Reindeer and the quest for Scottish enlichenment
Abstract
In the hall of animal oddities, the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) is the only mammal with a color-shifting tapetum lucidum and the only ruminant with a lichen-dominated diet. These puzzling traits coexist with yet another enigma––ocular media that transmit up to 60% of ultraviolet (UV) light, enough to excite the cones responsible for color vision. It is unclear why any day-active circum-Arctic mammal would benefit from UV visual sensitivity, but it could improve detection of UV-absorbing lichens against a background of UV-reflecting snows, especially during the extended twilight hours of winter. To explore this idea and advance our understanding of reindeer visual ecology, we recorded the reflectance spectra of several ground-growing (terricolous), shrubby (fruticose) lichens in the diets of reindeer living in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland.
Citation
Dominy , N J , Hobaiter , C & Harris , J M 2023 , ' Reindeer and the quest for Scottish enlichenment ' , i-Perception , vol. 14 , no. 6 . https://doi.org/10.1177/20416695231218520
Publication
i-Perception
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2041-6695Type
Journal article
Description
Funding Information: The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Data were collected with funding from the Goodman Fund, Dartmouth College and the Global Fellowship Scheme, University of St Andrews.Collections
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