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Post by CoonDuke on Feb 19, 2004 14:22:40 GMT -6
In another thread you mentioned about arctic fox pops. Tell us more about this. What is the time period between boom and bust years? What causes it?
Also, are arctic fox less wary than reds that they can be coaxed into a cubby through a 220?
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Post by Dusty on Feb 19, 2004 15:43:27 GMT -6
Arctic fox cycles are probably partially controlled by food - they eat lemmings when they can get them. Lemmings are notoriously cyclical, fat, and slow as hell. Good lemming populations leads to good _everything_ populations - fox, jaegar, snowy owl, weasel, etc.
However, the fox are a bit better at scavenging than most other critters, and don't drop off as hard as other species when the lemmings go away - they can get birds/eggs, carrion, beached whales, polar bear leftovers, etc, so that dampens the cycle a bit. The real killer is rabies.
Most mammals are somewhere on a curve of susceptibility to rabies - red fox are pretty susceptible, wolves are less so, humans are way up there - it takes a lot of the virus to cause the disease in us. Arctic fox are on the lower end - they can get rabies by looking at another fox with it! Add that to the fact that they congregate - there are many reports of hundreds of them gathered around a dead whale or walrus - and you have the potential to lose a lot of fox in a hurry.
My first encounter with an arctic fox was on the Beaufort Sea coast. I was taking a picture of a king eider and heard something rustling around behind me - turned around, and a fox was standing about 5 feet away trying to decide if I was edible (turns out I'm not). They are brave, curious, usually hungry, and most have never seen a people - catching them isn't a problem.
Of course, some red fox aren't exactly mental giants either - I've caught several in 220s and 330s. The dumber ones tend to be in less populated areas and/or at higher altitudes.
BTW, I'm not a population biologist or a fox expert - a lot of the above is speculation and may not be correct.
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Post by CoonDuke on Feb 19, 2004 19:41:42 GMT -6
Good post, Dusty. I always enjoyed population dynamics in college. I wish I would have pursued it further.  |
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