1 62 Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin 



districts upon the beaver question is divided. Owners of land who 

 are annoyed by the beaver desire an open season and a number are 

 in favor of complete extermination. In localities where little damage 

 has been done the attitude is more or less indifferent, but there is a 

 general feeling that the local inhabitants should be allowed to take 

 beaver for fur where the animals are sufficiently plentiful. One man 

 stated his belief that if many who have complained about damages 

 from beaver were to be permitted to take and sell them for fur from 

 such places there would be little further complaint ; that these people 

 were unwilling to have all the trouble and labor of trapping and 

 skinning the beavers only to turn them over to the State to be sold, 

 themselves receiving no compensation. 



General Public Interest in the Beaver 



As a wild animal the beaver is one of the most interesting on the 

 continent. It offers valuable material to the student of animals in 

 nature, on their behavior, on their relations to the woodland environ- 

 ment and other problems of biological interest and importance. 

 Because of the accessibility of many beaver colonies from con- 

 veniently located bases in the Adirondacks, opportunities are open 

 to students interested in such problems without many of the physical 

 inconveniences and hardships often attendant upon these under- 

 takings. 



The increasing numbers of summer visitors in the Adirondacks 

 who camp, travel by automobile, canoe, or by the trails, will find 

 their interest and pleasure in the region greatly increased by the 

 presence of the beaver, particularly if they have a general knowledge 

 of the animals so that they can interpret what they see in the woods. 

 When these animals are given proper protection they become rela- 

 tively tame so that direct observations of their habits are easily made. 



Sources and Numbers of Adirondack Beavers 

 Geographic Races. According to Willoughby ('20, p. 68), a 

 number of the beavers purchased by the State and liberated in the 

 Adirondacks, presumably between 1904 and 1906, " had been part 

 of a Canadian exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. 

 Louis, Mo." (Cf. also Radford '07, p. 408.) These were undoubt- 

 edly of the typical Canadian race, Castor canadensis canadensis. 

 But others secured at about the same time came from Wyoming. 

 Dr. Charles C. Adams, Director of the Roosevelt Wild Life Forest 



