Bureau mulder-natuurlijk: siberie 2005
The main consumers of the lemmings this year were the Pomarine skuas Stercorarius pomarinus
, a kind of predatory gull. They were so abundant, and defended
their territories so fierce full against intruders, including humans, that
most other predators were expelled to the extreme edges of the tundra and to
a few places without skuas. This may be the explanation of the low number of
arctic fox cubs: their parents were probably unable to catch enough lemmings
for them, being continuously harassed by the skuas.
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