Fox population spike raises risk of rabies on Nunavik’s Hudson coast: Researcher

More foxes are making their way into some Nunavik villages this winter, bringing with them a growing risk of rabies.

Rabies is endemic in the fox population, meaning it always circulates, said Andreas Schaffhauser-Carpentier, spokesperson for the Nunavik Board of Health and Social Services.

They can transmit the disease to local dogs and “possibly to humans,” he said, adding “everyone should take precautions.”

Fox numbers normally rise and fall in a cyclical pattern every three to five years, said Guillaume Szor, a biologist with Quebec’s Environment Ministry, in a French interview.

The population is up thanks to a couple good years for the animal’s main food source — lemmings, which are small rodents commonly found in the Arctic tundra.

“[The fox population] cycle is tightly linked to the lemming population cycle,” Szor said.

In 2023, a peak in the region’s lemming population was observed near Salluit by a team from the Canadian Museum of Nature.

“When there is an abundance of lemming, foxes profit and will then reproduce a lot more,” said Szor, adding the lemming population remained high in 2024, creating a “double peak.”

The plentiful food source contributed to another season of high birth rates among foxes.

This year, Szor said, the high fox population seems to be concentrated in the western part of Nunavik.

The lemming population is now in decline, while at the same time a lack of sea ice is making it even harder for foxes to find food.

“At this time of year, there is normally a solid ice floe for foxes to profit from seal carcasses and other sea ice resources,” Szor said.

“Now we are in a situation where there is not a lot of food on the land, and there is no access to the sea. From what we have seen, foxes seem to have turned back to the communities” where they are eating food scraps left by humans.

Foxes have been observed from Salluit to areas around mining camps in the middle of Nunavik to Eeyou Istchee in the Cree communities.

“The foxes seem to be on the lookout for food, and we have problems in all coastal communities and mining sites,” said Szor.

The Nunavik health board is working with local organizations and the environment ministry to co-ordinate responses to the high fox population.

Schaffhauser-Carpentier, with the board, provided a list of ways people can protect themselves against rabies:

• Wear gloves and practise good hygiene when handling dead animals;
• Get help immediately if bitten or scratched by a dog, fox or another wild animal;
• Stay away from wild animals, don’t go near foxes especially if they look sick or act strangely;
• Do not let dogs roam freely and without supervision;
• Vaccinate your dogs against rabies.

Rabies is treatable but can be deadly without medical intervention.