Interaction between barren-ground caribou and muskrats

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Zoology
• Main Author: Kelsall, John P.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1970
• Subjects: Animal Science and Zoology; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; caribou; Rangifer tarandus
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z70-108; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z70-108

Barren-ground caribou, Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus, have been observed to systematically expose, trample, and eat the pushups constructed on ice in winter by muskrats, Ondatra zibethicus, for feeding. Muskrats may be inconvenienced, or frozen out, by this behavior and the caribou may be attracted by the frozen but green vegetation of which the pushups are constructed.