simply referred to as lonclassif ied. Furbearers include 

 those species which have a valuable hide and are protected 

 by law. On occasion pelts of predators and unclassified 

 animals have had higher fur value than furbearers (Mitchell 

 et al. 1971) . 



Contact was made with two individuals who had trapped 

 in the Lake Creek area to obtain insights about past and cur- 

 rent abundance and occurrence information for certain species 

 on the study area. 



Beaver were observed along the northeast shore of Bull 

 Lake and caches, cuttings, dams, lodges, slides, canals and 

 tracks were observed along Lake and Stanley creeks. Three 

 beaver colonies occur at the mouth of Stanley Creek and in 

 the past, two colonies were present below the junction of 

 Stanley and Fairway creeks (V. Blanchard, pers. comm.). The 

 number of colonies occurring along Lake Creek is not known, 

 although a helicopter reconnaissance during November 1977 

 revealed a minimum of 30 caches (K. Knocke , pers. comm.) , 

 13 dams, 1 lodge, as well as numerous cuttings, canals and 

 slides. Trappers indicate that the beaver population in 

 the area is steady and may be increasing. The beaver in 

 Montana is classified as a furbearer and Mitchell et al . 

 (19 71) indicate that in the past beaver have accounted for 

 up to 61 percent of the income to Montana trappers. 



Muskrat were observed along Lake Creek near the mouth 

 of Stanley Creek and two muskrat dens were located along 

 the north edge of Bull Lake. Muskrats are particularly 

 susceptible to water level fluctuations (Errington 196 3) and 

 they appear to have suffered a population decline since 19 76 

 due to low water levels during both winter and summer 

 (V. Blanchard and D. Cloin, pers. comm.). The muskrat is 

 also classified as a furbearer in Montana and has provided 

 up to 17 percent of the Montana trappers' average annual 

 income (Mitchell et al. 1971). 



Coyote observations included tracks (47) and scats (6). 

 These were noted at all elevations in all terrestrial cover 

 types and in the THPL/OPHO, THPL/CLUN , TSHE/CLUN, ABLA/CLUN, 

 ABLA/MEFE and ABLA/XETE habitat types (Table 6). The coyote 

 is classified as a predator in Montana. 



Red Fox ( Vulpes fulva ) occur only rarely in this portion 

 of the state (H. Burrell, pers. comm.) and none were ob- 

 served on the study area. Red fox are a nongame or unclas- 

 sified species in Montana. 



The wolf (Canis lupus irvemotus ) occurred in the West 

 Cabinet Mountains about 30 years ago (V. Blanchard, pers. 

 comm. ) . Blanchard had observed wolves in the North Fork 



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