Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 30/99) - Northern trappers living within the treeline can look forward to a bountiful year.

Most trappers are out on the land right now and are difficult to locate, but Billy Archie from the Aklavik Hunters and Trappers Association said that, from all reports, the marten and lynx catches have been high recently.

"We're starting to see more foxes in the community here," he said.

"I saw two right by the Anglican church the other day."

Fox, marten and lynx populations should be high this winter since they fed on last winter's high population of mice, vole and lemming.

"Last year was the biggest (mice and vole) population ever," said Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development ecosystem management biologist Suzanne Carriere.

"I just can't believe how big it was. This year must be less."

Carriere beamed about last year's high numbers as she set out to check 100 small mammal traps set near Kam Lake in Yellowknife.

Other mammal trap areas in the Northwest Territories include one near Tibbitt Lake outside Yellowknife, Norman Wells, Fort Smith, Inuvik, Daring Lake, Fort Liard and Fort Simpson.

In Nunavut, some of the mammal trap areas are in Kugluktuk and Cambridge Bay as well as on Bylot Island near Pond Inlet.

Carriere said that usually about 100 traps are set in areas with different kinds of vegetation in a plot about 250 metres by 100 metres.

Biologists check the traps each day for one week and collect the small mammals that are fatally tempted by the peanut butter and oat bait.

"The real benefit is long term," said Kivilliq regional wildlife biologist, Mitch Campbell, in Arviat.

"You can talk about climate warming and ecological change, but you need data going back 20 years to be able to see changes."

So far, the project has been ongoing for about nine years in most locations.

Campbell said that to study the health of animals at the top of the food chain, like human beings, it is important to monitor the conditions of indicators at the bottom end of the food chain, like vegetation and small mammals.

Outside the treeline, in places like the Kivilliq region, Campbell said the small mammal count was low last year.

In fact, it was the lowest recorded capture index since 1991, after a relative peak in 1997.

In the short term, that could mean a lower catch for Kivilliq trappers.

The area also has many birds of prey, such as falcons, that depend on small mammals.

In the Sahtu, regional wildlife biologist, Alasdair Veitch, said that last year's study was a banner one for both red-back voles and snowshoe hares, both of which are primary prey for martens.

"We do the study in mid-August every year," he said.

"It's important that we do it at the same time to get consistent results."

Equally important is to have an environment such as old growth black spruce boreal forest that is representative of the area -- and to be consistent in using the same location year after year.

Once the small mammals are caught and killed, Carriere stresses that they are still put to use.

"It's not like garbage," she said.

"We don't just throw them out."

First they are sent south to undergo tests for the Hantavirus.

Then, if clean, they are either given to injured birds that people bring in to RWED offices or used in other studies.

The Hantavirus affects some small mammals, usually at people's cabins, Carriere said.

The virus can be fatal in human beings.

The virus is spread when small mammals release feces, which dries and then turns into a powder.

People breathe in the powder from the air, contract the virus and become sick.

"Regardless of whether the catch numbers are high or low, this is an important project," Carriere said.

"It has a rippling effect on other species."