NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 61, FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



width equally between us, we walked slowly toward the foxes, 

 camera ready. The foxes immediately sensed that they were 

 trapped and acted at once. One after the other, three of them 

 chose to race past us, rather than to swim a distance of 7 or 8 

 yards to the main beach. At high speed, a fox charged straight 

 at us and passed within 5 or 6 feet. There was hardly time to 

 change film before another fox, frantic because it was cornered, 

 came rushing past us in the same manner, and the third fox 

 followed the other two. Meanwhile, the remaining foxes swam 

 across the lane of water and reached the main beach. 



Management 



On Unimak Island, there is an annual limit to the trapper's 

 take — each legal trapper is allowed a maximum of 50 red foxes 

 for the trapping season. This appears to be a satisfactory ar- 

 rangement, and the fox population has not been unduly depleted. 

 Even on the Alaska Peninsula, where no bag limit is in effect, the 

 fox population has remained fairly stable. The same is true of 

 Umnak. There were reports that the status of the red fox on 

 Unalaska was not so favorable; however, fox signs were quite 

 common when we visited there in 1936 and 1937. 



On other Aleutian Islands to the westward, red foxes are han- 

 dled as private property and are either harvested at intervals, 

 as on Amlia, or are being eliminated in favor of blue foxes. 



Alopex lagopus: Blue Fox 



Attu: Mis-si-sircli Chir-ri-ech 



Mis-si-si Kon-uch (white fox) 

 From vocabulary compiled at Valdez by R. H. Geoghegan: Aikagukh 

 Morzhovoi Bay: Ikowkookmah (Wetmore) 

 Russian, Siberia: Gcl-o-ba pee-seez-(a) (Buxton) 



Pee-seetz-(a), "white fox" (Buxton) 



The original distribution of the Arctic fox in the Aleutians is 

 difficult to determine because of the fact that foxes have been 

 placed on many of the islands for commercial breeding. The 

 Chief of Attu Village insisted that the blue fox had been intro- 

 duced in the Aleutians by man. Remington Kellogg, who ex- 

 amined many bones from old village sites excavated by the late 



v v 



Ales Hrdlicka, reported that no fox bones appeared in material 

 from the Aleutians, though he found them in midden material 

 from Kodiak. 



Certain historical records counteract this evidence. Ivan Petroff 

 (1884) , speaking of Atka Island, stated "even the blue fox (Vulpes 

 lagopus), now confined to but few localities throughout Alaska, 

 is still found here." Concerning Attu, he said, "On account of 



