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Reindeer of ST Matthew Data Activity

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106 views

Reindeer of ST Matthew Data Activity

Uploaded by

lingenlwane
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Reindeer of St.

Matthew Island
Introduction
Every ecosystem has a carrying capacity for each of the organisms in it. Carrying capacity is defined as the
number of individuals within a species that the ecosystem can support over the long-term. When a population grows
so quickly that it exceeds the carrying capacity, an overshoot occurs. This can be disastrous, as a lack of resources
will lead to wide-spread death due to starvation or disease. The resulting drop in population is called a dieback.
This activity will show you one famous example of a population that overshot its carrying capacity.

The Story
In August of 1944, the United States coast guard captured and transported 29 reindeer from Nunivak Island and
floated them 200 miles north on a barge to St. Matthew Island. This island is one of the most remote places in
Alaska. The Coast Guard had a small manned station here, and the reindeer herd was intended to be a food source.
The only potential predator for the reindeer on this island was Arctic fox, which are too small to kill anything but
newly born reindeer calves.

Locate St. Matthew Island (60.4°N, 172.7°W) and Nunivak Island (60.4°N, 166.1°W) on this map. Draw an arrow
to show the movement of the reindeer on the barge.

Environmental Science Teaching Resources http://www.aurumscience.com 1


The reindeer primarily used lichen as a food source. Lichen is a combination of a fungus and an algae that live in a
mutualistic relationship. Lichen grow very slowly in Arctic regions such as this. World War II ended soon after the
reindeer were introduced, so none of them were ever actually hunted by the Coast Guard officers. The island was
abandoned by humans, and the deer were left without any predators. In these conditions, their population thrived.

A biologist working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began making regular visits to the island. In 1957 he
counted 1,350 reindeer. He also noted that many of the lichen patches appeared trampled and barren.

Graph the reindeer population from 1944-1963.

The biologist noted the population continued to rise, but the health of the herd seemed to be decreasing. Finally,
when he returned to the island again in 1966, he observed only 42 remaining reindeer. The island was covered with
thousands of skeletons. Add this data to the graph above.

Of the 42 remaining reindeer, only one was male. The male was observed t o have irregularly shaped antlers, and
probably had some sort of genetic defect. By 1967, the reindeer were completely absent from the island. Add this
data to the graph above.

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Analysis
1. Based on the graph above, state the type of reindeer population growth.
The reindeer population demonstrates an exponential growth pattern initially, followed by a
population crash (dieback). This is typical of species introduced to environments with abundant
resources and no predators.

2. Suggest why the reindeer grow at this rate


The rapid growth is due to ideal conditions—an abundant food supply (lichen), no natural
predators, and favorable environmental conditions, allowing the population to expand unchecked.

3. Based on the graph above, suggest the carrying capacity. Explain how you came to this answer.
The carrying capacity is around 4,000 to 5,000 reindeer, as indicated by the population stabilizing
briefly before the crash. This estimation is based on when the population peaks at 6000 deer there is
a sudden crash, which suggest that the population had already exceeded or overshot the carrying
capacity.

4. Refer to your graph and describe the effect of environmental resistance / limiting factors on the population
growth at the time of reindeer dieback.
Environmental resistance, particularly food depletion (overconsumption of lichen), caused the
population to collapse. The lack of food led to starvation, compounded by harsh winters, which
further increased mortality.

5. Explain why it is bad for a population to overshoot the carrying capacity of an ecosystem.
Overshooting the carrying capacity depletes resources to the point where they cannot regenerate, leading
to irreversible damage to the ecosystem. This causes starvation, habitat degradation, and often a
population crash, as seen with the reindeer.

6. Environmental resistance / Limiting factors can be classified in two broad categories – density-
dependent factors and density-independent factors. Based on your graph, explain which category
you think is impacting the reindeer population.
Density-dependent factors: Resource competition (lichen depletion) as the population increased.

Density-independent factors: Harsh winters (blizzards), which further exacerbated food scarcity and survival.

7. If the Coast Guard were to try this again on a similar island, suggest changes they could make to prevent the
same outcome
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Introduce natural predators to regulate the reindeer population.

Provide additonal sustenance during harsh conditions

Asessing carrying capacity before the introduced species

8. Critics of this story will argue that one of the factors that contributed to the population crash of the reindeer
was a severe winter that created snow too deep for many of the reindeer to dig through for food. Does this
mean the reindeer would not have experienced a dieback if not for the blizzard? How does this new
information change your perspective on this event? Justify your answer.

No, I think the reindeer would likely have experienced dieback even without the blizzard. While the
harsh winter accelerated the crash, the population had already overshot the carrying capacity, depleting
food sources (lichen). This suggests the ecosystem was not sustainable no more. The blizzard acts as a
density-independent factor but was not the sole cause of the collapse—it simply quickened the
inevitable. This highlights how unchecked population growth and resource mismanagement can lead to
ecological imbalance.

Page 4

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