Illinois Furbearer 
Distribution and Income 
OR more than a century after IIli- 
nois became a state, stock-taking of 
its renewable natural resources was 
conducted only irregularly and, in some 
instances, was not attempted until after 
serious shortages had become apparent. 
Those components which, like furbearers, 
provided but a comparatively small part 
of an immense state income received scant 
and casual attention. Within the past 
few years, however, efforts to evaluate 
all components have become serious, and 
these efforts have gained strength as the 
true value of the resources has become ap- 
parent. 
About 30 years ago, Dr. Stephen A. 
Forbes (1912), former Chief of the IIli- 
nois Natural History Survey, quoted 
United States census figures for 1910, 
stating that the annual yield of mink pelts 
in Illinois was valued at $6,000 and the 
yield of muskrat pelts at $14,000. He 
did not quote income from the other fur- 
bearer species. No data regarding the 
total annual furbearer catch appeared to 
be available. 
Neither technical nor popular interest 
Was great enough to focus .further atten- 
tion of the state’s research agencies on fur- 
bearers until, in 1930, David H. Thomp- 
son, E. C. Driver and D. I. Rasmussen 
of the Illinois Natural History Survey 
staff borrowed trappers’ reports, fig. 1, 
from the Illinois State Department of 
Conservation, to which law provided that 
each licensed trapper report his catch 
monthly during the trapping season. 
These reports, stating the monthly catch 
of a limited number of trappers for the 
1929-30 and 1930-31 seasons, were sum- 
marized by the Survey in cooperation with 
the Department of Conservation; data on 
these reports are in an unpublished manu- 
script by Driver (1930) and in unpub- 
lished notes by Rasmussen (1931). 
Cok ed 16) MEO a Lane 
‘The estimated income from important 
furbearer species was included by Dr. T. 
H. Frison, Chief of the Illinois Natural 
History Survey, in several administrative 
reports (Frison 1931, 1933), most de- 
tailed of which was in the Blue Book of 
the State of Illinois, 1931-1932. In this 
report, Dr. Frison (1931) stated that for 
the 1929-30 season the total income of 
licensed Illinois trappers from the seven 
most important furbearers was estimated 
at $957,651; almost half of this amount 
from the sale of muskrat pelts and almost 
a third from the sale of mink pelts. After 
allowing for the sale of pelts by fur-takers 
not required to purchase trappers’ licenses, 
he estimated that “the actual value of the 
fur yield in I[llinois—not including fur 
farming—must approach at least two mil- 
lions of dollars.” A few years later, Dr. 
Frison (1938) stated that data at hand 
indicated an income from the state’s fur- 
bearers “of one million to two million dol- 
lars a year.” 
A lapse of 3 years followed the studies 
by Thompson, Driver and Rasmussen, 
after which the writer prepared data on 
the state’s furbearers for the Natural His- 
tory Survey’s files, using as his source 
fur-takers’ reports made monthly during 
the trapping season to the State Depart- 
ment of Conservation, from which the 
writer borrowed them. Later, the writer 
(1937, 1939, 1941), using the same source 
of information, reported on the distribu- 
tion of muskrats, coons and possums in 
Illinois, and on fluctuations in the state’s 
furbearer catch. Also, the Department of 
Conservation abstracted the fur-takers’ 
reports for certain years; this agency’s fig- 
ures were mimeographed and distributed 
by the U. S. Bureau of Biological Survey 
(1939) and its successor, the U. S. Fish 
and Wildlife Service (1940) in wildlife 
leaflets. 
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