422 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



followed with the greatest intensity, so that from 1881 to 1890 

 the take was 47,842, or nearly 5,000 a year (C. L. Andrews, 

 1937). The immediate reduction of the breeding stock by 

 thus overexploiting these animals caused the Alaska Commer- 

 cial Co., which had practically secured control of the Alaskan 

 fur production, to close four or five of its posts by 1897. In 

 1900 the company was able to secure but 127 skins, and ten 

 years later the entire catch of its fleet of 16 schooners was but 

 31 skins. Even at the price of $1,000 a skin there was no 

 profit in this undertaking. Fortunately, in 1910, the taking of 

 sea otters by citizens of the United States was prohibited, and 

 by treaties of similar import with other interested nations the 

 species was given respite just in time. 



The gradual recuperation of the sea otter since 1910 from 

 the verge of extinction to appreciable numbers during the last 

 30 years since protective laws were established has been most 

 encouraging, although relatively meager data only are at hand 

 as yet. In the Commander Islands their principal habitat is 

 the rocky Copper Island, in the northwestern part of the group. 

 Here from 1930 to 1932 the Russian naturalist I. Barabash- 

 Nikiforov (1935) spent much time in an extensive study of 

 their biology, and he concludes that the entire "herd" there 

 then numbered between 600 and 700 animals and that the 

 yearly increment was about 7 percent. The animals seem to be 

 slowly building up a considerable population under careful 

 protection. At about the same time Eyerdam (1933) published 

 a brief report on his observations in the Aleutian Islands, 

 where in a few localities "they seem to be on the increase." 

 From fishermen and natives he learned that they are now 

 frequently seen along the coasts of Afognak Island, and he 

 himself in 1922 saw several during his stay there. In July, 

 1932, while staying on Atka Island, he learned that they are 

 now becoming fairly common in the western Aleutians, adding 

 that "among the dangerous, windswept foggy islets and reefs 

 between Atka and Adak Islands, more properly known as the 

 Sitkin Islands, sea otters can nearly always be seen if the 

 weather permits." A captain of the Bureau of Fisheries 

 vessel Crane, that summer, reported that "he had counted up- 

 wards of 40 sea otters between Adak and Atka Islands although 

 the weather was unusually stormy at that time." Eyerdam 

 also reported that sea otters seem to be increasing at the Sanakh 



