AMERICAN BEAVERS IN 
A successful breeding colony, representing one of the very few fur-bearing animals that breeds in wilderness surroundings 
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
THE ZOOLOGICAL PARK 
under protection on a commercial basis. 
working along educational lines, and we are 
very well pleased with the result. 
We enclose herewith one of our fur cir- 
culars in which you will note that we try to 
appeal to the trapper and fur shipper through 
his pocketbook, and point out the advantage 
of only trapping the animals at the right 
time, as you no doubt know it is quite impos- 
sible to make game laws that will operate to 
the best advantage for all concerned in every 
section. We, of course, advocate proper and 
sane game laws, but the point that I am try- 
ing to make is that the principal thing is to 
get the co-operation of the man in the country, 
and to have him friendly to the fur bearers 
and protect them the same as he would his 
own live stock, regardless of the fact that his 
game laws allow him to trap. The idea of 
considering the fur bearers the same as live 
stock has met with a great response from the 
people in the country. We have received 
numerous letters promising co-operation along 
these lines and stating that they had never 
thought of fur-bearers in just that light before. 
We are also enclosing several articles which 
we had our advertising agent send out to the 
different farm papers entitled “Lend your 
aid in protecting the fur crop next year.” 
We also enclose you our fur circular sent 
out this season in which we advised the trap- 
pers and fur shippers of the country not to 
trap. As a result of this, trapping is from 
60 to 70 per cent short of normal, and this 
fact alone will be a tremendous help to the 
entire situation. 
As our business is the fur business, we are 
naturally very much interested in keeping it 
a going industry, therefore we have advocated 
the conservation of fur-bearing animals and 
proper trapping for a great many years. It 
is our opinion that fur-bearing animals are on 
the increase, and that the educational matter 
that has been sent out by our organization 
and the Department of Agriculture has done 
more to conserve and increase the fur supply 
than any other one thing. This year has been 
the smallest trapping year for the last decade. 
This was due to the fact, as stated above, that 
we advised the country not to trap on account 
of conditions in the fur trade, with the result 
that the catch was 60 to 70 per cent below 
normal. 
