RANGIFER Ruearcht Man Jument -Md Husbandry of Reindeer and Other Northern Unguutei
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Ki ". mrir HTirciiu unn 1 1 AiJ^Uhi l'""rH nui. NjfWÉI RANGIFER Ruearcht Man jument -md Husbandry of Reindeer and other Northern UnguUtei Nd. 1-3 n lfHW - VOL XX Rangif er Published by. Nordisk Organ for Reinforskning (NOR) Nordic Council for Reindeer Research Pohjoismainen Porontutkimuselin Editor. Rolf Egil Haugerud Address: c/o NVH, Department of Arctic Veterinary Medicine Stakkevollvn. 23 B N-9292 Tromsø Norway e-mail: [email protected] Web address: www.rangifer.no Telephone: +47 77 69 48 10 Telefax: +47 77 69 49 11 Mobile telephone: +47 414 16 833 Bank account: 4760 56 92776 Postal account: 0801 2116358 Swift address: SNOWN022 Subscription prices: Ordinary subscription (2—4 issues/year), prices/year: 2000 Subscription runs until cancelled! 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ISSN 0333-256-X A/S Harstad Tidendes trykkeri RANGIFER Key note presentations 10th Arctic Ungulate Conference Conference Conference Organising Committee: Arnoldus Schytte Blix (Chairman), University of Tromsø Hans Kolbein Dahle (Sponsors and Finance), County Governor of Troms Monica Alterskjær Olsen (Technical committee), University of Tromsø Pål Vegar Storeheier (Post-conference tours), University of Tromsø Nicholas J. C. Tyler (Scientific programme) University of Tromsø Published by Nordic Council for Reindeer Research Tromsø, Norway 2000 RANGIFER Vol. 20 2000 No. 2-3 Contents Page Preface 56 Photograph of participants 57 (i) Individual level Haggarty, P. Quantifying the free living energy exchanges of Arctic ungulates with stable isotopes 59 Hofmann, R. R. Functional and comparative digestive system anatomy of Arctic ungulates 71 Frölich, K. Viral diseases of northern ungulates 83 (ii) Population level van Oort, B. E. H., Tyler, N. J. C, Reierth, E. & Stokkan, K.-A. Biological rhythms in Arctic vertebrates 99 Syroechkovski, E. E. Wild and semi-domesticated reindeer in Russia: status, population dynamics and trends under the present social and economic conditions 113 Crittenden, P. Aspects of the ecology of mat-forming lichens 127 Behnke, R. Equilibrium and non-equilibrium models of livestock population dynamics in pastoral Africa: their relevance to Arctic grazing systems 141 (iii) Animals and man Anderson, D. Rangiferanà human interests 153 Oskal, N. On nature and reindeer luck 175 Statutes for Arctic Ungulate Society (AUS) 181 Information Dissertations 182 Rangifer, 20 (2-3), 2000 55 10th Arctic Ungulate Conference The 10th Arctic Ungulate Conference was organised by the Department of Arctic Biology and held at the University of Tromsø, Norway, 9-13 August 1999- The conference continued a series of nine conferences devoted to Arctic ungulates, including five International Reindeer/Caribou Symposia, two International Muskox Symposia and two Arctic Ungulate Conferences. Two hundred delegates from 14 countries attended and presented more than 150 scientific papers, making it one of the biggest Arctic Ungulate Conferences ever. The scientific and social programme as well as the abstracts have been published in Rangifer Report No. 4, 1999- In an important break with normal practice, keynote speakers included scientists of international reputation who do not normally work with Arctic ungulates. They were asked to review recent work in northern species/ecosystems thus providing the conference with novel criticism and new perpectives. Their papers are published in this volume. Delegates' papers will be published in later issues of Rangifer. The Conference also included a Circumpolar PhD-Network in Arctic Environmental Studies (CAES) work• shop: "Reindeer 2000", attended by 47 participants presenting 25 student contributions, 5 keynote lectures and 3 introductory speeches. A Rangifer Special Issue with workshop papers is planned for publication later in 2000. The Conference was sponsored by the Norwegian Reindeer Husbandry Development Fund, the Norwegian Reindeer Husbandry Research Council, the Nordic Council for Reindeer Research, the Norwegian State Bank of Agriculture, the University of Tromsø and the Roald Amundsen Centre for Arctic Research at the University of Tromsø. A meeting of representatives appointed by the different national delegations was held on 11 August 1999- A new Arctic Ungulate Society was inaugurated. The statutes of the Society are appended. In its first meeting, the Executive committee of the Arctic Ungulate Society agreed that the next Conference will be held in Finland and the Finnish representative later informed that the venue for the next meeting is likely to be Saariselkâ in northern Finland. Arnoldus Schytte Blix, Chairman of the Organising Committee 56 Rangifer, 20 (2-3), 2000 10th Arctic Ungulate Conference Ungulate / University of Tromsø, 9-13 August 1999 Conference Rangifer, 20 (2-3), 2000 58 RangiSer, 20 (2-3), 2000 The Tenth Arctic Ungulate Conference, 9-13 August 1999, Tromsø, Norway. Quantifying the free living energy exchanges of Arctic ungulates with stable isotopes Paul Haggarty The Rowett Research Institute, Greenburn Road, Bucksburn, Aberdeen AB21 9SB, Scotland, UK ([email protected]). Abstract: When natural diets meet an animal's requirement for energy, other essential nutrients will usually be supplied in amounts at least sufficient for survival. Knowledge of the energy requirements of free ranging species under typical conditions are important in assessing both their nutritional needs and their ecological impact. The doubly labelled water (DLW) method is currently the most promising objective field methodology for estimating free living energy expenditure but expenditure is only equal to the energy requirement when an animal is in energy balance. Reproduction and seasonal cycles of fat deposition and utilization represent significant components of the energy bud• get of arctic ungulates but the information gained in the course of a typical DLW study may be used to estimate processes such as milk output and fat storage and mobilization in order to predict requirements from expenditure. The DLW method has been exhaustively validated under highly controlled conditions and the introduction of inno• vations such as faecal sampling for the estimation of body water isotopic enrichment, the availability of appropriate cor• rection factors and stoichiometrics for known sources of error, and iterative calculation of unknown parameters, have produced a methodology suitable for use in truly free ranging species. The few studies carried out so far in arctic ungu• lates indicate that previous predictions have generally underestimated the true level of expenditure, that there is con• siderable between animal variation in the level of expenditure and that this is largely determined by physical activity. The disadvantages of the DLW methodology are that it remains expensive and the isotope analysis is technically demanding. Furthermore, although DLW can provide an accurate value for free living energy expenditure, it is often important to have information on the individual components of expenditure, for example the relative contribution of physical activity and thermoregulatory thermogenesis, in order to interpret the values for overall expenditure. For these reasons the most valuable use of the DLW method in the field may be to validate factorial models and other approaches so that they may be used with confidence. Additional important information on the energy exchanges of free ranging animals may be obtained from other stable isotope methodologies. In addition to the use of the isotopes 2H and lsO in the DLW method, natural variations in the abundance of "C and 15N in the arctic environment may be exploited to study diet selection in truly free living arctic ungulates. Rangifer, 20 (2-3): 59-69 Introduction calorimetry are of limited use as they impose a sig• When natural diets meet an animal's requirement nificant degree of restriction on 'normal' activity for energy, other essential nutrients such as protein, which makes up a significant portion of the energy fats minerals and vitamins will usually be supplied budget of free ranging species. Furthermore, the in amounts at least sufficient for survival (Kay et al., harshness of the arctic environment also influences 1984). Consequently, energy is often the most expenditure in ways which are difficult to model; important single factor in the nutrition of an animal these include the effects of temperature and wind and knowledge of energy expenditure under typical chill, and the additional energy expenditure which free-living conditions are important in assessing occurs as a consequence of foraging when the vege• both energy requirements and the ecological impact tation