Ptarmigan Ptakeover!

Ptarmigan Ptakeover!
Rhiannon Pankratz, a biologist from Yellowknife, has noticed unusually large flocks of Willow Ptarmigans around town:
“Ptarmigan numbers seem really high this year. This is the first year in over a decade that I have seen so many Ptarmigan. They have been trending upwards for the last few years but this year they seem everywhere and in really large flocks.” Due to its far northern range, the Willow Ptarmigan’s population trends can’t be tracked by many programs. Have you seen an abundance of Willow Ptarmigan recently? Be sure to contribute your sightings on eBird: https://ebird.org/canada/home
It was full of them in Northern Quebec as well, literally 10x more than regular years. François Lapointe

Same in our area Northern Quebec… Thousands & so many we can’t even drive fast on the road… My grill is messed up because of them… So many never seen this much in my life… Elders said the same thing. Tommy H. J. Neeposh

4 comments

  1. Could changing climate have allowed them to catch up – or get ahead – on their usual rate of reproduction success?

    Reply

    1. It is possible. A lot of unknowns likely since there is not much attention paid to events in the north. The scale there is vast.

      Reply

  2. Something is missing here: what thing (s) normally exert downward pressure on this population?

    Reply

    1. I am not sure but ruffed grouse and hares are suppressed by chemicals in aspen buds. Something may be similar with ptarmigan.

      The pens attempt to mimic, in 20-meter squares, a curious fact about small Arctic mammals: Their populations change dramatically over time. Lemmings and voles both pulse and crash in three- to five-year cycles. In Utqiaġvik, a community 250 miles northwest of Toolik, Iñupiat Elders remember years so thick with lemmings that people had to actively avoid stepping on them. In other years, Team Vole barely sees a single animal.

      The pen with the multitude of voles simulates a boom year. Even at a glance, the tundra inside the pen was transformed: the sedges pruned, the moss trampled, the blueberries nibbled. Here and there along their runways, the voles have piled sedge clippings six or eight inches high; the conical heaps provide food and shelter through the winter. One runway dead-ends in a trampled oval, vole droppings mounded in the middle. The overall effect is a kind of ramshackle coherence. Look close enough, and the tundra suddenly appears built. And not just on a small scale: Scandinavian researchers have tracked Arctic mammals’ transformation of the landscape in satellite images.

      Maybe some clues here.

      Reply

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