304 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 61, FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



that it is somewhat doubtful whether they can survive in the Aleu- 

 tians. If the migration to these islands should cease, these species 

 would disappear from the Aleutian fauna. Certain rare species, 

 too, are threatened. The whiskered auklet is not abundant, and 

 the Cassin's auklet has become very scarce. 



No native rodents occur on most of the islands, hence there is 

 no food for foxes except for the birds and invertebrates, and the 

 drift on the beaches. Many of the islands are small, and the fox 

 populations are under commercial management, which necessarily 

 strives for the greatest possible fox numbers. Many of the is- 

 lands have rocky shores with a minimum stretch of beach where 

 foxes can feed. These are some of the factors that cause a special 

 hazard to the Aleutian bird colonies. 



Cams lupus: Wolf 

 Canis lupus pambasileus 



Aleut: Alixgikh (Geoghegan) 

 Russian: Volk (Buxton) 



The wolf has ranged the entire length of the Alaska Peninsula, 

 and is referred to by Osgood (1904, p. 40) . He found tracks near 

 Lake Clark and around the portage between Chulitna River and 

 Swan Lake, and he was told of wolves occurring on Alaska Penin- 

 sula. Turner (1886, p. 208) reports it as being present on Unimak 

 Island, stating that it reached this island over ice that sometimes 

 jams into False Pass. Nelson (1887, p. 238) quotes Veniaminoff 

 to the effect that wolves were resident on Unimak Island and that 

 two were killed on Akun Island in 1830 — this is the farthest west 

 that they have been reported. 



In 1911, Wetmore saw tracks of wolves in the King Cove re- 

 gion. In 1925, I obtained further information on wolf distri- 

 bution in that western district. Donald H. Stevenson, at that 

 time resident fur warden there, reported that six wolves were 

 killed on Unimak Island in 1912. He had unverified reports that 

 the last ones were killed in 1914. It was learned that two wolves 

 were killed in the winter of 1918 at the west end of Alaska Pen- 

 insula. This had been a hard winter, the two wolves were poor, 

 and their fur was greasy, showing that they had been living off a 

 whale carcass. Griggs (1922, p. 315) found wolf tracks at Mount 

 Katmai in 1916, and he mentions reports of wolf packs in former 

 years. 



In 1936, wolves were reported to be plentiful on Mulchatna 

 River, in the Lake Clark region, and in the Nanwhyenuk Lake 

 and Naknek Lake country, but there were no recent reports of 

 wolves westward along the Peninsula. 



