As the wildlife biologist at Katmai National Park, my job is to decide what needs to be studied or monitored based on the knowledge I have. Which right now that isn't a lot. But I have discovered two mysteries so I thought I would spend a couple of days and tell you about them.
Back in the middle of the 1850's the Russians started trading furs in Alaska. They started in the Aleutian Islands then moved to the peninsula and the Kenai peninsula and finally the southeast. When they had depleted the resources they brought in fox. By 1910 any island that they could reach by boat they placed arctic fox. Red foxes were all ready on some near shore islands but arctic foxes did much better in the island habitats. Also the arctic fox has a recessive gene for blue fur. It was this bluish fur that made their skins so valuable.
From 1910 -1940 fox farms were all over and very successful. But in 1936 biologist realized that the bird populations of these fox farm islands were disappearing and it was the fox that were eating them that were making them disappear, some all most to extinction. So policy changed.
From 1940 to 2002 foxes were eradicated from the thirty nine islands. They used poisons to kill the fox. In 2002, people were upset about the way the foxes were being killed so methods changed. Today I know of three islands that had fox permits off the Katmai coast that are considered part of the park. What I don't know is if the fox were eradicated.
One island Takli, was permitted for fox farming but Alaska Fish and Game thinks that the person who owned the permit used it to hide his illegal trapping. Two of the islands were successful farms. I can not find any records of eradication on any of the three islands. So do we have arctic fox that should not belong on our islands? It is a mystery. One I would like to solve. Tomorrow I will tell you an interesting fish story.
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