Journal
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY
Volume -, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
CANADIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING
DOI: 10.1139/cjz-2022-0057
Keywords
Vulpes lagopus; arctic fox; diet; dental ecology
Categories
Funding
- Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education program Terrestrial ecosystems of northwestern Siberia: assessment of the modern transformation of the communities [1220210000899]
- US National Science Foundation [1927793]
- ICER
- Directorate For Geosciences [1927793] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Increased human presence in the Arctic may impact its vulnerable ecosystems, including the Arctic and red foxes. A study conducted on Arctic foxes in proximity to human settlements found that there was a significant decrease in tooth wear and breakage, indicating a dietary shift towards softer human-derived foods.
Increased human presence in the Arctic may affect its vulnerable ecosystems. Effects on arctic and red foxes provide notable examples. Both have been documented to take anthropogenic subsidies when available, which can change diet and ranging patterns in complex ways that can either benefit or harm populations, depending on the situation. Understanding this complexity requires new tools to study impacts of increasing human presence on endemic mammals at high latitudes. We propose that dental ecology, specifically tooth wear and breakage, can offer important clues. Based on samples of arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus (Linnaeus, 1758)) trapped prior to (n = 78) and following (n = 57) rapidly growing human presence on the Yamal Peninsula, Russia, we found that foxes trapped recently in proximity to human settlement had significantly less tooth wear and breakage. This is likely explained by a dietary shift from consumption of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus (Linnaeus, 1758)) carcasses including bone to softer human-derived foods, especially when preferred smaller prey (e.g., West Siberian lemmings, Lemmus sibiricus (Kerr, 1792), and arctic lemmings, Dicrostonyx torquatus (Pallas, 1778)) are unavailable. These results suggest that tooth wear and breakage can be a useful indicator of the consumption of anthropogenic foods by arctic foxes.
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