Abstract
REFERENCE to some results of Dr. Ned Dearborns investigation into the food of predatory fur-bearing animals in Michigan has already been made in these columns (Dec. 17, 1932, p. 905). The pamphlet (52 pp.) in which the results appear, initiates, with the title of Bulletin I, a series of publications by the School of Forestry and Conservation in the University of Michigan, which will contain for the most part the results of studies by the Bureau of Forest Research. Conditions as regards the fur-bearing animals have changed much since the early days of colonisation, and although Michigan still ranks third amongst the States in fur production, the destruction of the forests—hard-woods and soft-woods in the north, nut-trees in the south—and the draining of the swamps, have vastly reduced the numbers of fur-bearers. It is said that the numbers are not half what they were twenty-five years ago; even the weasel (Mustela noveboracensis) is no longer common in many localities, and the only upland fur-bearer which has held its own is the skunk. It may seem strange that while in Britain we are engaged in a war of extermination against that new invader, the musk-rat, Dr. Dearborn should regret its disappearance with the draining of Michigan marshes for agricultural purposes. He says that in some cases marshes are now more profitable for the musk-rat fur they produce than they would be for agriculture if drained, and cites the case of a drained marsh near Athens in Calhoun County which to-day is said to be worth no more than a single crop of musk-rats would be were it still undrained. “As matters now stand”, he writes, “it behoves the owners of marshes to consider well before attempting to drain them”. Other conditions, other advice !
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Fur-bearing Animals in Michigan. Nature 131, 127 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/131127b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/131127b0