It’s wonderful to be at the International Arctic Fox Biology Conference at the Universite de Quebec, Rimouski. Every 4 years, researchers and managers interested in this species come together to share their research, discuss existing projects and create new ones. The main theme of this year’s meeting is Fostering International Collaborations.

Arctic foxes, are the central piece of the food web in most Arctic environments and are equipped with unique adaptations to extreme northern conditions. Climate change has multiple impacts on the species, including camouflage mismatch. I’m so happy to be here to share our work on this topic and to learn from others. I have a poster that shows the underlying basis of seasonal color molts and how it can help us to understand whether Arctic foxes will be able to adapt to camouflage mismatch.

Marketa Zimova with her poster. Take a closer look at the poster details.

This morning, Dick Moberg gave a great presentation on the seasonal molt phenology and camouflage mismatch in Swedish blue and white Arctic Fox; work that we have been working on together since 2014 and that he recently published in his thesis.

Dick Moberg giving his presentation

The rest of the Swedish Arctic Fox team also gave excellent presentations on the genetics, behavior and conservation of Scandinavian foxes. You can follow the conference on Facebook and the Swedish Arctic fox project on Twitter and Instagram.

-Marketa Zimova