The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mammals of Mesa Verde National Park,
Colorado, by Sydney Anderson

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Title: Mammals of Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

Author: Sydney Anderson

Release Date: January 21, 2010 [EBook #31035]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS
MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Volume 14, No. 3, pp. 29-67, pls. 1 and 2, 3 figs. in text

July 24, 1961

Mammals of Mesa Verde National Park,
Colorado

BY

SYDNEY ANDERSON

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
LAWRENCE
1961

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, Henry S. Fitch,
Robert W. Wilson

Volume 14, No. 3, pp. 29-67, pls. 1 and 2, 3 figs. in text
Published July 24, 1961

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Lawrence, Kansas

PRINTED IN
THE STATE PRINTING PLANT
TOPEKA, KANSAS
1961

28-7577

Mammals of Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

BY

SYDNEY ANDERSON

INTRODUCTION

A person standing on the North Rim of the Mesa Verde in southwestern
Colorado sees a vast green plain sloping away to the south. The plain
drops 2000 feet in ten miles. On a clear evening, before the sun reaches
the horizon, the rays of the sun are reflected from great sandstone
cliffs forming the walls of deep canyons that appear as crooked yellow
lines in the distance. Canyon after canyon has cut into the sloping
green plain. These canyons are roughly parallel and all open into the
canyon of the Mancos River, which forms the southern boundary of the
Mesa Verde. If the observer turns to the north he sees the arid
Montezuma Valley 2000 feet below. A few green streaks and patches in the
brown and barren low country denote streams and irrigated areas. To the
northeast beyond the low country the towering peaks of the San Miguel
and La Plata mountains rise more than 4000 feet above the vantage point
on the North Rim at 8000 feet. To the northwest, in the hazy distance 90
miles away in Utah, l