour. Mamm., 30:48-50.

BORELL, A. E.

1937. A new method of collecting bats. Jour. Mamm., 18:478-480.

BURGHDUFF, A. E.

1935. Black bears released in southern California. California Fish and Game, 21:83-84.

BURT, W. H.

1932. The systematic status and geographic range of the San Gabriel pocket gopher (Thomomys bottae neglectus Bailey). Jour. Mamm., 13:369-370.

COWAN, I. MC.

1933. The mule deer of southern California and northern Lower California as a recognizable race. Jour. Mamm., 14:326-327.

CRONEMILLER, F. P., and BARTHOLOMEW, P. S.

1950. The California mule deer in chaparral forests. California Fish and Game, 36:343-365, 7 figs. in text.