264 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1945 



western Utah and Nevada, and tule elk in eastern California. The 

 combined populations of all forms of elk have increased in the United 

 States from a low of near 20,000 in 1905 to more than 225,000 in 1943. 



The action taken to conserve the Alaska fur seal is an outstanding 

 example of what can be done to save an animal from extinction and to 

 restore a valuable natural resource. 



Briefly outlined, the history may begin with a fur seal population of 

 more than 4,000,000 animals in 18G7, when the United States pur- 

 chased Alaska. Commercial exploitation, with its associated pelagic 

 sealing, or taking of seals at sea, and its almost unrestricted killing 

 of seals, rapidly reduced the population. By 1911 the population 

 had been reduced to 125,000 seals, less than the annual kill in some pre- 

 vious years. On December 15, 1911, a convention for the preserva- 

 tion and protection of fur seals was entered into by the United States, 

 England, Canada, Japan, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Repub- 

 lics. Pelagic sealing by the nationals of each country was abolished. 

 Management of fur seals on the breeding rookeries was left chiefly to 

 the nation having jurisdiction over the locality. The United States, 

 therefore, had charge of the great seal rookeries on the Pribilof 

 Islands, probably involving more than 85 percent of the breeding 

 stock. Provision was made for each of the nations to turn over to other 

 nations of the convention a percentage of the seal skins taken on its 

 shores. Under this protection, the seal herds increased to about 

 2,300,000 in 1941, and under managed cropping 800,000 fur seal pelts 

 were harvested in 20 years, from 1921 to 1940. The convention, how- 

 ever, was terminated on October 23, 1941, Japan having withdrawn 

 after 1 year's notification of her intention. 



There are several species of birds that have made recovery after 

 being near the border of death as a species. Possibly among the most 

 notable of these are the American egret and the snowy heron. Both 

 of these species were nearly wiped out by plume hunters who sought 

 the adult birds during the breeding season in order to procure feathers 

 for millinery purposes. The American egret, transcontinental over the 

 southern United States, has now become a common bird, and it would 

 seem may have extended its breeding range northward beyond its 

 ancestral range. The snowy heron, although not showing the rebound 

 of its sister heron, is nevertheless no longer in serious danger. That 

 most beautiful of all American ducks, the wood duck, has also in- 

 creased from a low population to one sufficient to insure, with ample 

 protection, the continuance of the species. 



METHODS OF PRESERVING SPECIES 



The most important factor in preserving wildlife species is self- 

 control by man so he will no longer be the most destructive animal. 



