The San Francisco call and post., 1913-12-12
: BILLION WILD
!. FOLK PEOPLE
CALF FORNIA

The wild animal population of CAL
ifornia is several billions. there being
2'Soo.ooo,ooo rodents alone. an average
Oh 70 to each one of the I0o.00o.0oO
acres in this state.
This was one of the facts put forth
by Walter P. Taylor. curator of the
museum of vertebrate zoology at the
University of California, in a lecture
at the Washington school, Oakland.
Taylor spoke on Little known CAL
ifornian Animals"
The Kangaroo rat. which builds its
nests of sticks, bones, stones. glass.
seed pods. tooth brushes. knives and
forks stolen from campers. or what
ever else may be found, is one of the
few animals that never drinks water
Its sole food is dry weed seeds. Sci
entists say that 1t assuages its thirst
from these by some internal chemical
process.
QUICKER THAN SHOT
The fisher. a small tree climbing
<nlmal, said Taylor is the most
zglle wild animal in California.
II takes two men to shoot one. be-
cause the fisher is always on the op-
posite side of the tree from a single
marksman
3" A marten can catch squirrel.
but a fisher can catch marten
1t is one OF two animals which
hkes and eats porcupines. The other
IS the bear
The black bear. by the way. is
nearly extinct in California 1t is
gone entirely from southern Califor-
MIA
Twenty years ago the grizzly bear
ranged all over California Today
the museum has been unable TO find a
single wild specimen.
SEA OTTER NEARLY GONE
Another nearly extinct animal is
the sea otter. Its nearest relative is
the river otter. which never goes into
the ocean. In 1890 the sea otter was
most numerous. Now it is nearly ex-
terminated. Its skin, if good, is worth
$4,000. The few left are protected.
Another strange marine animal is
the sea elephant 1t has nearly dis
appeared, showing that wild beasts or
birds can live against carefully regu-
lated sport, but when they go into
the markets. they begin soon to be
rarer and rarer
"A remarkably big animal. now
making its last stand, is the Roosevelt
elk, found only in Del Norte county
In 1926 it ranged from Del Norte to
San Francisco
sWOODCHUCIN ~COMES HIGH.
The California woodehucll has been
traced by the museum TO Mount Whit
ney, the highest altitude at which evil
dence has been found OF any wild ami
NAL
A curious creature is the mountain
beaver. It has changed little in the
100000 years that the horse has de-
veloped from a small. three toed ami
NAL
This beaver is related to no other
living animal in any close sense. 1t is
itself fast on the way to extinction.
The coney has a similar history
It lives in almost inaccessible heights
OF the Sierras. 1t collects herbage,
which it dries for winter food.
1T too, has been outdistanced in
Rhe evolutionary course, being crowded
TO the high mountain tops.
THREE DRINKS A MONTH
The big horned sheep of the desert
is likewise a strange beast It feeds
on dry twigs and does not need water.
IF a spring is handy. it drinks. II
not convenient. 1T gets along on three
drinks month. 1t can go on without
drinking water at all.
An expedition from the museum
discovered an entirely new species of
sheep on the eastern Sierras some
time ago.
The prong horned antelope sup
piled the cheapest meat to San Fran
cisco in 1857. Now it is nearly gone.
The skunk is supposed to be harm
full Government figures show il is
valuable animal to the farmer as well
as 70 the furrier.
The bat also does great good in de-
vouring insects. The mastif bat.
found south of Fresno. is four to six
inches long.
The rat is the most destructive and
most absolutely valueless animal. It
causes an annual loss of S10O 000 600
n the United States alone. 1t carries
SIS parasites and is the bubonic plague
source"