24 CIRCULAR 3, FISH AND WILDLIFE SER^"ICE 



importance. The average annual catch of about 12,000 lias remained 

 unchanged for many years. 



WOLVERINE 



With the exception of the Northwest Territory of Canada, Alaska 

 probably has more wolverines than all other sections of the continent. 

 They are not plentiful m any one section but are widely distrib 

 uted (fig. 23) in rugged mountain areas where man seldom travels. 

 The annual catch over a period of 16 years averaged 420 pelts, valued 

 at more than $5,000. 



POLAR BEAR 



The polar bear is classed as a fur animal mider the Alaska game 

 law, but few pelts are exported. Eskimos of the Arctic coast relish 

 the flesh of this huge beast and find many local ust>s for the liide. 

 About 65 skins, valued at $40 each, are exported each year. 



OTHER FUR ANIMALS 



Marmots, ground squuTcls, tree squirrels, and Arctic and snowshoe 

 hares are relatively miiniportant so far as the sale value of their pelts 

 is concerned. About $300 worth fmd their way to the fur markets 

 each year. These small species are an important som'ce of food for 

 other fur animals and are utilized locally for human food and clothing. 

 Wolves and coyotes, though not strictly classed as fur animals, have 

 pelts of sufficient value to retm-n about $14,000 annually to trappers 

 as an important byproduct of predatory-animal control operations. 



SEA MAMMALS 



The waters bordering Alaska contain strikuig varieties and profuse 

 numbers of mammals that have always greatly excited the mterest 

 of explorers. The sea otter, or "old man of the sea," is most often 

 mentioned because of its many humanlike traits and the great value 

 of its fur (fig. 26). The roaring of sea lions is frequently alluded to by 

 chroniclers, as well as the whistling neigh of the walrus, or valross, 

 the Norv.^egian "sea horse." The fur seal has compelled attention by 

 sheer weight of numbers and by the value of its silken pelt. It is 

 noteworthy that Alaska's first naturalist, George Wilhelm Steller, even 

 while he watched his commander, Vitus Bering, slowly dyhig in 1741 

 while shipwrecked on the island that now bears his name, foimd time to 

 describe the sea cow, a huge kelp-eating mammal the like of which no 

 naturalist ever laid eyes upon before or since. This almost mythical 

 beast lives only in Steller's vivid description, and the only concrete 

 (>vidence of the quondam existence of this great animal is in a few 

 skins and skelc^tons in museiuns. 



The world's largest and most valuable fur seal herd, which migrates 

 (^very summer to the Pribilof Islands, today is estimated to contain 

 upwards of 2,000,000 animals (fig. 27). The walrus of the northern 



