Sagchudak Island (also spelled ''Sagtchudakh'') is a small island in the

Andreanof Islands The Andreanof Islands ( ale, Niiĝuĝim tanangis, russian: Андреяновские острова) are a group of islands in the Aleutian Islands in southwestern Alaska. They are located at about 52° North and 172°57' to 179°09' West. Geogr ...

group in the

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands (; ; ale, Unangam Tanangin,”Land of the Aleuts", possibly from Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', "island"), also called the Aleut Islands or Aleutic Islands and known before 1867 as the Catherine Archipelago, are a cha ...

of southwestern

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

. The roughly rectangular island is approximately long and 0.6 mi (1 km) wide and lies about off the southern coast of

Atka Island Atka Island ( ale, Atx̂ax̂, russian: Атка остров) is the largest island in the Andreanof Islands of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. The island is east of Adak Island. It is long and wide with a land area of , making it the 22nd l ...

. The island's current name is nearly identical to the native

Aleut The Aleuts ( ; russian: Алеуты, Aleuty) are the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands, which are located between the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. Both the Aleut people and the islands are politically divided between the U ...

name for the island and it entered navigational charts by the early 1850s. In the 1900s and 1910s, the island was one of many Aleutian islands stocked with

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

es by the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

government for

hunting Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

and

fur trading The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most ...

purposes. Although the foxes on uninhabited Sagchudak were not directly hunted, some were occasionally trapped and moved to and from the island to help ensure genetic stability in the various separated colonies.

References

Andreanof Islands Uninhabited islands of Alaska Islands of Alaska Islands of Unorganized Borough, Alaska {{AleutiansWestAK-geo-stub