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Arctic Wildlife

Swainson’s Thrush
Swanson’s Thrush is a song bird with pink legs, a thin beak and stands about 6 ½ inches tall. Its back is olive drab in color and has dark spots on its white chest.
Dall's Sheep
Dall’s sheep are excellent examples of the fact that animals adjust and live well even in the harshest environments. They live both below the Arctic and in the Arctic Regions. Because they inhabit the distant, steep slopes the Dall’s sheep are healthy and don't get diseases from domestic livestock.
Snow Bunting
The Snow Bunting, a sparrow sized bird stands about six inches tall and has a short cone shaped black beak. The male Snow Bunting has large white patches on its wings It head and belly are ivory and its back, wings and tail are black.
Steller Sea Lion
The fur of both the male and female is cinnamon. The male Stellers develop dense and thick neck long rough hair. This makes the animal look as if it has a mane like the African Lion, hence the name, “Sea Lion.”
Mountain Avens
Mountain avens, a ground hugging, sun loving shrub, a member of rose family that flourishes on high and rocky grounds in Central & Eastern Arctic.
Animals On The Move
The only time man gets to observe these different animals is when they migrate. What is the definition of migration? To me and other scientists migration is the moving from one place to another between summer and winter. Other biologists and scientists define migration as the almost entire population of a species moves.
Arctic Tern
The Arctic Tern is a small bird that makes the longest migration of any bird. This excellent flier spends most of its life flying. The Arctic Tern as an adult stands about 12 to 15 inches tall, weighs about ten ounces and has a wingspan of almost three feet.
Arctic Grayling
Arctic Grayling is related to trout and whitefish and attains an average length of 12-15 inches as an adult. Some graylings grow to 30 inches long. Most fish taken by anglers are in the three pound class.
Collared Pika
The Collared Pika, about the same size as a tennis ball is about seven inches long. The Back of the Collared Pika is brown with gray coloring on its sides. It shows a light gray collaring on its neck and shoulders. This makes it look like it has a collar, hence its name.
Mink Mustela vison
One of the mammals of the Arctic is the mink. The mink (Mustela vison) belongs to the Mustelidae or weasel family. The mink along with other fur bearing animals attracted trappers, traders, and settlers to the North Country.
Gray Whales
The Gray Whale is a baleen whale, about 45 feet long and weighs up to 70,000 pounds and a protected species. They are bottom feeders.
Tufted Puffin
Tufted Puffin is a middle sized bird about the size of a pigeon weighing about one to two pounds and standing about 12.5 inches tall. They generally have black plumage with white stomachs with a white area on their face, a large thick beak and yellow tufts sticking out on the sides of their heads.
Snowy Owl
The Snowy Owl inhabits the Arctic Regions of both the old and new world. It is about the size of the Great Horned Owl with a height of about two feet. The average female stands about 26 inches tall while the average male stands a slight smaller at about 23 inches tall.
Spotted Seal
The people of Northern Alaska observed the Spotted Seal (Phoca Latgha) in their coastal waters. Scientists associated the Spotted Seal with sea ice from autumn to late spring into early summer and they bear their young on the drifting ice floes.
Thew Arctic Birch Tree
The most fertile soil in the north country is the Arctic brown soil, detected in protected regions on warm, well-drained sites. The Birch grows in damp places with light soils and good drainage. The Birch expanded into the Arctic latitudes. The Canoe, or Paper Birch is a variety of stunted White Birch, and grows within the Arctic Circle.
Walrus
Adult Female Pacific Walruses weigh up to 2,700 pounds and are about nine feet long. A walrus has a rounded body. Their body tapers from the middle to each end. Its shape is like a spindle. Generally, walruses have chestnut coloring. Calves begin life colored pale gray to tan. Within ten days the calves turn to a yellow brown.
Gyrfalcon
Falcons are the most remarkable and famous of the birds of prey. All falcons have a savage and predacious disposition, especially the Gyrfalcon. Because of their swiftness and excellent far seeing eyesight they became excellent hunters.
Wood Frog
This is the only 'masked' frog in Rhode Island. The color of the spine of the adult wood frogs is dark brown. Generally the females have a much lighter body color. The belly or stomach of the wood frog is ivory in color and of white colored throat and chest may have dark mottling.
The Harp Seal
The Harp Seal, is earless and defined as a true seal. The seal that breeds on the ice in the Arctic and northern parts of the Atlantic Ocean is the Harp Seal.
Ermine
White fur in the snow covered months and chocolate brown the rest of the year this weasel is trapped for its winter fur. What animals do I speak of? The Ermine.
Mew Gull
With its short, small bill the Mew Gull stands about 14 inches tall and in flight has a wingspan of almost four feet. These medium-sized male and female gulls have similar plumage. With its yellow bill and legs, dark eyes, the Mew Gull has a white head, neck, chest and stomach. The back and wings show gray in color; a dark colored tail and the main feathers have white tips.
Blue Whale
The blue whale is one of the rorquals, a family that includes the humpback whale, fin whale, Bryde's whale, sei whale, and minke whale. The blue whale is the largest mammal, to inhabit the earth. Its body is lengthy, somewhat slender, and streamlined.
Razorbill
One of the many birds that inhabit the Arctic area is the Razorbill. The world population of the Razorbill is over 100,000 breeding pairs and about 25,000 nest in Atlantic Canada. The English name Razorbill derives from the bird's bill looking like an old-fashioned cut throat razor.
Reindeer (Caribou)
A reindeer belongs in the deer family and their color varies. Reindeer generally have brown rough fur, with an ivory colored neck and mane. Their stomach, butt, and lower parts of tail are white. Most of the reindeer that inhabit the tundra, the coniferous forests of Northern Siberia, and any woodlands are more brownish. All reindeer have a large nose, small ears and a tiny furry tail.
Polar Bear
Their scientific name, “Ursus maritimus” is Latin for “sea bear”. Polar Bears are big, beautiful, young attentive, loving and a first class predator. Mother Nature through the eons helped the Polar Bear to evolve from the grizzly bear.
Arctic Tern
Arctic Tern are a bold and beautiful birds. This tern has a white body with a black, smooth, rounded black head without a crest and white cheeks. The bird has small red legs and small webbed feet. They possess a slim orange colored bill that turns red during mating season.
An Alaskan Trip
In this article I mention my trip to Alaska and what I had the pleasure of seeing.
The Catkin
Salicaceae pertains to the shrubs and trees of the willow family of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Catkins are part of the flora of the Arctic.
The Arctic Ground Squirrels
The Arctic Ground Squirrel has definite amenities, that make it easy to distinguish it from its relatives. The coat is beige and tan, with white spots on its back side. This squirrel has a rounded face, little ears, a dark bushy tail and white imprinting around its eyes. Both sexes attain an average length of about 15 to 16 inches long and the males usually outweigh the female squirrels.
Bald Eagle
Their main plumage is dark brown, their ankle is bare of feathers for an inch or more above the toes. The Bald Eagle's entire head neck, upper tail -coverts, and tail are white and the wing feathers are nearly black.
Lichens
DESCRIPTION- Scientists described the lichens as "dual organisms" because of their associations between two or more entirely different types of fungi and lichens.
Ringed Seal
Ringed seals are the smallest of all pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walruses) with adults in Alaska rarely exceeding five feet in length and 150 pounds. Ringed seals weigh the most in the winter and early spring when they have a thick layer of blubber under their skin. The blubber serves as insulation and as an energy source during the breeding and pupping season.
Wolverine
The Wolverine, a big weasel with a massive build, large head, comparatively small, rounded ears, a short tail, and has huge limbs. Their thick fur is long, normally a blackish brown with a light brown stripe along each side of their body from shoulder to bottom.
Rock Ptarmigan

The adult rock ptarmigan is a medium sized, stocky, round-winged Arctic bird that stands about 15 inches tall and looks like a small grouse or pheasant. The female Rock Ptarmigan is slightly smaller than males. In the winter they are pure white except for their black eyes, black bill and a black stripe between the eyes and bill that is present in both sexes all year.

Copepods
What is a copepod? A copepod is a crusteacean with a rounded body shaped like a cylinder. Copepods have a hard outer shell, many legs for swimming and collecting food, a segmented body, and connected extremities. One type of copepod has many different sections.
Musk Oxen
These fascinating Arctic residents, Musk Oxen, also known as "The bison of the tundra" are members of the Bovidae family. Their scientific name is Ovibos moschatus, Ovibos signifying that they have features in common with both oxen and sheep, and moschatus relating to the musky odor that males in rut emit from their facial glands.
The Arctic Fox Alopex lagopus
The Arctic Fox belongs in the canid family, that includes wolves, dogs and other foxes. Today, scientists only recognize three subspecies of the Arctic Fox, two of which are native to the solitary Commander Islands. Arctic Foxes inhabit areas of the Arctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America. They usually roam from place to place in the tundra, usually near the coast always seeking food.

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