On the Status of Some Arctic Mammals

• Main Author: Rausch, Robert L.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln 1953
• Subjects: Parasitology; Arctic; Bering Strait; Alaska
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/parasitologyfacpubs/497; https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/context/parasitologyfacpubs/article/1508/viewcontent/Rausch_1953_ARCTIC_On_the_Status_of_Some_Arctic_Mammals.pdf

The mammal fauna of arctic Alaska is comprised of about thirty species, most of which are widely distributed. A few of these are essentially nearctic species, having extended their range northwestward during post-Pleistocene time. The majority, however, consists of forms which are either circumboreal in their distribution, or which have closely-related palearctic counterparts-considered specifically distinct hy most North American mammalogists. Sorne of the foremost Old World workers, however, do not agree that Bering Strait constitutes a barrier which effectively separates the Old World fauna from the New.