Arctic Fox Attacks!

Photo By: Wildlife Conservation Society

This photo shows an Arctic fox charging a greater white-fronted goose nest defended by the adults, in the Prudhoe Bay oilfields.

It's from a set of camera-trap photos set up by researchers associated with the Wildlife Conservation Society. The aim of the research was to identify predators of ground-nesting birds in the Alaskan Arctic, especially those predators considered "subsidized species." Subsidized species are those that benefit from human development. In more familiar lower-latitude "habitats" raccoons and crows are considered subsidized species, because both thrive in part by feeding off human refuse. In the Alaskan Arctic some of species that survive in large measure due to human energy industry damage local bird populations. In a sense, these subsidized species are a form of pollution.

According to the Wildlife Conservation Society, "Arctic foxes, for example, den in culverts and under buildings in the oil fields—taking advantage of new-found homes that provide protective shelter for themselves and their young."

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