Reindeer herders in Lapland are using new technology to find lost livestock, a flying barbeque. It may seem strange but when looking at the picture, one can understand the name.
The flying barbeque is actually a minicopter, a flying object with an attached camera. The machine is designed in France and can fly as high as 150 meters.
It can survey the landscape in hunt for the reindeer for up to 10 kilometers. Many reindeers have radio transmitters around their necks and if the herders lose their reindeers to predators, they can be found via the transmitter.
The remote control steers well and testing has been good. “All our experiences up to now have been positive,” said project director Jari Nykänen of Eastern Lapland technical college.
“The neck transmitter has been found further away than when searches are conducted at ground level,” he says but lost reindeers can be very costly for the reindeer herders.
Every year herders lose up to 20,000 reindeer to predators. On average, just a fifth of these are found.
“Even one lost reindeer that isn’t found represents a loss of several thousand euros,” said Heikki Härmä of Kallioluoma Reindeer Owners Association.
Despite the losses, few businessmen currently operate small ‘minicopters’. The sector is expected to explode over the next few years. The devices are especially suited to aerial filming.
Other parties are also interested in the object; both filmmakers and the police have shown an interest.
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Humans are able to see light with wavelengths ranging from around 700 nanometres (nm), which corresponds to the colour red, right through all the colours of the rainbow in sequence to 400nm, which corresponds to violet. Professor Jeffery and his team tested the reindeer’s vision to see what wavelengths they could see and found that they can handle wavelengths down to around 350–320nm, which is termed ultraviolet, because it exceeds the extreme of the so-called visible spectrum of colours.
The research also raises the question of how reindeer protect their eyes from being damaged by UV, which is thought to be harmful to human vision.
coloration year round.
The Arctic Char (Salvelinus alpinus (L.)) is the most northern distributed freshwater fish, and part of the small group of salmonid fishes (i.e., salmons, trouts, whitefishes). Chars are a significant component of aquatic and near shore marine ecosystems in the Arctic. Often the only freshwater fish available, they play a major role for the subsistence of local people who fish returning upstream migrants of sea-run char in late summer and early autumn. Arctic Chars are threatened by a wide range of impacts ranging from local exploitation and habitat fragmentation and degradation mostly through oil and gas development, to widespread and pervasive impacts such as climate change and atmospheric contaminant deposition. Moreover, pervasive threats such as climate change affect Arctic aquatic ecosystems in a dramatic way, clearly having a huge impact on its most sensitive ecosystem components. Yet, many aspects of ecological roles of chars are still unknown at present for most northern ecosystems. Clearly, the integrity and continued health and viability of northern aquatic ecosystems are intimately connected to the biodiversity of chars present in those systems.
Arctic habitats and are an extremely valuable component of Arctic biodiversity and cultural identity of many northern peoples. Caribous are the only member of the deer family where both males and females grow antlers. Pregnant females will retain their antlers until after calving, allowing them to dominate the social hierarchy in late winter. During deep snow years, caribou will move in search of more favorable snow conditions, as more energy is expended digging to the lichens than is derived from feeding. Reindeer and Caribou are a vulnerable yet crucial source of income from Arctic terrestrial ecosystems for northern peoples. Close monitoring of these wild and domestic Rangifer populations is vital in assessing the impact of climate change.
Gray wolves (Canis lupus arctos) currently number about 150,000 worldwide. Some 80% live in the circumpolar countries, although the number actually living in the Arctic is unknown. Canada has the most wolves of any arctic country, with some 50,000 to 63,000 animals inhabiting about 86% of their historical range. About 16,000 of the wolves live north of 60°N. Most of these Arctic populations are considered stable and not at risk. While wolves are abundant in Alaska, northern Canada, and Russia, local overharvests may occur. Habitat loss continues to be a concern for wolf conservation, especially in areas with recovering wolf populations. Wolves are regarded by many as a nuisance species, hampering thus management and recovery plans. The challenge continues to be the development and public acceptance of a flexible conservation plan that accommodates wolves in wilderness, but allows for local conflict management.
spite of an early discovery the Ivory Gull still remains one of the most poorly known seabird species in the world. There is growing concern in the circumpolar Arctic that the Ivory Gull may be in decline. The most recent information on population trend of Ivory Gulls exists for Canada, Svalbard and Russia. In Canada, the Ivory Gull has a highly restricted range, breeding exclusively in Nunavut Territory. Recent surveys in Svalbard suggest that only a few of the known colonies are still being used there and that the total population is smaller than previously estimated. Information obtained currently on Russian breeding grounds indicate stable populations breeding at some key colonies, although considerable annual fluctuations in numbers of breeding birds occurs. The Ivory Gull has been protected in West Greenland since 1977 under the Greenland Home Rule Order of 5 May 1988 concerning the protection of birds in Greenland. In Svalbard, it has been protected since 1978, under the Svalbard Environmental Protection Act. In Russia, it was listed in the Red Data Book of the USSR (1984) and now is registered as a Category 3 (Rare) species in the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation.