Birds and Mammals of Coats Island, N.W.T.
Birds and Mammals of Coats Island, N.W.T.
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西北科茨岛的鸟类和哺乳动物
DOI：
10.14430/arctic1094
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发表时间：
1997
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
H. Ouellet
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
A. J. Gaston;H. Ouellet
我们总结了在一次由国家自然科学博物馆考察队以及加拿大野生动物管理局野外工作人员14次对该岛东北角的考察访问期间，在西北地区的科茨岛所获得的鸟类和哺乳动物记录，以及从1920年到1924年在该岛运营的哈德逊湾公司贸易站日志中获取的记录。陆地哺乳动物区系非常贫乏，没有任何小型食草动物。因此，专门捕食小型哺乳动物的食肉动物——比如白鼬、雪鸮和长尾贼鸥，它们在附近的南安普敦岛都很常见——在科茨岛却很罕见或不存在，除了在迁徙途中。此外，科茨岛没有雪雁的栖息地，尽管有大量的加拿大黑雁在那里繁殖，一些黑雁可能也会在那里繁殖。这意味着该岛的食草行为主要局限于当地的驯鹿种群。小型哺乳动物的缺失以及鹅的相对低密度可能是哈德逊湾公司贸易站运营期间捕狐效果不佳的原因。自20世纪20年代以来，大多数海洋哺乳动物的数量似乎变化不大，尽管弓头鲸可能变得更加稀少，自1981年以来只观测到两次，而在20世纪20年代每年都能观测到几次。1920 - 1924年贸易站日志中的冬季记录表明，科茨岛附近海域在白鲸、海象和厚嘴海鸦的越冬范围内。自1975年以来，已经观测到84种鸟类；这个数字包括许多在其正常范围之外的候鸟的观测记录。这可能是由于厚嘴海鸦栖息地周围植被相对茂盛，吸引了来自远方的鸟类。
We summarize records of birds and mammals obtained at Coats Island, Northwest Territories during one visit by a National Museum of Natural Sciences expedition and fourteen visits by Canadian Wildlife Service field crews to the northeast corner of the island, as well as records obtained from the journals of the Hudson's Bay Company post active on the island from 1920 to 1924. The terrestrial mammal fauna is very depauperate, lacking any small herbivores. Consequently, predators specializing in small mammals - such as ermine, snowy owl, and long-tailed jaeger, all common on nearby Southampton Island - are rare or absent from Coats Island, except in passage. In addition, there are no snow goose colonies on Coats Island, although good numbers of Canada geese breed there, and some brant may also do so. This means that grazing on the island is mainly confined to the resident caribou population. The absence of small mammals and the relatively low density of geese may have accounted for the poor results of fox trapping during the period when the Hudson's Bay Company post was operating. Numbers of most marine mammals appear to have changed little since the 1920s, although bowhead whales may have become rarer, with only two sightings since 1981, compared to several annually in the 1920s. Winter records from the 1920-24 post journals suggest that waters off Coats Island are within the wintering range of beluga, walrus, and thick-billed murres. Eighty-four species of birds have been seen since 1975; this number includes many sightings of vagrant birds well outside their normal ranges. This may be accounted for by the comparative lushness of the vegetation surrounding the thick-billed murre colony, which attracts birds from long distances.