The context of an emerging predation problem: Nenets reindeer herders and Arctic foxes in Yamal

Abstract

Human-wildlife problems often arise when predators kill livestock. This can develop into serious conflicts between traditional pastoralists and other stakeholders, such as government officials and conservationists. In the Yamal Peninsula (Russia), nearly half of the indigenous Nenets people are reindeer herders. They have recently faced many challenges, such as high mortality of reindeer from pasture icing or disease outbreaks. In addition, predation of arctic fox on reindeer calves is perceived as an increasing problem. Here, we use an interdisciplinary approach to study this emerging predation problem. We present here results from semi-structured interviews with indigenous people, as well as from biological monitoring of fox populations. Our field data were obtained in Erkuta, in the south of Yamal and in Sabetta in the north, close to a newly built industrial settlement. We show how different factors may have come together to create a problematic situation. These factors include the abandonment of the fur trade in the 1990s, the building of huge industrial facilities providing possible resource subsidies and the increasing frequency of abnormal weather events leading to weak reindeer, high reindeer mortality and abundant carcasses as resources for predators. We discuss how each of these factors affects the abundance of predators as well as the understanding of the herders.