Karelian scientists have implemented extensive work to assess the status of the Arctic fox population in the Kola Peninsula. Prior to the fieldwork, they studied the obliterated archival sources from the 1930s for data on the subject, after which several expeditions to the Polar North took place. The results of this study were published in the international journal of Polar Biology.

“Our research revealed the extremely poor state of the Arctic fox population on the Kola Peninsula. According to our estimates, the current population is likely isolated and consists of no more than a few dozen adults”, – the article declares.

The main threat to this Arctic species today is climate change. In many parts of its Eurasian distribution, the southern limit of the Arctic fox range is progressively moving northwards. Because of global warming, Arctic fox is displaced from its traditional habitats by a stronger competitor – red fox. The past decades have also seen a change in the population dynamics of lemmings, which are prey for this Arctic carnivore.