OCR Text |
Show 1902.] VARIATION OF THE ELK. 359 I have seen many antlers which might be termed degenerate. The cause of this degeneration may in some cases be insufficient food and poor pasture, but oftener still in-breeding and excessive hunting, or inadequate game-laws. Frequently all the adult stags are shot, so that young males are allowed to breed, which naturally results in weak offspring. In some places it is permitted to kill hinds during the shooting-season, although unlawful to harm the fawns, despite the fact that a fawn of which the mother has been killed will be weak and degenerate. There is thus little wonder that a degenerate stock with small antlers is produced in such districts. This, however, is quite different from claiming all " cervine " and " intermediate " antlers as degenerate. Such a statement is at once disproved by the measurements given above. The " cervine" and " intermediate" antlers may rightly be termed products of spontaneous variation (not of degeneration), and a glance at many of them reveals the fact that this variation, in a certain sense at least, has gone in a particular direction. The antlers of the Elk are chiefly used as weapons against rivals during the rutting-season. It is therefore apparent that the long sharp tines of the " cervine " and " intermediate " types will be more useful for fighting than the comparatively short points of the extremely palmated type. The bayonet-like and forwardly-directed anterior tines of the former are especially formidable ; and it will be evident that the best-armed animal will be victorious, and that when the form of the antlers becomes hereditary in certain localities, Elk with " cervine " antlers must dominate over those with " intermediate " antlers. At the last exhibition in Stockholm (1902) of antlers, from the period 1897-1901, this was proved by a collection of thirteen pairs of heads from eastern Upland, twelve of which were perfectly " cervine," although the thirteenth was broadly palmated. From Vestmanland, again, there was a collection of antlers, chiefly of the " intermediate " type, with narrow palmation and long points. If such family groups live isolated through many generations, it is possible that their characteristics would become constant, but as yet they are not; and since Elk, especially when disturbed, often wander from one tract to another, isolation cannot be effected in districts where they are not yet too scarce1. The Swedish Elk with all its variations thus constitutes only one species, although possibilities seem to exist for the origin of different racial types. Considering the nature of the " cervine" type of elk-antlers, it might in a certain sense be said that it is ata\ istic, since rounded tines are more primitive than a broad palmation. But, on the other hand, the antlers classed above as " cervine" may be regarded as forming a continuous and direct development of the immature type displayed by the young elk, which in its third year normally carries only a fork on each side. It is also important to note‘ that Elk show a strong tendency to continue 1 At present Elk are fairly numerous in Sweden, as may be gathered from the fact that last year during the shooting-season more than 2400 were killed. |