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RESPONDENT
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Goetz Eichhorn
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SITE NAME
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Mechigmenskaya Gulf, Chukotski Peninsula, Russia
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| Contact details
(phone/fax//e-mail//address): |
| (0) 69-78800096/(0) 38841-20771 // eichgoetz@web.de // Zoological Laboratory, University of Groningen, P.O. Box 14, 9750 AA Haren, The Netherlands
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PROJECT DETAILS |
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Project name:
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Arctic Expedition of the Russian Academy of Sciences
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Start of survey:
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End
of survey: |
Team
size: |
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10.06
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25.07
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2
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WEATHER
CONDITIONS
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Weather conditions: |
| On the date of our arrival on 10 June there was still a snow cover (flat area) of about 20%. From 20-24 june it was rainy period with stormy wind conditions and lower temperatures (about +3-5øC) than days before and after this time. But I guess this is not an unusual event in this region and may had only a slight influence on breeding success. According to information of local people the season was obviously late regarding the ice breaking-up on the Mechigmenski Bay and Lagoon. Regarding the tundra, what is more important for breeding inland birds, the season was probably not especially "warm" or "cold", "dry" or "rainy", just more or less normal for the region. An unusually dry warm summer reported from the region around Anadyr and southwards we could not confirm for the Mechigmenskaya Gulf.
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| Date of ice-break on
rivers: |
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| Date of final loss of
snow: |
about 17.06
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BIOTIC
CONDITIONS
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| Rodents abundance evaluation: |
low
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Breeding conditions:
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There is no information available about year-to-year changes in bird numbers. Not a single Snowy Owl has been observed. Nevertheless foxes were quite abundant. Arctic and Red foxes inhabit the same range of habitats and their dens could be found just 5 km away from each other. Breeding success of Arctic Foxes was surprisingly high, families with 7 and 4 young were recorded. They were catching lemmings and voles as shown by remains of these rodents at their dens. But regarding the overall low abundance of this prey they surely determined breeding success of birds to some extent. Avian predators like Arctic and Long-tailed skuas affected bird breeding success too, as far as both bred in the area.
Abiotic conditions were more or less favourable. Hunting activities have an important influence on abundance of local waterfowl, especially geese, at least in the vicinity (of up to 100 km) of the permanent human settlements. Hunting is allowed for the local Chukchi the year round, not only seasonally, but this privilege is actually performed by all hunters there.
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Rodent dynamics:
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| Lemmings and voles were seen only rare although old nests could be found more frequently. Their abundance was apparently at a low.
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Rodent species recorded:
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Summary
of fauna studies: |
The table above gives only a very rough estimate and view. The breeding performance of different species among one group of animals was quite different. Whenever at least one case (one individual/pair) of any species out of the regarded group could be recorded (like a fledged bird) I marked with an "X" although a lot of other members may had no breeding success.
Detailed studies were carried out to determine the breeding density of several species, moult migration flocks of Emperor Geese were counted and an overall avifaunistic survey was made at this "ornithological whit spot" on the earth. The collected material is planed to be prepared for publishing in near future.
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