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The Californian Fur Rush

555 Words3 Pages

The successful return of sea otters on North America’s west coast

Though the Gold Rush of 1849 is considered one of California’s significant historical events, the Californian Fur Rush is much overlooked in Pacific America’s history. Dating as far back as 1741, the Californian and Alaskan coasts were targeted by American, English, Spanish, French and Russian fur traders harvesting the warm pelts of the sea otter, fur seal, beaver, river otter, marten, fisher, mink, fox, weasel, and harbor seal. Sea otters (Enhydra lutris) were particularly overhunted and their populations suffered serious fragmentation up the west coast, coming dangerously close to eradication in this area (Estes, 1990). This essay will discuss the history of their decline …show more content…

However, having being hunted to such small numbers poses the risk of small genetic diversity upon population increase, indeed, “All extant sea otter populations, remnant and translocated alike, show relatively low levels of genetic variation” (Larson, et al., 2002).

Bibliography
Bodkin, J. L., Ballachey, B. E., Cronin, M. A. & Scribner, K. T., 1999. Population demographics and genetic diversity in remnant and translocated populations of sea otters. Conservation Biology, 13(6), pp. 1378-1385.
Estes, J. A., 1990. Growth and Equilibrium in Sea Otter Populations. Journal of Animal Ecology, 59(2), pp. 385-401.
Kenyon, K. W., 1969. The Sea Otter in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. North American Fauna, Volume 68, pp. 1-352.
Larson, S. et al., 2002. Loss of genetic diversity in sea otters (Enhydra lutis) associated with fur trade of the 18th and 19th centuries. Molecular Ecology, 11(10), pp. 1899-1903.
Ogden, A., 1975. The California Sea Otter Trade, 1784-1848. California: University of California Press.
Service, U. S. N. B. & LaRoe, E. T., 1995. Our living resources: a report to the nation on the distribution, abundance, and health of U.S. plants, animals and ecosysems. s.l.:Government Printing

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