8 CIRCULAR Z, FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



the ways of man. They are fortunate in that the vahie of theu" hides 

 is so low as to offer httle incentive for anyone to take them and in 

 that their flesh is inedible to most people because of their summer 

 and fall diet of spawning salmon. Their estimated number is about 

 75,000 in Alaska, where they are found in several color variations — ■ 

 dark brown and colored specimens occurring in the same family with 

 black animals, and in the glaciated sections of southern Alaska an 

 occasional ''blue/' or glacier, bear being seen (fig. 6). 



In many parts of the Territory the black bear is reputed to kill 

 moose calves, which habit, added to its destruction of food caches 



Figure 6. — Black bear on Upper Copper River late in fall. (Photo b v Clarence J. 



Rhode.) 



and its habit of entering cabins, tends to place bruin in the nuisance 

 class. In the southeast, however, the black bear is looked upon with 

 more favor. On refuges aggregating 3,864 square miles, no hunting 

 is permitted. 



MOUNTAIN SHEEP 



The only white mountain sheep in any of the United States posses- 

 sions arc found in Alaska (fig. 7), where they are believed to number 

 between 30,000 and 40,000. These sheep can be found in most of the 

 high mountains that are shelt(>red from wet coastal storms in their 

 70,000 square miles of range, which extends from the Kenai Peiiinsida 



