In 1991, I had the good fortune of spending a summer up in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, as a field biologist. We had both collared and brown lemmings. It was a ‘crash’ year in that part of the arctic and amazing how scarce they were. The entire summer I only ended up seeing a half-dozen collared lemmings and only one brown lemming. That despite a side project which was a concerted effort to live-trap lemmings. Apparently in peak years the place is swimming with them. (Bad year to start a trap-recapture study, eh?)
The Snowy Owls can turn to arctic ground-squirrel (sik-sik) when lemmings are down, and will eat ducks too (as we have seen here). But as lemmings are fat and juicy, and pretty oblivious to their surroundings, they are the easiest prey.
PS as it turns out, both species are fairly tame and can be held in the hand when removed from a trap J
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Michael Smith MS GISP
State GIS Manager, Maine Office of GIS
State of Maine, Office of Information Technology
michael.smith _at_ maine.gov 207-215-5530
Board Member, Maine GeoLibrary
Education Chair, Maine GIS Users Group
State Rep, National States Geographic Information Council
State House Station 145
51 Commerce Drive
Augusta, ME 04333-0145
69o 47' 58.9"W 44o 21' 54.8"N
From: maine-birds@googlegroups.com [mailto:maine-birds@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Juanita Roushdy
Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2014 10:05 AM
To: Maine birds
Subject: [Maine-birds] Snowy Owl and Lemmings
Here's an interesting post on Snowy Owls and Lemming fluctuations, along with a great photo of the little creatures.
Juanita Roushdy
Bremen, ME
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