220 PROBLEMS IN WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



well organized criminal groups and the whole nation. The 

 same situation appears here as in the case of the manufac- 

 ture of illegal liquor. There two classes of persons were 

 involved, on one hand the group which made a little liquor 

 occasionally for home consumption and on the other, the 

 big-time gangster moonshiner. The same thing is true in 

 regard to wild life. There are those who occasionally 

 break the game laws and use the game taken themselves 

 and, on the other hand, there is the professional group who 

 regard poaching as a business matter. This latter class is 

 well organized so as to protect itself against the law. 



The business carried on in illegal fur pelts alone reaches 

 enormous totals in a single year and yields tremendous 

 profits. As expected, the greater percentage of the profits 

 go not to the trapper but to the fur buyer. Still even the 

 profits of the trapper are not inconsiderable in these times, 

 which explains why poaching is so attractive. 



In northern Minnesota, which contains as many beaver 

 as are to be found in any place in the United States at the 

 present time, fur poaching has been developed as a regular 

 business. The country in question is a vast wilderness area 

 dotted with hundreds of lakes. The only means of trans- 

 portation over most of it is by airplane or by the older 

 method of canoe, portaging from lake to lake. 



The poachers operate either alone or in groups under the 

 direction of a leader. A poacher will locate on a stream 

 where there are several beaver ponds just before the snow 

 comes in the fall and proceed to trap out the areas during 

 the winter. He does not trouble about catching only adult 

 beavers or about such matters as leaving breeding stock for 

 the future but instead cleans out the whole colony. 



In recent years the airplane has been called into play to 

 aid the poachers. A group will be taken into the wilder- 

 ness in a hydroplane just before the lakes freeze over and 



