Editing Commander Islands (section)

===Mammals===
Due to the high productivity of the Bering Sea shelf and the Pacific slope and their remoteness from human influence, the Commander Islands are marked by a great abundance of marine animal life and a relative paucity of terrestrial organisms.<ref name=BN>{{cite journal |last=Barabash-Nikiforov |first=I. |title=Mammals of the Commander Islands and the Surrounding Sea |journal=Journal of Mammalogy |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=423–429 |date=November 1938 |doi=10.2307/1374226 |jstor=1374226}}</ref> Notably, significant numbers of [[northern fur seal]]s (some 200,000 individuals) and [[Steller sea lion]]s (approximately 5,000 individuals) summer there, both on reproductive rookeries and non-reproductive haul-outs. [[Sea otter]]s, [[common seal]]s and [[spotted seal|larga seals]] are likewise abundant. Indeed, the [[sea otter]] population is stable and possibly increasing, even as their population is falling precipitously in the rest of the Aleutian islands.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Doroff |first=A. |author2=J.A. Estes |author3=M.T. Tinker |title=Sea otter population declines in the Aleutian archipelago |journal=Journal of Mammalogy |volume=84 |issue=1 |pages=55–64 |date=February 2003 |doi=10.1644/1545-1542(2003)084<0055:SOPDIT>2.0.CO;2 |issn=1545-1542 |display-authors=etal |doi-access=free}}</ref>

The neighboring waters provide important feeding, wintering and migrating habitat for many whale species, many of which are threatened or endangered. Among these are: [[sperm whale]]s, [[orca]]s, several species of [[Minke whale]]s,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.mpatlas.org/mpa/sites/5319/ |title=MPAtlas » Commander Islands |website=www.mpatlas.org |access-date=2019-12-03}}</ref> [[beaked whale]]s, and [[porpoise]]s, [[humpback whale|humpbacks]] and endangered species such as the [[North Pacific right whale]]s<ref name="BN" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://komandorsky.ru/eubalaena-japonica-lacepede.html |title=Командорский - Японский гладкий кит Eubalaena japonica Lacepede, 1818 |trans-title=Komandorsky - Japanese right whale Eubalaena japonica Lacepede, 1818 |website=komandorsky.ru |access-date=18 September 2018}}</ref> and [[fin whale]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://komandorsky.ru/balaenoptera-physalus.html |title=Командорский - Финвал (сельдяной кит) Balaenoptera physalus (Linnaeus, 1758) |trans-title=Commander - Fin whale (herring whale) Balaenoptera physalus (Linnaeus, 1758) |website=komandorsky.ru |access-date=18 September 2018}}</ref>

Bering Island was the only known habitat of [[Steller's sea cow]]s, an immense (over {{convert|4000|kg|abbr=on|disp=or}}) [[sirenian]] related to the [[dugong]]. The sea cow was hunted to [[extinction]] within 27 years of its discovery in 1741.<ref name="Anderson1995">{{cite journal |last=Anderson |first=P. |year=1995 |title=Competition, predation, and the evolution and extinction of Steller's sea cow, ''Hydrodamalis gigas'' |journal=Marine Mammal Science |volume=11 |pages=391–394 |doi=10.1111/j.1748-7692.1995.tb00294.x |issue=3|bibcode=1995MMamS..11..391A }}</ref> 

The much less diverse terrestrial fauna includes two distinct, endemic subspecies of [[Arctic fox]], (''Alopex lagopus semenovi'' and ''A. l. beringensis''). Though relatively healthy now, these populations had been significantly depleted in the past due to the fur trade. Most other terrestrial species, including wild [[reindeer]], [[American mink]] and [[rat]]s, have all been introduced to the islands by man.<ref name=BN/>