ery outside of the Park of animals marked in the Park, and
direct observations of movement indicate that the Mesa Verde is an
intermediate range rather than a summer-range or winter-range. In summer
deer tend to move northward and eastward out of the Park, and in winter
they move back through the Park toward lower and more protected areas in
canyons both in the Park and south of the Park on the Ute Reservation.
Some deer remain in the Park the entire year. Close co-operation between
personnel of the Park Service and of the Colorado Department of Game and
Fish has regulated hunting outside the Park in such a way as to provide
satisfactory control of the deer within the Park.

A study of the effect of rodents on plants used by deer was initiated in
1956 by Harold R. Shepherd. Three acres were fenced in a fashion
designed to exclude rodents but not deer. An adjacent three acres were
fenced as a control, but not so as to exclude rodents or deer. Eight
trap lines nearby provide an index of rodent fluctuations from year to
year. These studies will need to be continued for a period of ten years
or more, and should provide much information concerning not only deer
but also rodents and their effect on vegetation.

Cervus canadensis nelsoni V. Bailey Wapiti

Wapiti are seen periodically; probably they wander in from the higher
mountains to the northeast and do not remain for long. The following
note was included in the 1921 report of Mr. Jesse L. Nusbaum, then
Superintendent of the Park: "The first elk ever seen in the Park made
his appearance near the head of Navajo Canyon, August 15 of this year,
and travelled for two miles in front of a Ford car down the main road
before another car, travelling in the opposite direction, scared him
into the timber." Additional observations have been recorded as follows:
School Section Canyon ("fall" 1935), Knife Edge Road (July, 1940), West
Soda Canyon and Windy Point (December, 1949), Long Canyon (July, 1959),
and Park Entrance (December, 1959). Three of the six observations are in
July and August; therefore movement by wapiti into the Park can not be
attributed entirely to disturbance during the hunting season.

Ovis canadensis canadensis Shaw Bighorn

Some early records of the bighorn were mentioned by C.W. Quaintance
(1935): In a letter of January 20, 1935, John Wetherill said that a
"Mountain Sheep Canyon" (now Rock Canyon) was named for a bunch of sheep
that wintered near their c