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 First hare contact -- David Gray holding a young Arctic hare at Bathurst Island (now in Nunavut) in 1968.
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David Gray looking for hares on Rabbit Island, Nunavut, in 2004. |
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The Research
Project
The Researcher | The Research Team The Researcher
Dr. David Gray is a biologist, historian, writer, photographer,
and curator whose love of the Arctic has led him to study
birds and mammals in Canada's High Arctic since 1968. His
work focussed on the behaviour of Arctic hare, muskoxen (Ovibos
moschatus), Arctic wolves (Canis
lupus) and Red-throated
Loons (Gavia stellata). David spent a year at Polar Bear
Pass on Bathurst Island in 1970-71 during his studies of
muskox behaviour.
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David Gray using a spotting scope to look for summer hares at Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. |
David planned and carried out the research project on the behaviour
of Arctic hares that is the basis for this Web site. Between 1985 and
1992 he made seven research trips to Sverdrup Pass on Ellesmere Island
and two to Bathurst Island (both islands are now in Nunavut). In 2004
he went to Rankin Inlet in Nunavut and to Newfoundland and Labrador.
His writing projects include reports on Peary caribou (Rangifer
tarandus pearyi), wolves, three northern national
parks and Arctic history. Among his books, two focus on the
Arctic:
The Muskoxen of Polar Bear Pass, and Alert:
Beyond the Inuit Lands. He curated an exhibition at the Canadian Museum of
Civilization called Glass Works: The
Story of Glass and Glass-making in Canada. David researched and wrote the content for three
Web sites, one of which, like Ukaliq: The Arctic Hare, concerns
the Arctic: Northern
People, Northern Knowledge: The Story of the Canadian Arctic
Expedition 1913-1918.
More than 130 of David's photographs have been published
in books, magazines and on the Internet. He was the scientific
advisor for five TV films on Arctic wildlife and his movie
and video footage of Arctic wildlife has been used in films
and museum exhibitions.
A research scientist with the Canadian Museum of Nature
for 21 years, until 1994, David is now an independent researcher
and a Research Associate at both the Canadian Museum of Civilization
and the Canadian Museum of Nature. He was elected as a Fellow
of the Arctic Institute of North America in 1991.
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David Gill is about to release Blue Bun, the greedy Arctic hare, from the live-trap, yet again. |
The Research Team
David A. Gill accompanied David Gray as Research Assistant
on almost every hare research trip and shared many exciting
moments of hare-watching and the unique life of a small Arctic
research camp. David Gill also managed the Museum's High
Arctic Research Station at Polar Bear Pass on Bathurst Island
during the course of this study. Others who assisted in the
Arctic hare fieldwork at Sverdrup Pass are Theresa Aniscowizsc
(summer 1986), Connie Downs (summer 1987) and Heather Hamilton
(summers of 1986, 1987, 1989 and 1990).
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