On the Marginal Value of Swimming in Woodland Caribou

Authors
Quinn Webber
Jack Hendrix
Alec Robitaille
Eric Vanderwal
Resource Date:
2021
Page Length
4

During fieldwork on 30 May 2017, we observed an unmarked adult male caribou swim between two smaller islands, a distance of 470 m, which took approximately 9 minutes. Given that swimming is energetically expensive, we ask how often do caribou swim between islands, how long do they occupy islands, and ultimately what motivates swimming? Here, we frame swimming and island residency as a model of patch use as described by the marginal value theorem within the context of the forage limitation hypothesis.