26 CIRCULAR 3, FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Bering Sea and Ai'ctic Ocean ice floes still exists in tens of thousands. 

 Along the Aleutians and farther south, sea lion rookeries are common. 

 The hair seals are represented by four species: the harbor seal, ringed 

 seal, ribbon seal, and the large bearded seal, or "oogruk," of Eskimo 

 lore. 



The most valuable individually of all the sea mammals— once 

 feared to have vanished entirely — is the sea otter. To the early-day 

 Russians the glistening fur of this animal was sought almost to the 

 exclusion of all other kinds, and the ruthless slaughter did not stop 

 even when the Territory passed to the United States. The sea otter 

 owes its existence to the fact that its few survivors became so scattered 

 over the foggy, storm-tossed waters of the Aleutian Islands that they 

 escaped detection for more than a quarter of a century ; all killing has 

 been prohibited since 1911. Now, this miraculously preserved "old 

 man of the sea" is doubtless saved to posterity and assured of absolute 

 protection for many years. 



Alaska waters have always been rich in cetacean life. There are 

 six varieties of large commercial whales: the Pacific right, bowhead, 

 finback, humpback, sperm, and sulphur-bottom or blue whales, the 

 last-named being the largest of all living creatures; four or five 

 species of smaller whales, including the grampus, blackfish, and killer 

 whales; and several kinds of dolphins and porpoises, among them 

 the milk-white beluga. The gray norwhal, with its single spu^al tusk, 

 may be an occasional visitor in the Beaufort Sea. 



PREDATORY ANIMALS 



Serious damage is being done to valuable species of big-game animals 

 and game birds by wolves (fig. 28) and coyotes. Wolves have always 

 been present in the Territory, but the coyote has followed the advent 

 of the white man. During the past 25 years this animal hfis gradually 

 extended its range (fig. 29) and is now so firmly established that it 

 is likely to invade any part of the Territory in which it can find an 

 adequate food supply and is already destructive in the nesting areas 

 of wild ducks and geese. The wolf also preys upon the reindeer of 

 the Bering Sea and Arctic coasts, particularly in herds owned and 

 controlled by native Eskimos, who are now dependent on these animals 

 for a large part of their livelihood. 



MAMMALS AS FOOD FOR WILDLIFE 



The fur catch of the predaceous land fur animals in Alaska rises and 

 falls with the abundance of small rodents, among which they obtain 

 their principal food supply. Signs of field mice and lemmings, tree 

 squirrels, and snowshoe hares in spring and summer have proved a 

 reliable basis for forecasting the next winter's catch of lynxes, martens, 

 and foxes. Shi-ews of numerous kinds, conies or pikas, and red-backed 



