Nuuk Nuuk arrives on your left before you see the city. Icebergs come first, drifting south along the fjord, followed by the dark outline of Sermitsiaq Mountain, then the scatter of red, blue, and yellow houses along the waterfront. Greenland’s capital has...
Musk Ox Standing at the edge of the Greenlandic tundra, a musk ox herd looks like something from a different era. Their coats hang almost to the ground. Their horns sweep down and curve back up in a single arc. When something startles them, the adults form a tight...
Brünnich’s Guillemot If a penguin could fly, it might look something like Brünnich’s guillemot. This Arctic seabird, named after a Danish zoologist, nests in crowded cliff colonies. On the water, you may spot it diving for Arctic cod or squid. Brünnich’s...
Ringed Seal Almost everything in the Arctic food web eventually traces back to the ringed seal. Polar bears patrol the ice for it. Arctic foxes trail polar bears waiting for the scraps. Even orcas push into ice-choked fjords to hunt it. On a Svalbard expedition, you...
Ilulissat The icebergs here are not a backdrop. Sermeq Kujalleq, the glacier feeding the Ilulissat Icefjord, is the most productive in the Northern Hemisphere. It calves ice directly into the fjord, producing bergs that drift past the town’s red and yellow...
Dunlin On the tundra wetlands of Svalbard and Iceland, you might catch a flash of movement near the waterline. Small, restless, and remarkably fast, the dunlin is easy to overlook until you watch it work. It probes the mud with a slightly downcurved beak, reading...
Rock Ptarmigan On the upland plateau above Longyearbyen, or across the rocky flats near Kangerlussuaq, the trick is to stop moving and look carefully at the ground. What appears to be a scatter of pale stones will occasionally shift. The rock ptarmigan is one of the...
Svalbard Reindeer Svalbard Reindeer Quick Overview Scientific Name Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus Population Estimated at 10,000-22,000 in Svalbard Regions Arctic tundra, primarily in Svalbard Destinations Svalbard (Nordenskiöld Land, Edgeøya, Barentsøya, and other...
Polar Bear Polar Bear Quick Overview Scientific Name Ursus maritimus Population Estimated at 22,000-31,000 globally (IUCN) Regions Arctic, Europe, North America Destinations Jan Mayen, Iceland, Canada, Svalbard, Greenland, Norway, Russia, Alaska (USA) Average Length...
Walrus Walrus Quick Overview Scientific Name Odobenus rosmarus Population Estimated at 225,000 globally, of which about 20,000 live in the Northern Atlantic. Regions Arctic Ocean (primary habitat), North Atlantic Ocean (for Atlantic walruses), North Pacific Ocean (for...
