As of: March 1, 2024, 7:24 p.m
By: Marcus Giebel
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It can hardly be cold enough for the arctic fox.
He suffers all the more from climate change.
Luckily there is human help.
Oppdal – The arctic fox has a huge problem.
Climate change.
Of course, he is by no means alone among the living beings on earth.
But hardly any other known species is as dependent on snow and frost as the predator, which is native to the northern polar regions.
That's why the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listed the arctic fox in 2009, alongside leatherback turtles and koalas, as one of the species that will suffer most from climate change and rising temperatures.
Arctic foxes are suffering from climate change: less food and the red fox as a new competitor
Arctic foxes can withstand temperatures as low as minus 50 degrees Celsius.
They also have particularly thick fur in winter, which is why they were hunted mercilessly in the past and faced extinction.
But it becomes particularly difficult in the other seasons.
Then there may be a lack of food.
The
Reuters
news agency points out that the lemmings and small rodents such as voles on the menu are becoming fewer and fewer in the home of the arctic foxes.
Since rain is falling more and more often instead of snow, the lemmings have fewer opportunities to dig burrows.
Another negative impact is that the pack ice in summer is only half as thick as it was around 20 years ago, informs the environmental protection organization WWF.
This means that arctic foxes are more dependent on polar bears leaving some of their prey behind.
But they mainly hunt when it is so cold that the ice cover only has a few holes where the seals can come and breathe.
The sooner the ice melts, the less the arctic foxes are likely to get.
In addition, the red fox is penetrating further and further north.
Since he is physically superior, he drives away the arctic fox.
Climate change affects the arctic foxes primarily indirectly.
Feels right at home in the icy cold: The arctic fox is spreading again in Sweden, Norway and Finland.
© imago
Projects aim to save animals from extinction – Arctic fox population is growing again
To ensure that the consequences of global warming are not caught off guard, projects launched by biologists a few years ago to benefit the arctic fox are becoming increasingly important.
Various nature conservation initiatives have ensured that the number of animals in the wild has risen sharply again.
At the turn of the millennium, only 50 wild arctic foxes were said to be roaming around Sweden, Norway and Finland.
There are now around 200 in Sweden alone.
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And it gets even better: According to the WWF, 762 young animals were counted in the three countries in the summer months of 2022 - a record.
In addition, 164 burrows were documented, including one in Finland for the first time in 26 years.
According to
Reuters,
the long-term goal is 2,000 animals living freely in the three countries.
However, scientists believe that this number will not be reached for another 25 years.
The state-funded program costs Norway the equivalent of 275,000 euros annually.
Projects for the arctic fox: breeding station in Norway and dozens of feeding stations in the wild
Among numerous protective measures, the establishment of several dozen feeding stations in the wilderness has contributed to the Arctic fox revival.
These contain dog food and are designed in such a way that the arctic fox can slip in, but not its larger relative, the red fox.
However, a breeding program in Norway plays a special role.
Puppies are born and raised in Oppdal, a good 300 kilometers north of Oslo.
In the station they are safe from eagles, which pose a particular danger to their offspring.
There is also an outdoor enclosure where they can romp around and get used to nature.
450 arctic foxes are said to have been bred here and then released into the wild, five in February 2024 alone - after they were fully grown.
In Germany, however, an animal species threatened with extinction recently arrived at a zoo.
Two arctic foxes, two different colors: here one animal with white fur and one with brown fur are fooling around.
© imago
Raising arctic foxes: The two different species are mixed
As the
SZ
reported in 2019, care is taken during breeding to mix the two different arctic fox species in order to increase genetic variation.
While both have gray-brown fur in summer, the fur of the species that lives in the tundra and inland mountains turns predominantly white in winter, while its counterpart, which lives on ice-free coasts and is known as the blue arctic fox, turns completely brown .
What may be helpful for the projects is that the animals have a large distribution area and undertake long migrations.
A few years ago, records showed that a young arctic vixen covered 3,506 kilometers in 76 days.
She moved from Svalbard to Ellesmere Island in Canada.
So big tours seem to be their specialty.
As long as climate change still allows it.
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(mg)