What are Some Arctic Animals?

Animals living in the Arctic mainly include inhabited animals in the Arctic Tundra and marine animals in the Arctic Ocean. Among them are whales and polar bears. As the global temperature rises, the ice floes in the Arctic gradually begin to melt, and the homes of the polar bears have been damaged to some extent. They may soon become extinct in the future and need human protection.

Arctic animals

Arctic

The frozen ocean itself is a different world, and the setting sun in winter is faint

Unlike the Antarctic continent, life in the Arctic is very active. There are 900 kinds of flowering plants, there are

Arctic fox

Thousands of caribou, musk ox, and arctic rabbits, with 1500 lemmings per hectare during peak years. One sixth of all birds in the northern hemisphere breed offspring in the Arctic, and at least 12 species of birds winter in the Arctic. Grizzly bears, arctic foxes, and arctic wolves roam the tundra meadows, and grayling, northern pike, gray trout, herring, courgette, long cod, white fish, and arctic salmon play in rivers and lakes. There are various seals, walruses, horn whales, beluga whales, and polar bears and polar rabbits in the vast waters of the Arctic Ocean. In addition, the most important thing is that the Arctic region has at least 10,000 years of local residents-Eskimo, Chukchi, Yakut, Ewenki and Lapp.

Arctic animals cetaceans

There are only 6 species of cetaceans in the Arctic waters, and the number is far less than that of Nanda

Beluga

Ocean, but the horned and beluga whales in the Arctic Ocean are the most precious species of cetaceans in the world. The horned whale is 6 meters in length, and the male palate grows one or two 2.4 to 2.7 meters straight spiral long horns forward, similar to the spear of a medieval heavy knight. It has not been clear what useful this horned horned whale is in life, but it is clear that this horned horn once had the same price as gold on the market. The fate of the horned whale is self-evident, and it has been regarded as an endangered animal.

Beluga

It belongs to the family Dolphin, with white body and 3.7 to 4.3 meters in length. It has been difficult to find them.

Greenland whale

The largest whale in the Arctic is the Greenland whale, which is 20 to 22 meters long and weighs 150 tons. Newborn whale is generally three or four meters long and weighs about two tons. The mother whale cares for its children. When it is in danger, it protects the baby whale with its own body, and furiously blocks the attack of the whaling ship.

Narwhal

An arctic whale, smaller in size and strange in appearance, is only 4 to 5 meters long and weighs about 900 to 1,500 kilograms. Its shape is very strange, with an angle of about 1 to 2 meters on its head. Local residents have given it a nickname, called it Unicorn. In fact, the horn of a narwhal is not a horn, but a big tooth. Some people call it a whale. People have studied the physiological effects of a long-toothed whale in particular on odd-length teeth for hundreds of years.

Arctic animal polar bear

Polar bears are the largest terrestrial carnivores in the world, also known as white bears. According to zoology, it belongs to mammals, bear family. Male polar bears are about 240-350 cm in length and generally weigh 400-900 kg, while female polar bears are about half smaller than males, about 190-325 cm in length, and weigh 200-500 kg. Adult polar bears stand up to 3.3 meters in height and weigh up to 800 kilograms. Before the winter time for sleep, due to the accumulation of fat in large quantities, their weight can reach 1000 kg. Polar bears have the same vision and hearing as humans, but their sense of smell is extremely sensitive, which is 7 times that of dogs. The fastest speed is 60km / h when running, and they can swim 97 kilometers away at a speed of 10 kilometers per hour at sea. Bear paws can be up to 30 cm wide and bear claws can exceed 10 cm.

Polar bear

Polar bears have longer heads and smaller faces than brown bears, smaller and rounder ears, slender necks, wider feet, hairy palms, and black skin. The polar bear's hair is a colorless transparent hollow tube, but its skin is black. We can see the original skin from the dark skin around their noses, paw pads, lips, and around the eyes. Dark skin helps absorb heat, which is another great way to keep warm.

The polar bear is the most representative and symbolic animal of the Arctic. The polar bear is currently the largest bear family in the world and the largest land predator. But Kodiak brown bears are just a subspecies of brown bears, not a separate species. Therefore, polar bears are still the largest terrestrial carnivores.

Polar bears are carnivores, and 98% of their food is meat. They mainly prey on seals, especially ringed seals. In addition, they also capture walruses, beluga whales, seabirds, fish, mammals, and sometimes carrion. In summer they occasionally eat berries or plant roots. At the end of spring and summer, they will go to the seaside to pick up seaweed to supplement the minerals and vitamins needed by the body. Because polar bears store a large amount of vitamin A in their livers, their livers are also toxic.

Polar bears are different from other bears. They do not hibernate because they are adapted to cold weather. Their white fur is the same color as snow and ice, which is easy to camouflage, and it is thick and waterproof. The fatty layer under the skin keeps you warm. Except for the nose, feet, and small paw pads, every part of the polar bear's body is covered with fur. Hairy soles help increase friction without slipping when walking on ice. Of course, you won't be afraid of the cold and can even walk for several minutes in ice water. They have a strong sense of smell and can capture odors of 1 km in a circle or 1 m under ice and snow. But because the water in the Arctic is either frozen or too salty to drink, the main liquid source for polar bears is the blood of its prey.

The polar bear is a natural swimmer. It has a streamlined shape and is good at swimming. The bear's paw is as wide as a scull. Therefore, in the cold waters of the Arctic Ocean, it can use its two front legs to stride forward and the hind legs to join together. The forward direction plays the role of a rudder, and you can swim forty or fifty kilometers in one breath. Polar bears often travel thousands of kilometers for food, and when they are tired, they rest on ice floes.

ancestor

Their ancestors were Irish brown bears, which differentiated from brown bears in the Late Pleistocene about 20,000 years ago. It is one of the top carnivores in the world today. Body length 270cm (230-330), average weight 550kg (350-1200kg), shoulder height 115-180cm, is the largest existing terrestrial mammalian carnivorous animal, generally male 450-650kg, larger individuals use hind legs When standing upright, it is more than 3.5 meters high and can look down at the elephant.

The largest polar bear with strong evidence is a male, shot in northwestern Alaska in the US in 1960, standing 3.9 meters tall, 3.3 meters long, 180 cm high at the shoulder, and weighing 1002 kg (2210 pounds). In addition, there are hunting records of 1100kg and 1200kg, but they have not been recognized by the authority.

White bears are distributed in the northern three countries of northern Europe, northern Russia, northern Alaska, northern Canada and Greenland, and inhabit the coasts or islands near the Arctic. Living alone, often drifting with ice floes. Ferocious, quick-moving, good at swimming, diving. Feeds on seals, fish and birds, walruses, carrion, tundra plants, etc.

Polar bear fur

The hair of polar bears is very special. Their hair is a hollow tube. It looks white due to the refraction and scattering of light, and it turns into a white protective color. These small tubes turn beautiful golden yellow under the sun, and when it is cloudy or cloudy, the capillaries refract and reflect less light, and people will see white polar bears. These small tubes are very important. They are a natural tool for polar bears to collect heat. Such a structure can reflect sunlight to the black skin under the hair and help absorb more heat. With it, polar bears can withstand the severe cold of the Arctic. However, this claim has been rejected by new research.

There are also views that:

1. The white color of the fur plays a protective role, because the surrounding environment is also white, and it will be different if it is in another environment.

2. Hollow fur is waterproof and thermally insulated, so polar bears can live in cold polar regions.

3. The "white" seen by human eyes is formed by the rough and uneven inner surface of the hair, which refracts the light very messily.

4. American scientist Malim Henry has set out to study this wonderful phenomenon of polar bears. He looked at the polar bear's white hair through a scanning electron microscope. Unexpectedly, it didn't matter that Henry was surprised to find that the polar bear's hair was not white, but a small, colorless, transparent tube. This kind of hair is like a piece of quartz fiber, but it is actually a small hollow light pipe. Only ultraviolet rays can pass through. This is the "tool" for the polar bear to capture the temperature. As for human eyes, when the polar bear's fur color appears "white", it is because the inner surface of the fur is rough and uneven, refracting the light very messily, and each hair can scatter the incoming sunlight, making the fur It looks white. In addition, the thick layer of fat under the skin further isolates the severe cold from the outside of the body.

Arctic animals

The polar bear's hair is not changed to a dark summer dress like other Arctic animals in summer, but may also slightly turn yellow due to oxidation. In July 2005, at the Brookfield Zoo near Chicago, the hair of several polar bears turned green! It turned out that Chicago was experiencing severe heat that year. Humidity and dry heat alternated. The hot and humid climate made algae joyfully. They took the opportunity to penetrate the hollow hair of the polar bear, so they dyed the polar bear's hair green ... The polar bear's front claws are very wide. They swim like sculls and grasp the direction of forward movement. The four claw pads have thick hair, which not only helps to keep warm, but also facilitates their walking on the ice. .

about to extinct

Due to rising global temperatures, the Arctic ice has gradually begun to melt, and the homes of polar bears have been damaged to a certain extent, and their prey has been reduced accordingly. In addition, even if the swimming skills are excellent, they cannot stay in the sea for a long time. Increasingly wide seas have increased the danger of their abuse. The future of polar bears may have to rely on the need for more human protection.

"Geological Survey of the United States" magazine predicted in a report that due to global warming and melting of the Arctic ice, the number of polar bears on the planet may be reduced by two-thirds by 2050, and polar bears in Alaska will be extinct. The US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed in January 2007 that polar bears be protected under the Endangered Species Act. Polar bears rely on the ice to hunt seals for platforms. It is believed that global climate change has caused the ice to melt, severely endangering polar bear habitats.

In 2004, American scientists discovered four drowned polar bears in Beaufort Bay. As a well-known superb swimmer and a pedestrian who travels on the ice all day, the drowning incident is obviously a "mockering" of polar bears.

The drowning of polar bears was incredible at the time. However, it is not uncommon that in 2006, Julian Doddswell, head of the Skort Arctic Institute in the United Kingdom, said that two drowning polar bears had been found. "I saw two polar bears on the sea east of the Svalbard (which belongs to Norway, only about 1,000 kilometers from the Arctic.), One looks dead and the other is dying," she said. Using ice floes at the edge of the ice sheet for predation, Dodswell said the two polar bears had previously stood on an ice floe, but melting ice drowned them.

The words of witnesses may not be enough to bring a shocking effect. In 2008, scientists discovered and photographed nine polar bears struggling in the sea water on the northwest coast of Alaska in the United States.

The nine polar bears were discovered by scientists from the U.S. Minerals Administration while they were conducting a marine survey by helicopter in the Chukchi Sea northwest of Alaska. Scientists found that the nine polar bears were swimming in an open sea at the time, the furthest one was 60 miles from the coast. Scientists have analyzed that polar bears may have drifted over a piece of ice floe and are now swimming to land or to another sea ice. Satellite images show that almost all of the sea ice in this area has disappeared. This means that these polar bears also face the threat of drowning.

Scientists attribute the drowning of polar bears to the retreat of the Arctic ice sheet-sea ice on the Alaska coast has retreated 260 kilometers north, which means that polar bears must swim a considerable distance to find strong ice.

Polar bears are not aquatic animals. Their home is on sea ice. Under normal circumstances, it is possible for polar bears to swim for four or fifty kilometers, but if they swim 50 to 100 kilometers, they may be difficult to land safely, and there is also the danger of drowning. Therefore, polar bears who are good at swimming are also drowned because the ice in the sea is longer than their swimming ability. In addition, the long sea foraging route has led to their exhaustion, lowered body temperature, and relatively weak resistance. If they encounter strong winds and waves at sea, they can easily be drowned in the sea.

Scientists believe that drowning of polar bears like this is common in the Arctic, as the number of polar bears forced to seek food over the long distance has increased significantly as the Arctic ice has continued to melt. If the ice in the Arctic further melts in the future, such polar bear deaths may increase.

The hunting of polar bears is strictly controlled. The Arctic indigenous people, the Inuit, still kill a small number of polar bears every year. They made clothes from polar bear fur. Except for its toxic liver that is too high in vitamin A, everything else will be eaten.

Arctic animal Arctic fox

(Scientific name Alopex lagopus ) belongs to the Arctic fox genus of the Canidae family. Alias Blue Fox or White Fox . The fur of arctic foxes is a top-selling commodity in the international fur market, so arctic foxes have become targets for hunting.

The arctic fox has a narrow frontal face, a pointed snout, short and round ears, and hair growing on the back of the cheek and densely growing hair on the bottom of the foot. Therefore, it is suitable for walking on snow and ice. The fur of the arctic fox is long, soft, and thick, so the arctic fox can endure the severe cold. In winter, the fur color is pure snow-white, with only a hairless nose and black tail, which gradually changes to green-grey from spring to summer, which is called "blue fox".

The male Arctic fox has a body length of about 55 cm, a tail length of 31 cm, and a weight of 3.8 kg; the female is 53 cm, 30 cm, and 3.1 kg. Shoulder height is between 25-30 cm.

Food for arctic foxes includes lemmings, fish, birds and bird eggs, berries and

Arctic Bird

Arctic animals (20 photos)

, Sometimes also roaming the coast to catch shellfish, but the staple food of arctic foxes is still lemmings. When the Arctic fox smells the lemming nest or hears the scream of the lemming in the lemming nest, it will quickly dig the lemming nest under the snow. Jump up, use the force of the jump to collapse the lemming nest with your legs, and then smash the lemming in the nest. Under extreme starvation, Arctic foxes will attack each other.

Arctic foxes are distributed in the coastal areas of the Arctic Ocean and tundra areas on some islands, and can live on ice fields at minus 50 ° C. Arctic foxes like to nest in hilly areas, and there are several entrances to the arctic fox's nest. When encountering a blizzard, the Arctic fox can stay in the nest for several days without coming out. The Arctic fox does some repairs and expansions to its nest every year so that it can live long-term. In summer, when food is abundant, the Arctic fox stores part of its food in its nest. In winter, when the food stored in the nest is exhausted, the white fox will track the polar bear and pick up the leftovers left by the polar bear. So in winter, there will always be 2-3 white foxes tracking quietly behind the polar bear. But when a polar bear is very hungry, it also attacks the arctic fox.

After mating, adult arctic foxes will form a family. Male arctic foxes will find food. When arctic foxes are attacked by hungry polar bears, families that lose male foxes will find another place to live or trust other arctic foxes. Many arctic foxes Fox cubs often freeze to death at this time.

Arctic animal arctic wolf

(Scientific name: Canis lupus arctos ), also known as the white wolf , is a mammal of the family Canidae and a subspecies of the gray wolf, distributed in northern Eurasia, northern Canada, and northern Greenland.

Arctic wolves are generally smaller than gray wolves, with tails about 3 to 5 feet long. Adult arctic wolves are only 3 feet tall; males are larger than females. Their shoulders range in height from 25 to 31 inches; Arctic wolves typically weigh more than 100 pounds, and a mature male can even weigh up to 175 pounds. There was once an Arctic wolf that was raised by humans with a lifespan of 18 years; but in general, the Arctic wolf in the wild lives only 7 to 10 years.

Like all wolves, Arctic wolves are a group of collective hunters, usually in groups of 5 to 10; they mostly prey on reindeer and musk ox, but they also kill arctic rabbits, lemmings, moose, fish, walruses And other animals, sometimes even attack humans.

In winter, they also hunt red deer, because in the winter, the red deer's long legs will be trapped in the thick snow, giving the arctic wolf a great ride, and it is easy to hunt the world's largest land. One of the raw animals.

Due to the scarcity of plants in winter, they hunt in large areas, cross over 2600 km² and migrate with reindeer.

Although the arctic wolf is generally considered to be ferocious, it is a mild animal to the Eskimos.

Since the soil where Arctic wolves live is permafrost, digging is extremely difficult, because arctic wolves are usually replaced by caves or depressions; from late May to early June, female wolves give birth to two to three small Wolf, about a month later than the gray wolf. It is generally believed that the number of coyotes born to the Arctic wolf is smaller than the number of coyotes born to the gray wolf because the Arctic can catch less food. Their little wolf will stay in the mother for about 63 days. After the wolf is born, she will follow the she-wolf for 2 years, and then start to become independent.

Arctic wolves are mainly distributed in the Arctic, including northern Canada and northern Greenland. Arctic wolves are the only subspecies of the gray wolves in their original distribution; the main reason is that they are less likely to encounter humans in their natural habitat.

The White Wolf Sanctuary is an Arctic Wolf Nature Reserve in Oregon. The density of arctic wolves in the nature reserve ranges from 8 to 10 arctic wolves per 40 acres. These are rescued injured, defective or abandoned arctic wolves.

According to statistics, currently only about 10,000 Arctic wolves survive in the world, so they are classified as second-level endangered animals.