Snowmobile impact on diurnal behaviour in the Arctic fox
As tourism increases globally, studies have documented impacts on wildlife from anthropogenic disturbances. In this observational experiment we aimed to investigate if snowmobile traffic affected the diurnal activity of Arctic fox in High Arctic Svalbard. We conducted the study in two areas in Svalb...
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Norwegian Polar Institute
2017
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ftjpolarres:oai:journals.openacademia.net:article/2724 2023-05-15T14:25:23+02:00 Snowmobile impact on diurnal behaviour in the Arctic fox Fuglei, Eva Ehrich, Dorothee Killengreen, Siw T. Rodnikova, Anna Y. Sokolov, Aleksandr A. Pedersen, Åshild Ø. 2017-08-16 application/pdf application/xml https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2724 eng eng Norwegian Polar Institute https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2724/6183 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2724/6184 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2724/6185 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2724 Polar Research; Vol. 36 No. (sup1) (2017): Special Issue: Arctic Fox Biology and Management 1751-8369 Anthropogenic disturbance Arctic camera-traps motorized activity Svalbard Vulpes lagopus info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2017 ftjpolarres 2021-11-11T19:13:09Z As tourism increases globally, studies have documented impacts on wildlife from anthropogenic disturbances. In this observational experiment we aimed to investigate if snowmobile traffic affected the diurnal activity of Arctic fox in High Arctic Svalbard. We conducted the study in two areas in Svalbard, one control area with low snowmobile traffic and one experimental area with high snowmobile traffic. In each area 10 camera-traps, baited with reindeer carcasses, were positioned and programmed to take photographs every five minutes. The proportion of photographs with foxes was higher during the night than during the day, and the difference between night and day was larger in the area with more snowmobile traffic. By using data obtained according to a similar study design in two Arctic Russian sites, Yamal and Nenetsky, with little human activity and low snowmobile traffic, we were able to compare Arctic fox activity patterns in Svalbard on a larger scale. Our results indicate that snowmobile traffic had an impact on the diurnal activity of the Arctic fox in Svalbard, while there were no obvious diurnal activity patterns among Russian foxes. Even the area with low snowmobile traffic in Svalbard showed increased use of the reindeer carcasses during the night compared to one of the Russian sites, where foxes used carcasses equally during day and night. Such knowledge is of importance in designing cautious management practices. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Fox Arctic Polar Research Svalbard Vulpes lagopus Polar Research (E-Journal) Arctic Svalbard |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Polar Research (E-Journal) |
op_collection_id |
ftjpolarres |
language |
English |
topic |
Anthropogenic disturbance Arctic camera-traps motorized activity Svalbard Vulpes lagopus |
spellingShingle |
Anthropogenic disturbance Arctic camera-traps motorized activity Svalbard Vulpes lagopus Fuglei, Eva Ehrich, Dorothee Killengreen, Siw T. Rodnikova, Anna Y. Sokolov, Aleksandr A. Pedersen, Åshild Ø. Snowmobile impact on diurnal behaviour in the Arctic fox |
topic_facet |
Anthropogenic disturbance Arctic camera-traps motorized activity Svalbard Vulpes lagopus |
description |
As tourism increases globally, studies have documented impacts on wildlife from anthropogenic disturbances. In this observational experiment we aimed to investigate if snowmobile traffic affected the diurnal activity of Arctic fox in High Arctic Svalbard. We conducted the study in two areas in Svalbard, one control area with low snowmobile traffic and one experimental area with high snowmobile traffic. In each area 10 camera-traps, baited with reindeer carcasses, were positioned and programmed to take photographs every five minutes. The proportion of photographs with foxes was higher during the night than during the day, and the difference between night and day was larger in the area with more snowmobile traffic. By using data obtained according to a similar study design in two Arctic Russian sites, Yamal and Nenetsky, with little human activity and low snowmobile traffic, we were able to compare Arctic fox activity patterns in Svalbard on a larger scale. Our results indicate that snowmobile traffic had an impact on the diurnal activity of the Arctic fox in Svalbard, while there were no obvious diurnal activity patterns among Russian foxes. Even the area with low snowmobile traffic in Svalbard showed increased use of the reindeer carcasses during the night compared to one of the Russian sites, where foxes used carcasses equally during day and night. Such knowledge is of importance in designing cautious management practices. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Fuglei, Eva Ehrich, Dorothee Killengreen, Siw T. Rodnikova, Anna Y. Sokolov, Aleksandr A. Pedersen, Åshild Ø. |
author_facet |
Fuglei, Eva Ehrich, Dorothee Killengreen, Siw T. Rodnikova, Anna Y. Sokolov, Aleksandr A. Pedersen, Åshild Ø. |
author_sort |
Fuglei, Eva |
title |
Snowmobile impact on diurnal behaviour in the Arctic fox |
title_short |
Snowmobile impact on diurnal behaviour in the Arctic fox |
title_full |
Snowmobile impact on diurnal behaviour in the Arctic fox |
title_fullStr |
Snowmobile impact on diurnal behaviour in the Arctic fox |
title_full_unstemmed |
Snowmobile impact on diurnal behaviour in the Arctic fox |
title_sort |
snowmobile impact on diurnal behaviour in the arctic fox |
publisher |
Norwegian Polar Institute |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2724 |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Fox Arctic Polar Research Svalbard Vulpes lagopus |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Fox Arctic Polar Research Svalbard Vulpes lagopus |
op_source |
Polar Research; Vol. 36 No. (sup1) (2017): Special Issue: Arctic Fox Biology and Management 1751-8369 |
op_relation |
https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2724/6183 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2724/6184 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2724/6185 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2724 |
_version_ |
1766297789616095232 |