Arctic fox ecology and survival in a changing climate

¶ … ARCTIC FOX (National Geographic, online at http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/Animals/mammals/arctic-fox.html,2008)

Understanding the Arctic Fox

Peripheral to the concern and implications of the melting artic regions is the concern about the wildlife supported by the region. What will become of the polar bears, the giant water animals like whales and walrus, to the smallest animals like the arctic fox? Some, more than others, will adapt to the changing environment. The research presented here focuses its study on the artic fox, to build an understanding and image of this elusive creature, and about which very little attention been given in discussions on environmental concerns. This study will examine the role of the arctic fox in the environmental balance of the arctic region; because in the harsh environment of the arctic where it becomes very easy to forget about global warming and endangered habitats in sub-zero temperatures, every life form, including the arctic fox, is but a component in the balance of nature and life in the region.

The Region

The arctic region is represented by the countries of Russia, the United States, Canada, Greenland, Denmark and Norway (including the Svalbard Islands) (Brigham, Lawson, 2007, p. 27). Most of the modern scenarios that project the future of an "iceless" arctic region focus on the indigenous people, the new acquisition of land mass, and the availability of new natural resources; but they fail, for the most part, to examine in detail the implication these changes will have on wildlife habitat and the changes in the balance of nature that will, must, occur during the period that the arctic is melting.

In 1999, the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the people of Sachs Harbor, on Banks Island, met and discussed environmental changes now occurring, and the ramifications these changes that the arctic region is now experiencing mean to the indigenous people and animals of the arctic (Smith, Duane, 2007, p. 40). This is, in part, what they had to say:

In 1999, the Winnipeg-based International Institute for Sustainable Development and the community of Sachs Harbour (with about 125 people), on Banks Island in the Beaufort Sea region, documented local and regional environmental changes. In a video shown at the 2000 Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), hunters and elders spoke with quiet authority about: commonplace and cumulative changes; melting permafrost, resulting in beach slumping and lake erosions; increased snowfalls; longer sea ice-free seasons; emerging or invasive new species of birds, fish and insects (barn owls, mallard, pin-tailed ducks and salmon) near the community; a decline in the lemming population (a basic food for Arctic fox and a staple species); and a general warming trend.

These changes are not unique to my region. They are also reported by Inuit in Greenland and Alaska, Saami in northern Norway, Aleut in the Aleutian Islands, Athabaskans and Gwich'in North America, Nenets, Chukchi and many other indigenous peoples in northern Russia. Our world is increasingly changing. The traditional knowledge of how the world works, passed down from generation to generation, is less accurate than it was. Climate change is not a theoretical faraway problem for future generations to solve. It is already happening in the Arctic, which is struggling to adjust and adapt to its impacts. Communities are contending with vanishing historical sites, gravesite erosions, and community disruption and relocation. Inuit are as adaptable as others, but only to a certain degree (Smith, 2007, p. 40)."

Concerns about the lemming population as a vanishing food source upon which the arctic fox relies is probably less of an issue than what the access to the region will mean to the arctic fox as a species. With the changing weather, it can be expected that mankind will expand his own habitat into regions previously unpopulated in the arctic. A region where the harsh weather itself, the frozen tundra, the snow, are the roaming grounds of the arctic fox, it can be expected that we might see a decline in the numbers of artic fox as a result of man's presence over the environmental changes. The artic fox, described as a "hardy" animal, is no doubt, like foxes in other regions, able to sustain itself as a small predator and as a scavenger of bigger animals; but it probably cannot stave off the harm it faces by the presence of mankind in its environment.

However, the indigenous peoples of the arctic are probably more appreciative of the arctic fox than might be others amongst us, whose lives have not depended upon knowing and understanding the harshness of the artic region in order to survive. Writing about the relationship between the indigenous peoples of the region and the animal wildlife, Tom Walker (2002), provides for us insight as to the relationship between man, the arctic environment, and the arctic fox. Walker describes this scenario:

Sometime during the fading 16-hour-long night, the polar wind ebbed and the ground blizzard subsided. In dawn twilight and "warm" minus-20-degree F. temperatures, my Inupiaq companions began to load their sleds for a foray onto Beaufort Sea ice along the northern coast of Alaska to hunt seals. Nunsingaya, the elder, said that he believed the high wind had opened leads in the ice not far from shore. With luck this day, we would find one swarming with seals.

I had joined these Native subsistence hunters to learn how they pursue such highly prized quarry on the trackless ice, and perhaps to take photographs of polar bears or other wildlife. About a mile from shore, we crossed a skein of arctic fox tracks zigzagging across the ice. We paralleled them for about a mile when, suddenly, the tracks veered sharply to the north. Nunsingaya stopped to examine them. He spoke two words in Inupiaq and abruptly we changed direction to follow the tracks into the cutting head wind. A short time later another set of fox tracks angled in and joined the first. The elder mumbled and shook his head. A half mile farther on, yet another set of tracks converged on the two. Off in the distance, a thin fog wafted above the ice.

Cautiously we stalked forward to a pressure ridge at the edge of the fog. Nunsingaya went ahead and peered over. Shortly he beckoned us to join him. An open lead stretched westward. Black dots situated along it were hauled-out seals.

Directly in front of us, four foxes jousted over scraps in a smear of red-stained snow. Now I understood why we had veered from our chosen path: The foxes had scented a polar bear kill and in turn led us to open water. Nunsingaya turned to me and whispered, "Polar bear catch seal, feeds its shadows, now maybe shadows help feed us."

If I learned anything that day, it was an awareness of small things. I never would have thought that a change in the direction of those tiny fox prints would mean so much. It turned out to be just one of several lessons my companions taught me about one of the Far North's most compelling creatures.

Arctic foxes, nomads of the circumpolar, high-arctic biome, lead a solitary life except when congregating near a rich food source, such as a polar bear's leavings. These foxes range farther north than any other terrestrial mammals in the world. (Polar bears are classified as marine mammals.) Explorers once reported seeing a fox within 87 miles of true north and another within about 52 miles of the northern pole of inaccessibility (the point in the arctic ice pack that is farthest away from land).

To live in such bitter conditions -- killing cold, stabbing winds and months of polar darkness -- these six- to ten-pound predators evolved the densest winter pelage of any land mammal, perhaps rivaled only by that of the river otter. Their underfur can be two and a half inches thick and their guard hairs five or more inches long. Short ears, legs and snouts radiate little body heat. Densely furred paws insulate pads from the cold and provide traction on ice (Walker, 2002, p.1)."

The Paradox

Researcher Grant Sims' observations about the arctic region lead him to focus on the arctic fox as one of the most important elements in the balance of nature there (p. 16). But Grant also is aware of the danger to the fox by man, who has since the earliest days of the exploration of the arctic exploited the arctic fox population for profit. Grant sees the arctic fox as a paradox, describing it this way:

On the mainland, however, foxes are indigenous, their relationship to bird colonies more complex and human intercession far less easy to justify - much less pull off. In the late 1970s and the 1980s, after decades of slow declines, four nesting goose species on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta reached unprecedented lows. The reason was largely overhunting by people, which took place at both ends of the birds' migratory paths. And the hunting, says Tom Rothe, waterfowl coordinator for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, "pushed the populations down to the level where other factors kicked in."

One of those factors was the arctic fox, which was going through a population boom. "In no way do we want to suggest arctic foxes caused the decline in geese," Rothe says. "But it's fair to say they suppressed the recovery." The hunting is now limited by more restrictive regulations and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Goose Management Plan formulated with rural hunters in Alaska, and the goose populations have largely recovered. Says Rothe, "Eventually, the geese outnumbered the ability of foxes to hold them back. The bottom line is that normally arctic foxes don't control bird populations. Only if the foxes are on an island or if goose populations get very low do foxes have an impact."

But it appears that people can alter the fox-bird equilibrium in other unintended ways too. Take the growing number of landfills and dumpsters in some Far North areas. "Because of the steady food supply from the accessible garbage, more foxes survive the winter and have more pups, and come summer they eat more birds," says Robert Burgess, senior research biologist and coworker with Stickney at ABR (Sims, 1996, p. 16).

Even in its role as a vital element in the balance of nature, the arctic fox, by virtue of its predation and scavenger feeding habits, becomes a threat to other species. There is raging controversy about hunting and killing foxes, and, today, one is inviting the wrath of groups like PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) if they are found harvesting animal furs. While it is difficult to look at the arctic fox without being overwhelmed by its beauty in the natural setting of its environment, the hardiness that is the survival element in the species can be a detriment to the balance of nature as much as it is a vital component. In other words, the balance of nature is a delicate balance, and it relies upon systems of checks and balances in maintaining and decreasing wildlife populations. Man, too, is an important component of that balance - though by virtue of his ability to think, manipulate and create, mankind is, like the arctic fox, both vital and, in some instances, detrimental to the balance of nature.

The Arctic Fox is a Survivor

In the world of literature, the fox is often portrayed as the intellectual with a dark side (Asian Folklore, 2006, p. 133). In his film, Dreams, director Akira Kurosawa (1990), focuses on Japanese folklore of the "wedding of the foxes." It is a secret ceremony, and one that only occurs when rain pours and the sun shines at the same time. A small boy, warned not to go into the woods because it is the wedding of the foxes, goes, spies and is, in the end, sent off by his mother to either commit suicide for his transgression - the foxes have that power over people; or to beg and receive their forgiveness, without which he cannot return home. Foxes are smart, they are survivors, and, according to at least Japanese folklore, hold a place of respect because their cunning ability to survive.

Arctic foxes are, unlike the water mammals of the artic, less at risk because of the environmental changes that are occurring in the artic. They have proven themselves as adaptable to the most harsh and extreme weather conditions; it is suspected that they would, likewise, adjust to more hospitable weather conditions. More hospitable conditions, however, as has been previously mentioned by Walker (2002), will give rise to new, even invasive species of animals and wildlife in the region. The arctic fox will prove an important balance in the natural evolution of the environment there, as a predator of small nuisance rodents and other such wildlife.

In Native lore, the white fox is neither clever nor cunning. It is a harmless sprite of the long northern night, a cheery escort with a saucy bark that announces the arrivals of polar bears. And with lightsome feet, the fox escorts the souls of children to the swirling, heavenward dance of the aurora borealis. But poignancies aside, the creature's appetite for eggs and birds is a powerful force in Far North ecosystems. And once human beings get into the act, whether by fox farming on islands or by overhunting waterfowl, the fragility of those ecosystems becomes all too clear (Sims, 1996, p. 16)."

The arctic fox is an important element in the balance of nature, as well as being an incredibly fascinating and beautiful sight to behold. It is a survivor, one that will hopefully withstand the tests of its changing environment, and the influx of mankind that the changes are sure to bring to the arctic region.