Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T13:08:11.235Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Mednyi Arctic foxes: treating a population imperilled by disease

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2009

M. Goltsman ,
E. P. Kruchenkova  and
D. W. Macdonald
M. Goltsman
Affiliation:
Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University, Moscow 119899, Russia.
E. P. Kruchenkova
Affiliation:
Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
D. W. Macdonald
Affiliation:
Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

By the early 1990s only 90 individuals of the endangered Arctic fox subspecies Alopex lagopus semenovi, remained. These few survivors are confined to Mednyi Island, part of the Commander Islands chain. The formerly abundant population crashed in the mid-1970s and has never recovered from only 10–15 per cent of its former numbers. In 1983 the Mednyi Island foxes were listed in the Russian Red Data Book. Their demise coincided with the arrival of mange, introduced by seafaring trappers and caused by the mite Otodectes cynotis, which was associated with devastating cub mortality. In 1994, in a unique intervention, we sought to save the population by treating cubs with antiparasitic drugs. That summer, mortality was reduced. A census in 1995 suggested that over-winter survival was at least no worse, although it is too soon to judge whether this intervention can be a route to population recovery.

Type
Research Article
Information
Oryx , Volume 30 , Issue 4 , October 1996 , pp. 251 - 258
Copyright
Copyright © Fauna and Flora International 1996

References

Chelnokov, F.G. 1982. Number of blue Arctic fox on the Mednyi south-eastern fur seal rookery. Voprosi geografii Kamchatki, 1 (8), 91–92. (In Russian.)Google Scholar
Danell, K. and Hoernfeldt, B. 1987. Numerical responses by populations of red fox and mountain hare during an outbreak of sarcoptic mange. Oecologia, 73, 533–536.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Geptner, V.G. and Naumov, N.P. 1967. Mammals of the USSR. Vol. 2, Part 1. Vishaja Shola, Moscow.Google Scholar
Ginsberg, J.R. and Macdonald, D.W. 1990. Foxes, Wolves, Jackals and Dogs: An Action Plan for the Conservation of the Canids. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.Google Scholar
Iljina, E.D. 1950. Island Fur Farming. Mesdunarodnaja kniga, Moscow.Google Scholar
Kruchenkova, E.P. 1991. Ontogeny of social behaviour and parent-offspring relations in the arctic fox. PhD thesis, University of Moscow.Google Scholar
Kruchenkova, E.P. and Goltsman, M.E. 1994. Parental behaviour in Commander Arctic foxes. Zool. Journal, 73 (5), 88–101.Google Scholar
Lindstrom, E. and Morner, T. 1985. The spreading of sarcoptic mange among Swedish red foxes in relation to fox population dynamics. Rev. Ecol. 40, 211–216.Google Scholar
Lindstrom, E., Andren, H., Angelstam, P., Cederlund, G., Hoernfeldt, B., Jaederberg, L., Lemnell, P-A., Martinsson, B., Skoeld, K. and Swanson, J.E. 1994. Disease reveals the predator: sarcoptic mange, red fox predation, and prey populations. Ecology, 75, 1042–1049.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macdonald, D.W. 1992. The Velvet Claw: A Natural History of the Carnivores. BBC Books, London.Google Scholar
Macdonald, D.W. 1993. Rabies in wildlife: a conservation problem. Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research, 60, 351–355.Google ScholarPubMed
Macdonald, D.W. 1995. The case for intervention. BBC Wildlife Magazine, 01 1995, 14 (1), 64.Google Scholar
Macdonald, D.W. 1996. Dangerous liaisons and diseases. Nature, 379, 400–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayr, E. 1963. Animal Species and Evolution. Harvard University Press. Cambridge, MA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCallum, A.A. and Dobson, A. 1995. Detecting disease and parasite threats to endangered species and ecosystems. TREE, 10 (5), 190–194.Google ScholarPubMed
Naumov, N.P., Goltsman, M.E., Kruchenkova, E.P., Ovsijnikov, N.G. and Smirin, V.M. 1981. Social behaviour of Arctic fox on the Mednyi Island. In Ecology, Population Organisation, and Communicative Processes in the Mammals (ed. Naumov, N. P.), pp. 31–75. Nauka, Russia.Google Scholar
Ovsjanikov, M.G., Goltsman, M.E., Kruchenkova, E.P. and Smirin, V.M. 1982. Status of the arctic fox population on the Mednyi Island. In Conservation of Mammals in the Far East, pp. 153–154. Vladivostok.Google Scholar
Shmidt, O.A. 1991. Prospects for the economical use of the Comander Islands mineral resources. In Natural Resources of Commander Islands (ed. Sokolov, V. E.), pp. 30–36. Moscow State University Press, Moscow.Google Scholar
Steller, G.W. 1793. Reise von Kamschatka nach America mit dem Commandeur Capitan Bering. Ein Pendant zu dessen Beschreibung von Kamschatka. Iochan Zacharias Logan, St Petersburg.Google Scholar
Suvorov, E.K. 1912. Commander Islands and Trapping on Them. GUZiZ, St Petersburg.Google Scholar
Vladimirov, V.A. 1991. Basic biostatistic parameters of fur seal populations in USSR in 1958–90. In Science Researching of Sea Mammals on North Pacific in 1989–1990 (compiler L. A. Popov), pp. 165–19. VNIRO, Moscow.Google Scholar
Wayne, R.K., George, S.B., Gilbert, D., Collins, P.W., Kovach, S.D., Girman, D. and Lehman, N. 1991. A morphologic and genetic study of the island fox, Urocyon littoralis. Evolution, 45, 1849–1868.Google ScholarPubMed
Zalkin, V.I. 1944. Geographical variability in the skull structure of the Eurasian polar fox. Zool. Journal, 23 (4), 156–169.Google Scholar