{"id":584071,"date":"2021-05-13T14:00:04","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T18:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/?p=584071"},"modified":"2021-05-13T14:00:10","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T18:00:10","slug":"a-day-in-the-life-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/bbtw_updates\/a-day-in-the-life-of\/","title":{"rendered":"A Day in the Life of…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hello Earth Rangers! We’ve got a very exciting project update to share with you, coming live and direct from our fox friend, researcher Jeanne Clermont! Jeanne is currently studying the arctic fox population of Bylot Island, Nunavut, and today she’s taking us along with her for an inside look at her exciting adventures. Buckle up and let’s head north – over to you, Jeanne!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I study the arctic fox population of Bylot Island, Nunavut, Canada, and I am usually there from mid-May to mid-August \u2013 pre-pandemic, of course! Every day in the field is different as many factors affect our activities, most importantly the weather! But here is a typical day of the beginning of our field season during the month of May, when the ground is still covered by snow (there is already 24h daylight at that time). <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When we arrive on the site in May, female\nfoxes spend their time in their dens with their recently born babies. To help figure\nout how many young each female had, we install automated cameras on each den\nthat will later allow us to count the young when they emerge from the den. That\nmeans we have to visit the 115 dens that are spread across our study site, and\nwhen the den seems occupied by foxes, we install one or two cameras. As the\nground is covered by snow, we use snowmobiles to travel across the site (it\nwould not be possible by foot!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Home sweet home! Photo credit: Marie-pier Poulin<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

During a typical day, we wake up around 7am, and enjoy a quick breakfast and coffee together (the fox team fuels up together!) in the warmth of the field camp. Then, we take our maps of the study site displaying the location of all fox dens. We plan ahead what den we are going to visit during that day, trying to maximize our displacements: we want to visit as many dens as possible while reducing the total distance travelled. Those days can be long, and the weather can always surprise us (it can get very foggy!), so we bring with us many warm clothes, thermos of coffee and hot chocolate, and many sweet treats like chocolate bars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before leaving we get all the material we\nneed, we grab our maps with the day\u2019s planned route, and we stock the cameras\nin a sled attached to the snowmobile. We must not forget our radio, to\ncommunicate with the other persons on the site if anything happens, and our GPS\nto help us navigate and find the dens. We also fill the snowmobiles with fuel. We\nare 4 in the team and we travel 2×2 on snowmobiles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Off they go! Photo credit: Marie-pier Poulin<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We use our GPS to help us get to the first\nden. When we arrive at the den, we have to stay calm and silent to avoid\ndisturbing foxes that may be inside the den. We first walk slowly on the den to\nfind signs of fox activity. These can be faeces, hair, and prey leftovers. We also\ncollect hair samples that may be used later in lab analyses to identify what\nthe foxes have been eating during the winter. When signs of activity are present,\nwe install the automated cameras. We position them (they are mounted on a\ntripod) so we can see as much of the den as possible. What is really important\nis that we must see the main entrance of the den, where the foxes will pass through\nmany times a day. The main entrance (hole) can be easily identified as the\nwalls of the hole will be covered by hair, as foxes are molting at that time.\nWhen at a den, we are always attentive as we may always observe a fox arriving\nor leaving the site. This is crucial information as we also want to determine\nthe identity of the parent (adult foxes are marked with colour ear tags\nallowing to identify them at a distance). When we see a fox, we use our\nbinoculars to identify them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Check out these adorable baby foxes, captured on camera by the team! Photo credit: Berteaux Lab<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We try to spend as little time as possible\non the den, so when we are finished, we leave and move towards the next den. We\nusually have time to visit 5 dens before lunch, and we of course always enjoy\nthe lunch break and our hot beverages. After lunch we continue to visit dens\nand identify foxes when we cross one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Snowmobiling in the Arctic is not always easy, we often get stuck in snow and spend some time getting the snowmobile out and ready to go! Dens might also be inaccessible by snowmobile and we must walk in deep snow to reach the den \u2013 this is often very funny. I remember one time where we had to climb a mountain in snowshoes to reach only one den, I was very tired at the end of the day! And another time, when we visited a den that was on the top of a hill, we slid all the way back down the hill! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the day, we are very tired when we arrive back at the camp, but we also feel that satisfied and comforted feeling we all experience after a day spent outside during winter. We are always happy to enjoy a warm meal with our colleagues and friends from the other teams. Then, its time to sleep and start over the day after! <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What\u00a0an\u00a0interesting\u00a0day!\u00a0We\u00a0don’t\u00a0know\u00a0about\u00a0you\u00a0but\u00a0we’re\u00a0totally\u00a0jealous\u00a0of\u00a0Jeanne’s\u00a0awesome\u00a0adventures.\u00a0Tell\u00a0us\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0comments\u00a0below\u00a0what\u00a0your\u00a0favourite\u00a0parts\u00a0are\u00a0or\u00a0what\u00a0you\u00a0think\u00a0sounds\u00a0the\u00a0most\u00a0exciting\u00a0about\u00a0her\u00a0day,\u00a0and\u00a0don’t\u00a0forget\u00a0that\u00a0you\u00a0can\u00a0help\u00a0support\u00a0her\u00a0important\u00a0research\u00a0with\u00a0an\u00a0arctic\u00a0fox\u00a0Wildlife\u00a0Adoption\u00a0Kit!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hello Earth Rangers! We’ve got a very exciting project update to share with you, coming live and direct from our fox friend, researcher Jeanne Clermont! Jeanne is currently studying the arctic fox population of Bylot Island, Nunavut, and today she’s taking us along with her for an inside look at her exciting adventures. Buckle up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":584072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[931,425],"tags":[205],"class_list":{"0":"post-584071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all","8":"category-bbtw_updates","9":"tag-fox"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584071"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":584083,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584071\/revisions\/584083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}