Sentences with phrase «lemming populations»

Lemmings bred fastest at high altitudes thanks to longer - lasting snow — but rising temperatures could see these snow - covered areas shrink, fragmenting lemming populations, says Ims.

High lemming populations improve breeding success, and irruptions typically consist mostly of hatch - year birds (ones born this year).

Lol, well actually it is sad — the lemming population continues to grow.

However, Norman Smith, sanctuary director of Blue Hills Trailside Museum and lead of Mass Audubon's Snowy Owl Project says that we actually see the most snowy owls in New England after an Arctic lemming population boom, not bust.

Rolf Ims and colleagues at the University of Tromsø trapped Norway lemmings and grey red - backed voles at 109 locations in north - east Norway to monitor population changes before, during and after a lemming population outbreak.

LEMMING population explosions may be powered by their ability to breed through the long, dark Arctic winters.

The most obvious idea is that the lemming population gets so big there isn't enough food for everyone, so every four years most of the lemmings starve to death.

The problem is that we don't know how much damage the predators do during winter, when the lemming population grows fastest, as, unsurprisingly, researchers do most of their field studies in the summer.

This year seemed like a perfect opportunity for the brant population to thrive but the only problem was that this fortuitous weather cycle also coincided with a dramatic drop in the lemming population which cycles every 3 - 4 years and which are the other main food source of the Arctic fox.

Not exact matches

As the winter went on, the population of lemmings living under the snow at each site rose, while vole populations fell.

This suggests the lemmings» huge outbreaks are largely driven by their winter behaviour, rather than external factors like food supply or predators, which should have had a similar impact on vole populations.

For example, the thinning ice is driving melt ponds in the Arctic and promoting phytoplankton blooms under the ice; the warming is also altering population dynamics among lemmings, with, in some locations, dire effects on their predators, such as the Arctic fox.

Infanticide could contribute to the lemming cycles because higher population densities will mean more encounters between females and their pups and unfamiliar males — who are liable to attack the pups.

Once there are enough of them, they will gorge themselves on lemmings, slashing the population.

Killing yourself for the good of the population is a selfless act, and any lemmings that selfishly refrained from suicide would outcompete their nobler neighbours.

«Frequently, students want to «fill in some gaps,» such as working with a different age group or population than they worked with in their previous placement,» Lem says.

Dr. Lem will be completing her MSW in July, adding to her knowledge of and direct experience with vulnerable and at - risk populations with pets.