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Arctic fox chewing electrical cables

Jeanne Gagnon
Northern News Services
Published Monday, November 14, 2011

IGLULIK
The airport in Iglulik has been under siege by a hungry Arctic fox which has decided the rubber portion covering electrical cables of runway lights is something tasty.

NNSL photo/graphic

The electrical cables for Iglulik's airport runway lights are now covered with aluminized tape because an Arctic fox has been chewing at the rubber portion. - photo courtesy of Shawn Maley

As fall sets in and the food supply dwindles, the Arctic fox likes to chew on the rubber, said Shawn Maley, director of Nunavut airports, speaking from Rankin Inlet. An airport maintainer first noticed fox tracks and bite marks on the cables of about half a dozen airport runway lights in Iglulik about three weeks ago.

"They like to chew on things, especially rubber. If there is an exposed piece of rubber, which the lights have, they're attracted to it," said Maley. "But, you know, this is not out of the ordinary, so when it happens, we

just try to correct it."

Because it's heavy duty rubber, the fox hasn't chewed right through the electrical wire itself but something needed to be done so the fox would not short the light out and get electrocuted in the process, said Maley. All the cabling for the airport runway lights in Iglulik are now wrapped in aluminized tape because foxes

don't like the taste.

"He was working on one side of the runway there. He was chewing away," he said. "We've got the aluminum tape around them now so we don't anticipate this will continue."

He added they've also set up traps to catch the fox.

A similar problem developed in Sanikiluaq last year so the maintainer used Vaseline and Tabasco sauce, which "seemed to do the trick down there," said Maley.

He said he's only heard of Iglulik having the problem this year but did notice Whale Cove has all its airport runway lights cables wrapped in aluminized tape. They had foxes but they didn't stick around, he said.

"This is a normal occurrence this time of year," said Maley. "Generally, it's in the fall time when food supply for the Arctic fox generally is not as abundant as it is in the summer time."

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