U.S.-Denmark Cooperative Research: Foraging Strategies of the World's Northernmost Ungulates--How Mammals Survive under Harsh Conditions

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This award would support collaborative research between Dr. David R. Klein, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and Mr. Christian Bay, Greenland Fisheries and Environmental Research Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark. They will study the foraging strategy of muskoxen o in Peary Land, North Greenland. The study area, at 83 N contains the muskoxen, which are the northernmost population of ungulates in the world. At this latitude the muskoxen must compensate for limitations in available forage by optimizing their intake of high quality forage in the summer and by slowing their activity in the winter. During the summer the muskoxens' movements and the plant species grazed upon will be directly observed by the researchers. The movement patterns of the animals in the winter will be measured through the use of activity-monitoring collars transmitting data via satellite. It is important to study the range and habitat limitations of muskoxen, because there is a dearth of research on arctic mammals, and because there is increasing pressure on the muskoxens' normal grazing lands from energy and mineral explanation and from the return of aboriginal peoples to lands not recently used by them. This study will contribute to an understanding of how to manage the species under restricted resource conditions.