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In 1957, the body weight of the reindeer was found to exceed that of reindeer in domestic herds by 24-53 percent among females and 46-61 percent among males. The population also responded to the high quality and quantity of the forage on the island by increasing rapidly due to a high birth rate and low mortality.
Why did the reindeer grow at this rate?
The reindeer population grew at this rate because of the main food source they eat, a plant-based called lichen. According to the story, lichen thrives in the Arctic regions. Hence, the reindeers were able to adapt to the environment
plus, there were no humans hunting them anymore.
What do you think the carrying capacity of this island was for reindeer?
The biologists believed that the carrying capacity of the island could easily support a stable population of 1600-2300 reindeer.
What happened to the reindeer on St. Matthew Island Why?
In 1944, 29 reindeer were introduced to the island by the United States Coast Guard to provide an emergency food source. The Coast Guard abandoned the island a few years later, leaving the reindeer. Subsequently, the reindeer population rose to about 6,000 by 1963 and then died off in the next two years to 42 animals.
What were the limiting factors of the reindeer?
Examples exist of populations where major regulating factors have been climatic extremes, predation, hunting mortality, food limitation, insects, parasites, disease, interspecific competition, and human developmental impacts or combinations of these factors.
Did the reindeer exceed the carrying capacity of the environment?
In the tundra, where both reindeer and wolves live, the numbers of reindeer herds do not exceed the carrying capacity of their environment. In 1944, the United States Coast Guard transported 29 reindeer to St. Matthew Island in the Bering Strait. St.
What wiped out St Matthew Island reindeer?
Matthew Island now. Three scientists just looked back at the St. Matthew’s reindeer herd and found that an extreme winter probably pushed the stressed animals to their deaths. The story began in August 1944, when the U.S. Coast Guard corralled 29 Nunivak Island reindeer on a barge and floated the animals north to St.
Does anyone live on St Matthew Island?
Matthew Island. The small grouping of uninhabited islands is over 300 kilometers across the Bering Sea from the mainland, making it the most remote location in Alaska. Even after the bears were gone, the archipelago remained a difficult place for people.
What is exponential and logistic growth?
Exponential growth is a growth in population wherein the number of individuals increases. This happens even when the rate of growth does not change. As a result, it creates an explosion of the population. Logistic growth entails exponential growth in population along with a growth rate which is in a constant state.
How does the size of the deer population influence the number of wolves on the island?
The population of wolves would follow the decreasing population of deer until 1978 when the deer population began to rise again, resulting in more food sources for the wolves.
Which two factors could increase the carrying capacity of an ecosystem?
Carrying capacity can be increased by the amount of food available, the local extinction of a competitor, an increase in species fertility, a decrease in predation, an increase in the amount of habitat available for use, and adaptations to the environment, such as resistance to disease or adaptations that serve to …
How do limiting factors most affect population size?
Limiting factors are resources or other factors in the environment that can lower the population growth rate. Limiting factors include a low food supply and lack of space. Limiting factors can lower birth rates, increase death rates, or lead to emigration.
What happened to the reindeer between 1963 and 1966?
The 6000 reindeer on St. Matthew Island in summer 1963 were then reduced by 99% to 42 by summer 1966. The evidence suggests that after growing at a high average annual rate of \ = 1.32 for 19 years, the entire die-off occurred in winter 1963—64, making it the largest single-year crash ever recorded in any R.
What is the population of reindeer in the Pribilof Islands?
The pre-winter count of 500 animals is now estimated to be around 125. Islanders rely on a healthy reindeer population to supplement their diets. The history of St. Paul, a remote island located in the Bering Sea, is a difficult one.
Who owns St Matthews island?
St. Matthew is one of three islands that make up the Bering Sea Wildlife Refuge, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USF&
WS).
What is the habitat of reindeer?
They are found in the Arctic tundra and adjacent boreal forests of Greenland, Scandinavia, Russia, Alaska, and Canada.
What is special about reindeer?
Reindeer are the only deer species to have hair completely covering their nose. Their specialized nose helps to warm incoming cold air before it enters their lungs, and it’s also an excellent sniffer. Their good sense of smell helps the reindeer find food hidden under snow, locate danger, and recognize direction.
What are the adaptations of a reindeer?
Cool adaptations
Fur covering a reindeer’s body helps it stay warm in its very cold habitat. Reindeer even have fur on the bottom of their hooves, which helps them keep from slipping on icy ground. Their big, broad hooves also work well as paddles when the animal swims across rivers or lakes.
What caused the population crash?
The decline in U.S. population growth is likely due to a confluence of factors: lower levels of immigration, population aging, and declining fertility rates. A drop in net immigration to the United States is a key factor in the country’s declining population growth rate.
Which is a density independent factor answers?
density-independent factor, also called limiting factor, in ecology, any force that affects the size of a population of living things regardless of the density of the population (the number of individuals per unit area).
What are density dependent factors?
Density-dependent factors include disease, competition, and predation. Density-dependant factors can have either a positive or a negative correlation to population size. With a positive relationship, these limiting factors increase with the size of the population and limit growth as population size increases.
What is the biggest island in Alaska?
The city of Kodiak sits on Kodiak Island, which at 3,670 square miles and more than 100 miles long is Alaska’s largest island and the second-largest island in the United States. Known as the Emerald Isle, Kodiak’s verdant landscape and abundant outdoor opportunities make it a popular choice for nature enthusiasts.
How remote is Alaska?
A location in the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska is 120 miles (190 km) from any town or village, the geographic point most remote from permanent habitation in the United States.
How many islands are in Alaska?
There are 1,800 named islands in the state, 1,000 of which are located in Southeast Alaska.
What is the difference between density-dependent and density independent limiting factors?
Density-dependent limiting factors cause a population’s per capita growth rate to change—typically, to drop—with increasing population density. One example is competition for limited food among members of a population. Density-independent factors affect per capita growth rate independent of population density.
What is density-dependent and density independent?
Summary: 1. Density dependent factors are those that regulate the growth of a population depending on its density while density independent factors are those that regulate population growth without depending on its density.
How does population density differ from population size?
Population size is the actual number of individuals in a population. Population density is a measurement of population size per unit area, i.e., population size divided by total land area. Abundance refers to the relative representation of a species in a particular ecosystem.