Mammals of Mount Shasta Hoofed Mammals

Odocoileus columbianus. Columbia Black-tail Deer. [Odocoileus hemionus columbianus Black-tail Deer, Black-tailed Deer]

Black-tailed Deer (specimen from College of the Siskiyous)
Photographed by Debbie Harton

Abundant on Shasta and throughout the surrounding region. Even at Wagon Camp, which probably is visited by more hunting parties than any other part of the mountain, deer were numerous, and their well-beaten trails were in constant use during our stay. At first the animals were commonest in the lower part of the Shasta fir forest, where for a long time they were not driven away even by the frequent shooting of our bird collectors. When we had been at Wagon Camp a week they were still common within an eighth of a mile. Later, however, they became less numerous in the open forest and more abundant in the dense chaparral of manzanita and buck-brush a little lower down. They were common also on Red Butte, and along all of the streams and canyons on the west, south, and southeast sides of the mountain. On the west side, where water is scarce, numbers used to visit the pools in Cascade Gulch, northwest of Horse Camp. In Mud Creek Canyon their trails were so abundant as to form almost a meshwork. When wer visited this canyon first, July 22, Vernon Bailey saw eight deer; and several of us, resting on the west rim of the canyon, watched a doe and fawn on one of the trails on the opposite side. They were so plentiful in a canyon about a mile east of Squaw Creek that I named the place Deer Canyon. Several times during the season does with spotted fawns were seen in the Shasta fir forest. A yearling 'spike-buck' killed on Squaw Creek by Vernon Bailey August 7 was in the velvet, and his worn summer coat was scant and faded. Another 'spike-buck,' killed in the mountains west of Scott Valley Spetember 15 was in the fresh gray winter coat, with only a few red hairs of the summer coat left.

In the region east of Shasta, where the Columbia black-tail is the prevailing species, C.H. Townsend occasionally found the mule deer. "But in Lassen County, a hundred miles farther south, the reverse was found to be the case," and he saw nothing of the Columbia black-tail. This was in 1883 and 1884. The mule deer was not observed on Shasta by our party, although the tracks of an immense buck, seen by me early in Ausut on the rim of Mud Creek Canyon, may have been made by it. Sherman Powell, in a recent article in Forest and Stream (April 27, 1899), states that mule deer are plentiful a little east of Shasta "on and around Glass Mountain, and also on the northeast slopes of Black Fox Mountain."

Cervus occidentalis. Elk. [Cervus elaphus Wapiti]

One of our party, R.T. Fisher, was informed by George B. Mitchell, county surveyor of Siskiyou County, that elk were shot in the neighborhood of Sisson as late as the early seventies. They were formerly abundant on and about Shasta, particularly in Squaw Creek Valley and Elk Flat, and used to range along the Scott Mountains, and thence westerly to the coast, werhe a few still exist.

Antilocapra americana. Prong-horn Antelope. [Pronghorn Antelope, American Antelope, Pronghorn]

Antelope, we were told, still inhabit the open pine forest east and northeast of Shasta. Formerly they were common in Shasta Valley and ranged west into the foothills of the Scott and Siskiyou Mountains.

The following information regarding their distribution was obtained by Walter K. Fisher: In winter they ranged in the country between the Edgewood divide and the foothills of the Siskiyou Mountains north of Hornbrook, extending into the low valleys west of Shasta River. They were most plentiful in the region between Little Shasta and Gazelle. Mr. Masgrave, one of the first settlers in Little Shasta Valley, is authority for the statement that formerly they frequently herded with his cattle. In Scarface Valley, west of Gazelle, he once saw a large herd which contained not less than two thousand animals.

In summer the antelope ranged extensively through Goose Nest Mountain and wooded valleys in Butte Creek region, as well as in Shasta Valley, Big Valley, Fall River Valley, and about Tule Lake, Klamath Falls, and Goose Lake. At present only a small herd remains. They stay in the remoter valleys east of the mountains and rarely come to Shasta Valley. In the summer of 1898 three were seen on the road between Little Shasta post-office and Butte Creek.

Ovis canadensis. Bighorn; Mountain Sheep. [Bighorn Sheep]

The bighorn no longer inhabits Shasta, but its bleaching bones still remain. In early days, and as late as the seventies, many were killed here by J.H. Sisson, of Sisson Tavern. Sheep Rock, at the northeast base of the mountain, was one of their favorite and latest resorts, but probably was not used during the breeding season. In 1868 George B. Mitchell saw a band of twenty near the head of Mud Creek Canyon. In 1883 C.H. Townsend found numbers of their horns and bones scattered about everywhere on Sheep Rock, and saw the complete skeleton of a bighorn at the foot of Mud Creek glacier, high up on Shasta. An old skull was found on Red Butte by Vernon Bailey during our stay.

Bighorn Sheep (specimen from College of the Siskiyous)
Photographed by Debbie Harton