THE ADVENTURE

David Gaspard, 27 and Katy Gavrilchuk, 28 were hired as professional wildlife biologists to assist in a long-term monitoring project of Arctic fox on Bylot Island in Nunavut.

They spent 3 months (May to August) camping in different sites within the research area to collect data on fox occurrence, movement patterns, den use, individual life histories, reproductive success, diet, prey abundance, behaviour, and vulnerability of fox dens to climate change.

They were responsible for monitoring fox dens remotely using motion-sensor cameras, capturing and marking foxes for individual recognition, tissue sampling, observing dens to determine adult activity budgets and the number of young, carrying out transect surveys to estimate the abundance of their preferred prey (lemmings), as well as field logistics.

This Arctic Fox research program on Bylot Island is run by Dr. Dominique Berteaux from the Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR).

LITTLE FLY PRODUCTS

"Our favorite LittleFly product is The Bug Cap, a creative and practical cap which we will continue using for many years." 

The Bug Caps were not only useful during there research in the Arctic, but necessary. They lived through a 3-week period in July when the flies and mosquitos were abundant, hungry, and an inconvenient nuisance.

Since the lived outdoors the entire time, they needed to share the environment with these bugs and they were relieved to have their Bug Caps. They served a dual purpose: the visor portion of the cap provided shade for their eyes during the 24h daylight, and the roll-out mesh protected their face and neck from bites.

This was particularly important when they were doing delicate manipulations with the captured foxes which required both hands and their full attention.

To learn more about those two biologists, have a look at their new website Venture Biologists.

Thanks David and Katy for sharing your adventures with LittlFly!