Browsing by Author "Puljujärvi, Matti"

The effects of reindeer fences on wildlife is known, but less studied phenomenon. The aim of this study was to gather information about collision rate and mortality of grouses, more closely on willow grouse, capercaillie and black grouse, due to reindeer fences. In the study there were 139 kilometres of reindeer fence in six different locations in Lapland, Finland. In two of these locations there were marking treatment of fences with yellow and black plastic tubes with two different densities. In four locations, fences were marked with 50 mm of LPDE plastic stripes in yellow, blue, orange and reflecting aluminium. The study was conducted between May/2014 – June/2015. The fences were patrolled once a month. The observations included dead grouses hanging in the fence or corpses nearby the fence. Also, indirect collision evidence, such as feathers in the fence was included to observations. During the study year 330 collisions were observed. The first two months of observations were removed from the analysis due to uncertainty of the timing of collisions. Also, one of the locations were removed because of unregular patrolling. Therefore, the study consists total of 154 observations. The study included untreated fences as control parts. Depending on the location, 0,3-1,9 collisions per kilometres per year in the control part were observed. Corpses of 73 grouses were found. In 81 cases, collision evidence was found but the grouses were disappeared, and therefore survival or injuries of the grouses could not be confirmed. Based on variance analysis, marking of fences did not reduce collisions. By using QGIS and R, GPS-information of collision points were combined and studied with parameters of site classification, forest height, DTW-moisture index and elevation model, available from open data sources of Natural Resources Institute Finland and National Land Survey of Finland. The effects of the parameters to the collision points were studied within radiuses of 50, 100 and 300 metres. Statistical methods of R and Bayes were used to study interactions of the parameters to the collision risk. The effect of site classification on the collision risk was not as strong as expected. On the other hand, DWT-moisture index predicted increasing collision risk depending on location. Based on Bayes statistics, yellow stripe marking had the greatest likelihood to reduce collision risk and more dense tube marking was more effective to reduce collision than less dense marking. Based on results of this study, reindeer fences are mortality factor for grouses and especially locally reindeer fences can be significant mortality factor. Marking method should be inexpensive, durable to weather conditions, and provably reducing collisions, if applied widely. Advancing tube marking development could be a solution. Based on one-year study it is not possible to get information about year to year fluctuations of grouse population densities and its significance and influence in collision density. Therefore, more long-term studies are required.