Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Summer Food Habits of Juvenile Arctic Foxes in Northern Alaska

1983; Wiley; Volume: 47; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/3808533

1937-2817

Robert A. Garrott, L.E. Eberhardt, W.C. Hanson,

Ecology and biodiversity studies

The absence of garbage in fox scats collected in the Colville Delta area was expected because garbage was unavailable to these foxes. Foxes from Prudhoe Bay, however, had access to quantities of garbage as a result of petroleum development activities. Most occupied dens in the Prudhoe Bay area were littered with garbage. Telemetry investigations conducted in conjunction with our study of food habits indicated that foxes frequented areas of human activity to solicit handouts and forage garbage disposal sites. The reason for the low occurrence of garbage in Prudhoe Bay scats is undoubtedly related to the lack of undigestible matter in most forms of garbage. The small number of scats that were classified as containing garbage typically contained only packaging materials associated with processed food such as plastic wrap and aluminum foil. The highly digestible nature of most forms of garbage made it impossible to quantify its importance in the diet of foxes. Prudhoe Bay foxes undoubtedly use garbage; however, the diversity and abundance of natural prey in the scat indicates that these foxes only supplement their summer diet with garbage. Dependence on this food resource may increase during the winter when foxes must rely almost exclusively on the fluctuatingmore » lemming poulations for sustenance. 11 references, 2 tables.« less