FUR-BEARING ANIMALS (LAND). The classification of animals as fur-bearing and non-fur-bearing has always been arbitrary and with the refinement of modern methods of manipula tion of skins the terms are becoming very elastic. Roughly speak ing, the term fur is applied to skins which have a double coating of hair, a layer of comparatively short, soft, curly, barbed hairs next to the skin, protected by longer, smoother and stiffer hairs which grow up through these and are known as guard-hair or over-hair.
The greater number of species of fur-bearing mammals belong to the Carnivora, Rodentia, Ungulata and Marsupialia. The more important Carnivora are bears, cats, ermines, fishers, fitch, foxes, fur-seals, hair-seals, kolinskis, leopards, lions, lynxes, martens, minks, ocelots, otters, raccoons, sables, skunks, tigers, weasels, wolverines and wolves. The Rodentia include beavers, chinchillas, hamsters, hares, marmots, muskrats, nutrias, rabbits and squirrels. The Ungulata provide antelopes, goats, ponies and sheep, and the Marsupialia kangaroos, opossums and wallabies. A few skins of moles and other Insectivora and other varieties are used, but are not very important ; and even primates, such as the capuchin mon key, are used for trimmings.
The great revival of the fur trade, beginning at the time of the World War, has led to the extension of new posts at various points along the arctic coasts and islands, the principal incentive being the skin of the white or arctic fox, once little valued, but now one of the prizes of the fur trade. The recent influx of white trappers and traders, into regions inhabited by tribes of primitive Eskimos hitherto barely in touch with civilization, has rapidly reduced the big game and food supply and dislocated the whole mode of life of the indigenous population in a way comparable to the changes produced on Indian life by the destruction of the beaver and the buffalo in earlier times, but on a vastly more rapid scale. The white trapper takes more fur out of a given virgin section than the native does, because first, he uses more efficient traps; second, he is a transient and gets while the getting is good ; and third, he sometimes resorts to poisons which are very destructive of wild life. The native does not trap more than enough to supply his limited wants and he uses home-made traps. Other reasons for the decline of wild life are the draining of swamps, deforestation by fire, which takes its toll of animal life, and the necessity for vermin and predatory animal control by the farmers.
The enormous and increasing pursuit of valuable fur all over the world, and the resulting high prices which have virtually become a bounty on the heads of many species, has inevitably resulted in their decrease and in some cases extinction over much of their former range. High prices for fur bring more trappers and fur traders to the frontiers, thereby reducing the breeding stock and choking the industry at its source. Some of the greatest operators in the fur industry have come to realize this and have become in terested in means of conservation, by protecting fur-bearing mam mals by longer closed seasons, encouraging the establishment of breeding reserves and putting the ban on purchase of furs taken at wrong seasons.
The decrease in the supply of rare furs has increased the demand for inferior furs and for skins formerly not regarded as fur. These are plucked, sheared and dyed to improve their appearance. Ex pert research chemists are employed to evolve new methods of treating skins and furs, and have produced results which defy all but experts.
With the rapid increase of the world's population, the area which can be devoted to wild-fur production is becoming smaller. Experi ments in fur-farming (q. v.) have been carried on for many years. Although it is well known that many species can be raised success fully in captivity, others are not so adaptable. For long the only really extensive development was in the rearing of silver or black foxes, colour phases of the common red fox, but numerous other species are also reared in this way.
From an early date, Canada has been one of the world's greatest fur-producers. In 168o Charles II. of England granted to Prince Rupert and his associates of "The Honourable Governor and Company of Gentlemen Adventurers of England trading into Hud son's Bay" a charter giving practical monopoly and control over what is now the northern part of the Dominion of Canada, long known in literature as the "Fur Countries." This control was ex ercised by "The Company" until many of its rights were relin quished at the time of confederation in 1867. The Hudson's Bay Company is still the largest fur-trading establishment in Canada, although other companies and individuals are equally free to trade. The most highly prized furs are the various kinds of foxes (the white arctic fox and its colour phase the "blue" fox, and the "coloured" foxes, red, cross, silver and black), marten, fisher, beaver, otter, mink and ermine, although the humbler furs, as muskrat, lynx, skunk and badger, swell the fur returns, and in number make a greater aggregate of value than the choicer furs.
Fur-farming has also developed steadily in the United States and Alaska. The U. S. Government has an experimental fur farm at Saratoga, N.Y., and a rabbit experimental fur farm at Fontana, California. The department of agriculture of the Dominion of Canada also maintains an experimental fox ranch at Summerside, P. E. I. At these stations studies have been made of foods and feeding methods, mating with different strains, diseases of foxes and parasitic infestation which contribute to produce inferior pelts. Much work of this character has also been done in Europe, notably by the French Association of Fur Animal Propagation. The scientific branches of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics have also given considerable attention to the fur industry which is so important in that country, and have been conducting intensive studies and experiments in conservation of fur-bearing mammals in European Russia and in Siberia.
Fluctuations and Periodicity.—While sudden fluctuations in prices may temporarily lead to intensive production in certain areas, swelling the figures, there is a normal and fairly regular periodic fluctuation in the numbers of certain species due to nat ural causes. The records of the Hudson's Bay Company fur returns for the past hundred years are particularly suitable for data on these fluctuations, as the company was not accustomed to stimulate the production of any particular kind of fur, but took the whole product in trade from the natives, and sold all the furs at annual fur-sales in London, without holding furs over from year to year. Records were also kept showing the periodic in crease and decrease of other forms of wild life, as these keenly affected the life of the Indians and other inhabitants of the north, and directly affected the output of furs. In many districts the Indians starved during bad rabbit years, and were unable to trap to advantage during the fur season, while carnivorous mammals which fed on the rabbits diminished in proportion to the rabbits. Hewitt quotes the periods of maximum abundance of the rabbit, according to the Hudson's Bay Company's returns: 1845, 18S7, 1865, 1877, 1888, 1897 and 1905, or in other words in cycles of 9, 3, 8, 12, 9 and 8, giving an average periodic cycle of 8.5 years, which is not far from the popular belief in a seven-year cycle for this animal. For the lynx an average periodic cycle of 9.5 years is given, the lynx becoming most abundant from the year of rabbit abundance to three and four years later. Foxes show a periodic cycle of about 9.5 years, marten of 9.5 years, fisher and mink of 9.7 years each. Wolves and muskrats, which have a wider range of food supply, show slight and irregular periodic fluctua tions in numbers. The ultimate causes of the fluctuations in num bers of these fur-bearers are in many cases obscure or unknown. Some of the rodents, as mice, voles, lemmings and rabbits, are very prolific, and when favoured by a combination of friendly circumstances, such as good climatic conditions, abundant food, and scarcity of natural enemies, increase prodigiously until the overcrowding brings on epidemic disease which reduces the num bers to a minimum. Many predatory mammals as fox, lynx and marten subsist largely upon these smaller mammals and the periods of abundance of the carnivores depend more or less close ly upon the presence of their favourite prey. Mammals which feed upon a mixed diet of insects, fish and vegetable matter, do not show such extremes of variation in numbers. Whether the de crease in numbers of the predatory mammals is due to actual starvation, or whether scarcity of food affects their fertility, and whether overfeeding in times of abundance has an adverse effect, are problems which have not been studied sufficiently. Animals which are not directly important as a source of food supply may serve as hosts for internal parasites which are injurious to the wel fare of the more valuable species. The problems'of wild animal life are so varied and interlocking, that the serious and co-opera tive studies of zoologists, parasitologists, veterinarians and gen eral ecologists, extending over a period of years, are essential to a thorough elucidation of the questions involved.