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Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

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  • WILD LIFE IN THE PARK Virgin forests of red spruce and balsam, and high altitudes throughout the Great Smoky Mountains cause conditions which are typically northern, largely restricting wild animal life to that of the Canadian or northern zone. Scientists divide the mountains into three main faunal '■ones, dependent on elevation: (1) the Southern, below 2,000 feet; (2) the Eastern, between 2,000 and 3,000 feet; and (3) the Northern, above 3,000 feet. By far the greatest part of the park area is in the Northern zone. In a survey recently conducted by the Chicago Academy of Sciences, during which specimens of mammals, reptiles and amphibians of the Great Smokies were gathered and studied, it was determined that many of the animals in the higher reaches of these Mountains have no relatives nearer than in Canada. In these two regions—Canada and the Great Smoky Mountains—the same species have developed differently and the variance has often amounted to the development of entirely different species. Wild life in virgin forest lands and in dense, age-old thickets, such as those covering some of the slopes and peaks °f the Great Smokies, is scarce when compared to that of areas which have had their conditions changed by civilization. In these mountains are conditions unchanged for centuries except for loss of larger mammals, due to hunting. The red, or Virginia, deer—once so plentiful and so often hunted by the Cherokee and white man—has been almost exterminated. The eastern black bear, whose lairs and trails are in the almost impenetrable rhododendron thickets under the spruce and on mountain slopes, has survived in considerable numbers in spite of the depredations of hunters. The bear is the only prominent large animal now found in the park. Park officials predict that he will become tame and will be often seen after the park's protection policy has been in effect for a short time. 103
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