Introduction of Foxes to Alaskan Islands - History, Effects on Avifauna, and Eradication

• Main Author: Bailey, Edgar P.
• Other Authors: FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE HOMER AK
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1993
• Subjects: Biology; *MAMMALS; RATS; CANADA; ALASKA; POPULATION; SURVEYS; NORWAY; FARMS; NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN; ISLANDS; EAST(DIRECTION); ALEUTIAN ISLANDS; ALASKA GULF; FUR; GEESE; PENINSULAS; SQUIRRELS; *FOXES; AVIFAUNA; ERADICATION; VULPES VULPES; RED FOXES; ARCTIC FOXES; NORWAY RATS; GROUND SQUIRRELS; SPERMOPHILUS UNDULATUS; Arctic; Gulf of Alaska; Canada; Pacific; Norway; Fox Islands; Alopex lagopus; Attu; Branta canadensis; Branta canadensis leucopareia; Alaska; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA322590; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA322590

Foxes originally were absent from most Alaskan islands in the North Pacific. Red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) were indigenous to the Fox Islands in the eastern Aleutians and to some islands off the Alaska Peninsula and in the Gulf of Alaska. The first recorded introduction of foxes was in 1750 when Russians released arctic foxes (Alopex lagopus) from the Commander Islands on Attu, the westernmost island in the Aleutians. Russians released red and arctic foxes on other islands mainly in the early 1800's. By the 1930's, over 450 islands had been stocked mainly with arctic foxes for fur farming. During this period, the first government surveys and concerns about the effects of introduced foxes on insular avifauna arose, although Aleuts had indicated that seabirds were disappearing on some islands with introduced foxes as early as 1811. Besides foxes, Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus), ground squirrels (Spermophilus undulatus), and other mammals were introduced. Foxes eliminated populations of Aleutian Canada geese (Branta canadensis leucopareia) on all except three small islands. Populations of seabirds, particularly burrow-nesters, were also drastically reduced by foxes. Fox trappers regarded seabirds as feed.