Title for Page Headings: a Non-Cyclic Arctic Fox Population

The fall and rise of the Icelandic Arctic fox (Alopex lagopus): A 50 year demographic study on a non-cyclic Arctic fox population

E.R. Unnsteinsdottir, S. Pálsson, A. Angerbjörn

Journal: Oecologia

Title for page headings: A non-cyclic Arctic fox population

Supplement and data tables:

Hunting statistics

Between 1958 and 1994 the Icelandic law on fox and mink eradication (law No. 52/1957) aimed at the total extermination of Arctic foxes in Iceland. The law stipulated that each commune should employ one or more hunters to visit every Arctic fox den known within the border of the commune and kill the inhabitants if possible. This is an important aspect of the hunting effort since the same dens are used repeatedly and some may be hundreds of years old (Macpherson 1969). The foxhunter would get paid a bounty for adult foxes killed at breeding dens (so-called denners) upon presentation of their tails, hourly wages during their search for inhabited dens and for the time it took to wait for and kill the foxes concerned once an occupied den was discovered, as well as costs associated with the use of motor vehicles, boats or horses. The hourly wages were the major part of the payment to the hunters as the bounty was not very high. Thus there was no incentive to reduce the hunting effort even though the fox population declined. The bounty was lower for captured cubs than for denners. A somewhat higher bounty was paid for Arctic foxes killed away from breeding dens, so-called runners, in any season but no wages or other costs were disbursed for hunting such foxes. At the end of summer a representative of the commune council would fill in a form stating (a) the number of dens found to be inhabited by breeding foxes and the number of (b) denners, (c) cubs and (d) runners killed within the community. This information as well as copies of receipts of payment signed by the foxhunters would be sent to the authorities for re-imbursement from the state treasury (Hersteinsson 1980; 1988).

In 1994 the legislation on hunting was changed (Law No. 64/1994) in such a way that from then on the Arctic fox formally became a protected species in Iceland while organised hunting would still take place in those areas where the Minister of the Environment deemed that hunting need be conducted in order to prevent financial damage by the species. In reality this meant little or no change in the hunting effort except that foxes became protected in a few nature reserves and national parks, altogether comprising less than 1% of known arctic fox dens in the country.

The consequence of this system was that the foxhunting effort was stable from year to year and the foxhunting records were very accurate.

In 1997 the bounty system was changed in such a way that the bounty was increased significantly while other payments, such as wages and automobile costs, were abolished. Furthermore, the bounty became the same for adults whether killed as denners or runners while bounties for cubs remained lower (Jónsson 1998). This resulted in a general shift in emphasis away from hunting at breeding dens and to hunting runners instead. Furthermore, inaccuracies in the hunting statistics increased because there was no longer the same incentive to differentiate between foxes killed as denners and runners and to document the number of occupied dens found. Consequently, official records after 1996 need to be considered with special precaution and corrections.

References

Hersteinsson P (1980) Saga refaveiða [e. History of Fox Hunting]. In: Einarsson Á (Ed.), Villt Spendýr. Rit Landverndar (In Icelandic)

Hersteinsson P (1988) Wildlife management. In Búnaðarsamtök á Íslandi 150 ára; 1837-1987, Vol. II. Edited by Páll Lýðsson. The Agricultural Society of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland. pp. 810-821 (In Icelandic)

Jónsson ÁÁ (1998) Refir og minkar [e. Foxes and minks]. In: Jónsson ÁÁ (ed) Veiðidagbók 1998. Wildlife Managment Institute), Akureyri, Iceland, pp 3–5 (in Icelandic)

Macpherson AH (1969) The dynamics of Canadian arctic fox populations. Can. Wildl. Serv. Rep. Ser. 8:1-49