3S6 Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin 



INCREASING FUR BEARING ANIMALS IN 

 NEW YORK STATE 



During the summer of 1923, Dr. Charles E. Johnson, Roosevelt 

 Fur Naturalist, who made the Adirondack beaver study for the 

 Station, devoted his time to field studies for the determination of 

 the condition of the muskrat in Western New York. Secondarily, 

 attention was given to the skunk and the raccoon. He began a com- 

 prehensive study of these animals, with a view toward increasing 

 our knowledge of their natural history and breeding habits, and to 

 methods of increasing their numbers on a large scale. The herbiv- 

 orous habits of the muskrat and its rapid rate of reproduction indi- 

 cate it to be the sort of animal adapted to large scale prodluction, 

 and a means of utilizing non-agricultural swamp lands, otherwise 

 relatively non-<productive, making them economically comparable 

 to intensively cultivated farm lands. 



