FAUNA OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS ANl'« :.;ASKA PENINSULA 331 



In 1925, we had estimated that there were about 5,000 caribou 

 on Alaska Peninsula, which was a decline in numbers since earlier 

 times. Wolves were not a problem at that time. Speaking at the 

 Alaska Science Conference at Washington, D. C, on November 

 10, 1950, on "Predator Control Problems in Alaska," Dorr D. 

 Green reported that "The Alaska Peninsula, which once supported 

 hundreds of thousands of caribou, has a herd that is now reduced 

 to about 2,500 animals, of which 2,000 are probably reindeer- 

 caribou hybrids." 



In a letter of January 1959, David L. Spencer, supervisor of 

 Kenai National Moose Range, wrote me concerning caribou on 

 Unimak Island: 



For a long time there were none, but about 3 years ago we found 14 

 during a rather incomplete survey. Last winter Jones and Burkholder 

 estimated 150 on the island. . . . Apparently there is a movement back and 

 forth over False Pass at the end of the Peninsula. We do know this occurs, 

 as it has been witnessed. 



The population of caribou at the end of the Alaska Peninsula has for a 

 long time been low but appears to be building up somewhat now. . . . 5,000 

 animals would be a rather rough current estimate of the entire Peninsula 

 herd. 



Whatever the actual numbers in early times, the fact that today 

 the caribou have interbred so extensively with the domesticated 

 reindeer spells the doom of Rangifer arcticus granti as a sub- 

 species, perhaps as a wild game animal. 



Rangifer sp.: Reindeer 



Russian: O-ldin (Buxton) 



Reindeer herds have been introduced in the Bristol Bay region, 

 and, in more recent years, they have been placed on Alaska Penin- 

 sula. When one considers the scarcity of lichens, and the in- 

 evitable hybridization with reindeer, it becomes obvious that the 

 native caribou undoubtedly will be supplanted. 



Many years ago, reindeer had been placed on Umnak Island. 

 They were not serving any useful purpose and were finally sold 

 by the Federal Government to the owners of domestic sheep on the 

 island. The sheep owners wished to kill off the reindeer because 

 they competed for forage with the sheep. However, the reindeer 

 had not been entirely eliminated as late as 1937, and we were 

 informed that the principal use being made of them was as fox 

 bait in trapping operations. 



Reindeer also had been placed on Atka Island. As long as these 

 animals remained close to the village, the Aleuts utilized them, but 



