Population fluctuations of gyrfalcon and rock ptarmigan: analysis of export figures from Iceland

• Published in: Wildlife Biology
• Main Authors: Nielsen, Ólafur K., Pétursson, Gunnlaugur
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1995
• Subjects: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law; Nature and Landscape Conservation; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Greenland; Falco rusticolus; greenlandic; gyrfalcon; Iceland; Lagopus mutus; rock ptarmigan
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.2981/wlb.1995.0011; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.2981/wlb.1995.0011; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.2981/wlb.1995.0011

We analysed harvest data for gyrfalcon Falco rusticolus and rock ptarmigan Lagopus mutus from Iceland with respect to regularity in fluctuations of numbers. The gyrfalcon data concerned live trapped birds exported to Denmark between 1731 and 1793, and totalled 4,848 falcons, including 4,318 grey, 156 half‐white and 374 white colour morphs. According to contemporary sources grey birds were part of the local breeding population ( islandus‐ type birds) but the other morphs represented mainly visitors from Greenland. This is also the current situation but some of the lightest Icelandic breeders could be classified as half‐white. The rock ptarmigan harvest data concerned birds exported to Europe in the period 1864–1919, in total ca 3.3 million birds. The data series for white and half‐white gyrfalcons were significantly correlated (r = 0.501, p < 0.001). The data series for grey and white morphs (r = ‐0.099, P = 0.445) and grey and the half‐white morphs (r = ‐0.1183, P = 0.360), showed no correlation. Time series analysis showed that the white ( candicans‐ type) morph fluctuated irregularly. The half‐white morph behaved similarly but also showed some affinity with the grey morph, and could have represented a mixture of local breeders and Greenlandic winter visitors. Grey morph gyrfalcons and rock ptarmigan showed regular fluctuations in numbers with a 10‐year periodicity. The reliance of Icelandic gyrfalcons on rock ptarmigan during the early part of the breeding season and in all phases of the ptarmigan cycle is well established and may offer a case for causal connections between the two cyclic populations.