his carnivore from the area.

~Ursus arctos horribilis~ Ord, 1815

Grizzly Bear

According to Visher (1914:91) a grizzly bear was killed in the early
1890's a short distance southwest of Camp Crook.

~Procyon lotor hirtus~ Nelson and Goldman, 1930

Raccoon

_Specimens examined_ (10).--2 mi. N, 5 mi. W Ludlow, 4; 1/2 mi. W Reva,
1; 4 mi. E Reva, 2; NW 1/4 sec. 32, R. 1 E, T. 20 N, 3.

The raccoon evidently is one of the commonest carnivores in Harding
County. On June 24, 1961, a den with three young (average total length,
429) was found in one of the numerous pockets eroded from the caprock of
the North Cave Hills, and on May 21, 1968, another den, this one
containing five young (average total length of three, 271), was found in
a similar situation on the east edge of the Long Pine Hills. A female
trapped on June 20, 1961, was lactating.

Three individuals that had been killed at Ralph, along nearly treeless
Big Nasty Creek, were examined on May 28, 1968.

~Mustela frenata longicauda~ Bonaparte, 1838

Long-tailed Weasel

This mustelid seems uncommon in northwestern South Dakota. The only
recent reports from Harding County that have come to our attention are
of a female and four or five young that were found in a haystack
"several years prior to 1963" (Robert Kriege, personal communication),
and of several individuals seen by a rancher in a hay field along the
Little Missouri about 7 mi. N Camp Crook during mowing operations in
July 1970. Visher (1914:91) regarded the species as "quite common," and
noted that "4 or 5 dead ones" were seen along roads in the summer of
1910.

~Mustela nigripes~ (Audubon and Bachman, 1851)

Black-footed Ferret

In a recent summary of the natural history of this species in South
Dakota, Henderson _et al._ (1969) listed seven localities in Harding
County (all in prairie dog "towns") at which ferrets had been sighted or
trapped as follows (dates in parentheses): near Ladner (March, 1963); 17
mi. N Camp Crook (about 1956 or 1957); T. 20 N, R. 3 E (1964); T. 20 N,
R. 4 E (winter, 1964); T. 19 N, R. 1 E (late November, 1966); T. 17 N,
R. 8 E (summer, 1965); T. 15 N, R. 1 E (winter, 1963). These authors
also reported a specimen in the U.S. National Museum (no. 243990) that
was taken at Govert on November 1, 1923. Additionally, Wesley Broer,
then the local game warden, reported to one of our parties that a ferret
was seen on February 27, 1963, at a place 7 mi. N and 16 mi. W