Cranial features of mainland and Commander Islands (Russia) Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) reflect their diverging foraging strategies
Populations of Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) in the Commander Islands, in the Russian Bering Sea, have been isolated since the Pleistocene and differ substantially in their cranial features from their mainland counterpart. Small rodents, the main prey of mainland Arctic foxes, are not found in the Com...
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Norwegian Polar Institute
2017
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:16a20550a328426ca7855dc39da4e475 2023-05-15T14:31:08+02:00 Cranial features of mainland and Commander Islands (Russia) Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) reflect their diverging foraging strategies Olga Nanova Miguel Prôa 2017-09-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1080/17518369.2017.1310976 https://doaj.org/article/16a20550a328426ca7855dc39da4e475 EN eng Norwegian Polar Institute http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17518369.2017.1310976 https://doaj.org/toc/1751-8369 1751-8369 doi:10.1080/17518369.2017.1310976 https://doaj.org/article/16a20550a328426ca7855dc39da4e475 Polar Research, Vol 36, Iss 0 (2017) Carnivores island isolation cranial morphology divergent evolution prey size conservation Environmental sciences GE1-350 Oceanography GC1-1581 article 2017 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1080/17518369.2017.1310976 2022-12-31T08:49:56Z Populations of Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) in the Commander Islands, in the Russian Bering Sea, have been isolated since the Pleistocene and differ substantially in their cranial features from their mainland counterpart. Small rodents, the main prey of mainland Arctic foxes, are not found in the Commander Islands, where the main food source for Arctic foxes are large sea birds and marine mammals. Here we assessed whether differences in foraging strategy, particularly the size of available prey, could explain the observed differences in cranial features between mainland and island Arctic foxes. Because a large gape is necessary when foraging on large prey, we compared gape angles between islands and mainland in a sample of dry crania. We found an enlarged gape angle in both island populations. We also compared the rostrum to cranium length ratio and found it to be similar for the mainland and Bering Island Arctic foxes; however, a rostrum contraction was found in the Mednyi Island Arctic foxes. We show that cranial differences between mainland and Commander Islands fox populations could be explained by their different foraging ecology. Furthermore, the relative rostrum contraction in the Mednyi Island foxes provides further evidence for cranial resistance to deformation during biting. These results show the importance that distinct foraging strategies can have in Arctic fox divergent evolution, and, consequently, on future conservation plans for the two Commander Islands subspecies. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Fox Arctic Bering Island Bering Sea Polar Research Vulpes lagopus Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Bering Sea Polar Research 36 sup1 7 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Carnivores island isolation cranial morphology divergent evolution prey size conservation Environmental sciences GE1-350 Oceanography GC1-1581 |
spellingShingle |
Carnivores island isolation cranial morphology divergent evolution prey size conservation Environmental sciences GE1-350 Oceanography GC1-1581 Olga Nanova Miguel Prôa Cranial features of mainland and Commander Islands (Russia) Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) reflect their diverging foraging strategies |
topic_facet |
Carnivores island isolation cranial morphology divergent evolution prey size conservation Environmental sciences GE1-350 Oceanography GC1-1581 |
description |
Populations of Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) in the Commander Islands, in the Russian Bering Sea, have been isolated since the Pleistocene and differ substantially in their cranial features from their mainland counterpart. Small rodents, the main prey of mainland Arctic foxes, are not found in the Commander Islands, where the main food source for Arctic foxes are large sea birds and marine mammals. Here we assessed whether differences in foraging strategy, particularly the size of available prey, could explain the observed differences in cranial features between mainland and island Arctic foxes. Because a large gape is necessary when foraging on large prey, we compared gape angles between islands and mainland in a sample of dry crania. We found an enlarged gape angle in both island populations. We also compared the rostrum to cranium length ratio and found it to be similar for the mainland and Bering Island Arctic foxes; however, a rostrum contraction was found in the Mednyi Island Arctic foxes. We show that cranial differences between mainland and Commander Islands fox populations could be explained by their different foraging ecology. Furthermore, the relative rostrum contraction in the Mednyi Island foxes provides further evidence for cranial resistance to deformation during biting. These results show the importance that distinct foraging strategies can have in Arctic fox divergent evolution, and, consequently, on future conservation plans for the two Commander Islands subspecies. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Olga Nanova Miguel Prôa |
author_facet |
Olga Nanova Miguel Prôa |
author_sort |
Olga Nanova |
title |
Cranial features of mainland and Commander Islands (Russia) Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) reflect their diverging foraging strategies |
title_short |
Cranial features of mainland and Commander Islands (Russia) Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) reflect their diverging foraging strategies |
title_full |
Cranial features of mainland and Commander Islands (Russia) Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) reflect their diverging foraging strategies |
title_fullStr |
Cranial features of mainland and Commander Islands (Russia) Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) reflect their diverging foraging strategies |
title_full_unstemmed |
Cranial features of mainland and Commander Islands (Russia) Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) reflect their diverging foraging strategies |
title_sort |
cranial features of mainland and commander islands (russia) arctic foxes (vulpes lagopus) reflect their diverging foraging strategies |
publisher |
Norwegian Polar Institute |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1080/17518369.2017.1310976 https://doaj.org/article/16a20550a328426ca7855dc39da4e475 |
geographic |
Arctic Bering Sea |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Bering Sea |
genre |
Arctic Fox Arctic Bering Island Bering Sea Polar Research Vulpes lagopus |
genre_facet |
Arctic Fox Arctic Bering Island Bering Sea Polar Research Vulpes lagopus |
op_source |
Polar Research, Vol 36, Iss 0 (2017) |
op_relation |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17518369.2017.1310976 https://doaj.org/toc/1751-8369 1751-8369 doi:10.1080/17518369.2017.1310976 https://doaj.org/article/16a20550a328426ca7855dc39da4e475 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1080/17518369.2017.1310976 |
container_title |
Polar Research |
container_volume |
36 |
container_issue |
sup1 |
container_start_page |
7 |
_version_ |
1766304843392090112 |