ИСТИНА

The arctic fox population on Bering Island is one of two ancient endemic arctic fox subspecies on Commander Islands. Although there was no population crash like in the case of arctic foxes on neighboring Medny Island, similar risks in both populations exist, and monitoring the Bering population is needed. Currently such monitoring is performed in two ways: springtime counting of individuals and summertime counting of litters. Springtime counting has been conducted more or less regularly since 1995, but the most complete and representative data was collected in 2013-2016. The litters were counted in 2009, 2012-2014 and 2016. The litters monitoring throughout the island was performed in 2014. There was no stable trend towards population decline or growth in the last few years. The total population is estimated at about 400-600 adults, with minor annual fluctuations. Total number of litters was estimated at about 90-100 in 2014, near the same number in 2009, 2013 and 2016, but only half of this in 2012, presumably due to weather conditions of that year. This is a typical coastal arctic fox population without drastic fluctuations because of abundant and stable food sources. On the other hand, some facts speak in favor of a population decrease that could have taken place in the last 25 years. For instance, litter density in 1991 and 1992 was estimated twice higher than compared to our data. Therefore it is necessary to continue with annual monitoring of the population and of state of the environment.