used to travel to Alaska Range to hunt them in November. Grizzly and black bears are rarely hunted in Upper Kuskokwim region. A traditional method of winter bear hunting uses dogs to locate dens. Hare or rabbits () are one a small game species. Small game species such as upland game birds (ptarmigans and grouse) were a valued source of fresh meat and are widely dispersed but their populations are cyclic and in some years they are very scarce. The spruce grouse (), sharp-tailed grouse (), ruffed grouse (), willow ptarmigan () and rock ptarmigan () were taken opportunistically throughout the year with bow and arrows or with snares and fence-snare arrangements. Migratory waterfowl (ducks and geese) pass through the area by the thousands in the spring when the headwaters of the rivers first open, but most move on to nest elsewhere. During the fall migration, when there is plenty of open water, most fly over the area without stopping except for a brief rest. Ducks and geese were easily captured when molting. Men in birchbark canoes quietly approached waterfowl in bays and coves and shot them with bow and arrows. Women and children then caught the birds and collected eggs from their nests. Fishing (creek and river) was done near the village sites, and the fish were stored in large subsurface caches and is domestic and most common. All band members except the very young children assisted in harvesting and processing the catch. Available fish species include chinook salmon, silver salmon, chum salmon, broad whitefish, humpback whitefish, round whitefish, least cisco, sheefish, grayling, Dolly Varden, burbot (loche), pike, sucker, eel, blackfish, lake trout, and one non-fish species, freshwater mussels. The main economical fish () species are mostly Pacific salmon species. In Upper Kuskokwim region, salmon have been an important food resource as well as in other places in the North. There are five species of Pacific salmon recognized in Alaska, but only three of them (king or chinook, dog or chum and silver or coho) regularly venture up to the Upper Kuskokwim region. Currently, king or chinook () salmon occupies the majority of the harvest of salmonids in this region, followed by dog or chum () and silver or coho () salmon. Whereas hundreds of thousands, and even millions, of salmon enter the Kuskokwim River, by the time they reach the headwaters only a few thousand or even a