Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

Some of the most valuable research programs in ecology and evolution involve the long-term, individual-based study of wild animal populations. Established in 2007, the Sable Island Horse Project (SIHP) asks fundamental questions of ecology and evolution by tracking the fates of all the approx. 500 horses at Sable Island National Park Reserve, Nova Scotia. The SIHP contributes to a wide range of topics from equine veterinary science and microbiology to animal behaviour, population dynamics, genetics and genomic evolution, and food-web ecology. It is now the largest program of its kind for a wild equid, worldwide. Annually, the program supports a diverse and multi-national contingent of 15+ students and collaborators. But continuance of the SIHP, which depends on a fleet of all-terrain (ATV) and utility vehicles (UTV) to sample horses in summer along the 48 km-long island's beaches, is jeopardized by the 2023 loss of a multi-passenger UTV and aging of our two single-passenger ATVs. A delay in acquisition of new field vehicles will certainly compromise the 2024 sampling protocol and reduce the pace of research progress, but also promote inequity in student experience on the island as physical fitness and ability to hike long distances becomes paramount to data collection. Further, lack of a multi-passenger vehicle precludes visiting international students from working on the SIHP, as only individuals with ATV training (widely available in North America but not elsewhere) can act as drivers. I am seeking here to renew our fleet but also take the opportunity to optimize the distribution and use of vehicles along the length of Sable Island to minimize the accumulation of fleet engine hours over time. Using proposed new equipment, I aim to move away from having our team make multiple-vehicle round trips to-and-from Sable Island Main Station as we sample the island. Key to our integrated transportation strategy is the purchase of a ferry vehicle that has heavy towing capacity (a 6-passenger Kawasaki Mule) and an all-aluminum trailer that can travel on the beaches of Sable Island to be parked to store "day-use" ATVs and fuel away from Main Station during the field season. We estimate that trips to sample eastern Sable Island, e.g., which may collectively accumulate 8 hours from round-trips for one UTV and two ATVs, would now incur only 4 hours of total vehicle hours per day (as only the UTV would be making the round trip). Models of vehicles and the trailer have been carefully selected in consideration of the high-salt, high-humidity environment on Sable Island to prolong fleet longevity, e.g., by incorporating aluminum in body design and wheels. Given the increasingly impactful nature of the publications of the SIHP and quality of our training program, funding to allow us to re-imagine our on-island transportation system to continue our long-term field program will prove to be a low-risk but high-reward investment.