OBJECTS OF BREEDING WILD MAMMALS 149 



Foxes taken when young and carefully raised in captivity become 

 tame and usually breed if properly paired. The red fox, as well as 

 the Arctic or blue fox is evidently strictly monogamous 



BLUE OR ARCTIC FOXES 



Many of the islands in Alaska have been leased or taken possession 

 of for fox farming. Some of these islands were already inhabited by 

 blue foxes and others were stocked with them, mainly from St. George 

 island, where the best fur was found. 



As shown by the report of the Harriman Alaska Expedition, Vol. 

 II., p. 357, 1901, and by a more recent account in Forest and Stream 

 for July 26, 1906, by T. E. Hofer, these foxes are thriving and yield- 

 ing considerable fur. On some islands they secure their own food and 

 are merely guarded and trapped by those in charge. On most of the 

 islands, however, they are fed for part or all the year, but their wild 

 life has undergone little or no change. They appear to be naturally 

 rather tame and with proper care could doubtless be thoroughly 

 domesticated. 



They breed when a year old, pair for breeding and have usually 

 four to eight young at a litter. Prime skins are quoted at S20 to $25. 



OTTER 



Few wild animals thrive better in close confinement than otter. 

 Given a small pen with a pool of water they seem comparatively con- 

 tented and happy. They become very tame and are playful and in- 

 telligent. There are many accounts of their being so domesticated as to 

 follow their master, come at his call and even catch fish and bring them 

 out of the water for him. They are not easily trapped, and are quite 

 able to hold their own against the encroachment of civDization. They 

 probably are as common to-day near the District of Columbia as they are 

 over most of their range, which reaches from Florida to Alaska. They 

 canjbe readily enclosed by a simple wire-mesh fence taking in a sec- 

 tion of a stream. They do not climb or burrow to any extent. Their 

 favourite food is fish and Crustacea, and suitable places could be 

 selected where these could be procured in abundance. 



Prime otter skins from Eastern Canada, where the fur is at its best, 

 are quoted in the January, 1908, Fur Trade Review at $15 to $20. 



BEAVER 

 In spite of more than three hundred years of persistent trapping a 



