Game animal research platform
The Game animal research platform specializes in diverse fieldwork related to the study of wild game animals. It produces reliable information on the functions and conservation of game animals and natural ecosystems. Its activities and expertise strongly support population monitoring and assessment, as well as various research projects.
Game animal monitoring involves a wide range of official tasks related to population monitoring. In addition, the research platform is involved in several research projects that require diverse expertise in the natural habitats of species.
The group's areas of expertise include live capture of animals (anaesthesia, traps, nets) and tagging with tracking devices (e.g., GPS transmitters), data collection, and compilation and management of counting data (e.g., game triangle, waterfowl, and aerial counts).
The main species groups are deer, large predators, forest birds, and waterfowl. In addition, the expertise also includes annual monitoring of small mammal populations in the field.
In the research platform, the animals' lifestyles, behavior, and movements are monitored and documented in their natural habitat. Fieldwork provides valuable information on species populations and living conditions. For example, research on large predators may include intensive monitoring of their feeding habits, hunting behavior, and hunting frequency. For deer, information is collected on, among other things, mating behavior, calf survival, and predation on animals.
Main tasks
- Monitoring large carnivore populations
- Deer population, aerial surveys
- Forest reindeer population density and movement
- Grey seal counts and monitoring seal population structure
- Waterfowl counts
- Forest game population density (game triangles)
- Vole monitoring
- Reindeer husbandry and grazing resources
- Fieldwork for ecological studies of game species and reindeer
