POLAR WILDLIFE

ARCTIC CIRCLE

The polar wildlife of the frozen land, in the north and south of our planet, has an amazing number of hardy plants and animals, including the biggest land animal - the polar bear.

In spite of being opposite of each other, the Arctic and Antarctic are the same, a frozen wilderness. They are frozen territories of icy winds, sub-zero temperatures and in darkness most of the year.

The Arctic Circle consists of a thick frozen ice-cover and the ocean is frozen several months.

The North Pole is a land with its ice and snow in the northern region of Scandinavia, Greenland, Canada, Siberia and Alaska.

Summers are short and winters are dark, cold and incredibly long.

The largest land predator of them all is the polar bear. Spending much of its time in the water hunting seals and walruses. He lives  solitary except for the mating season and when the female has cubs. Females spend their winter in dens to give birth.

ARCTIC FOX

Arctic foxes with their thick fur, a short muzzle and small ears are all adapt to preventing heat losses. Arctic foxes live in burrows and come out to hunt or find carrion, rodents, birds, eggs and hares. An Arctic Fox can survive a temperature -50oC. It follows polar bears over the ice and finishes off the left-over of the bear's seal meal.

Ravens are hardy and well-known as crafty; therefore they are often in the far north mythology. Apparently, they have 23 variations of communication.

KILLER WHALES

Killer whales have a diet of fish, seals, other whales and it has also been reported that they eat sometimes polar bears. They hunt in packs in shallow bays and estuaries.

SEALS

The harp seals migrate north in the summer and gather to breed. In the winter they return to give birth on the ice.

Arctic terns winter off the coast of Antarctica. They defend ferociously their eggs and chicks from predators.

BELUGA SPERM WHALES

The Beluga whales are living in family pods. One female with several young one of different ages. The male groups join the females to breed.

WALRUS

Walruses' diet are molluscs and crustaceans which they find in fairly shallow water on the seabed. Their tusks are not only serve as a weapon but also as an ice pick. They are found in big groups and spend their days sleeping on ice.

The bald eagle soars high up in the sky over the ice pack. They always looking for food and peck at carrion, seabirds and fish.

The polar bear's diet consists of ringed seals, walruses and even attack beluga whales straying too far up the shallow river. A female polar bear follows her cub and they are known to travel many kilometres over the ice to find seals. A polar bear also waits near an air hole for a seal to pop up.

Little auks (dovekies) are to be found where there are rich krill stocks. Their other diet is crustaceans, worms and molluscs.

SEA OTTER

Sea Otters nearly driven to extinction but are thriving now because of protection. They feed on sea urchins and molluscs.

The puffins, guillemots, razorbills and little auks are found there in large numbers purely to breed. Many spend the winter at sea.

Few species of fish are found so far north, apart from the Arctic cod, Arctic charr and Arctic cisco. The Inuit people line up fish wrap them up in wet sealskin and freeze them solid. After that they use them as sled runners.

Harp, ringed, harbour and hooded seals are found in large numbers. Their diet is fish, shellfish and squid.

Bowhead whales filter-feed on the high amount of crustaceans which breed to an enormous amount in cold water. Hunting whales eat molluscs, fish and seal.

The leopard seal is one of the most vicious hunter of the Antarctic. Their preferred diet is adelie penguins and he attacks them, thrashes it with all the violence they can master, skins it, and eats the blubber and meat.

The lung-feeding humpback whale puts a ring of bubbles around the krills and then lunges with its mouth open.

Fur seals, southern elephant seals and king penguins live on beaches of the Albatross Island, South Georgia.

Most of the penguins live in the Antarctica. Well equipped for the cold weather which is fur-like-feathers and a fat layer. The emporer and adelie penguins are also great underwater swimmers to catch fish and krill. Albatrosses, upland geese, petrels, skuas, steamer ducks, shags, gulls and shethbills are to be found there in great number.

Due to the high amount of dissolved oxygen in cold water the floating algae is in abundance. Krill eat masses of algae (phytoplankton) and therefore breed in vast quantity. These then again feed seabirds, penguins, fish and even seals and whales.

Crabeater seals are the highest number of seals in the world; they strain krill through specially adapted teeth. Blue whales weigh up to 130 tonnes and eat up to four tones of krill a day. This gives us a very, and I mean a very, vague idea of the enormous amount of krill existing there.

The fur seal, related to the seal lion, has a very thick fur. However, the true seal has a very thin fur but has a blubber layer.

Many fish live near the South Pole, belonging to the family of Antarctic Cods (notothens) but not related to the real cod. Nature equipped them with antifreeze in their body fluid to survive in sea-water down to -2oC

The Northern lights are well known but the Fata Morgana of the North Pole is a lesser known atmospheric phenomenon. This miracle appears when light waves travel through atmospheric layers of different temperatures.

Most of the wildlife is only on the edge of the Antarctic. The nesting birds and seal gather round the shores and beaches. However, few lichens, mosses, mites and springtails survive at the heart of this massive iced continent.

Bottom of Form