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Arctic Hare
The arctic hare sure is pretty... delicious! And since they live
throughout the tundra of Canada from Newfoundland to the Northwest
Territories, you'd think they'd be easy to find. But their coats
change color with the seasons to match their surroundings, and they
have an impressive ability to become perfectly still, and invisible
to predators like me.
Favourite foods:
Woody plants, mosses, lichens, buds, berries, leaves, seaweed, bark,
willow twigs and roots.
Favourite group activity:
Hares will form groups of 100 to 300 animals. While some rest and
feed the others act as guards. Hares are able to survive the Arctic
winters by huddling together in snow drifts, under bushes or behind
rocks.
Doesn't pay to be popular:
Arctic hare are the food for Snowy Owls, other birds of prey, wolves,
foxes, weasels and polar bears.
Muskox
I've always admired the musk oxen for their long fur coats –
thick undercoats of soft brown fleece, and thick overcoats of shaggy,
long straight hair that hangs down to the ground. Definitely keeps
them snug! (Although I hear they're actually quite small under all
that fur!)
Defense Mechanism:
If the musk oxen sense danger they form a defensive circle around
their young, and face their enemies. They may even charge and try
to gore the enemy with their horns. Unfortunately, the musk oxen
were easier to kill when they formed a circle, and the animals were
almost hunted into extinction in the early 1900s. Now there are
about 60,000 musk oxen living in Nunavut.
Happy to see me?
The musk ox gives off a "musky smell" when excited.
Not happy to see me?
The musk ox will snort loudly when annoyed!
Wolverine
You have to admire the wolverine's confidence – it'll fight
anyone to defend its territory! The wolverine eats birds, mice,
rats and other small mammals. In winter, when snow covers the ground,
it eats reindeer and any other large carrion it comes across.
Hunting technique:
Let others do it for you! The wolverine will let other animals do
the hunting, then it chases the hunter away by showing its teeth
and growling fiercely. Wolverines are not fast movers, so they do
not chase or stalk their prey. But they are good climbers and often
rest in trees. They pounce on their prey from trees or rocks.
You can't choose your relatives:
Despite its name, the wolverine is not related to the wolf –
it's related to the weasel.
Walrus
The walrus is a large, noisy mammal that spends most of its life
on the edge of the Arctic ice sheet. They make a very nice meal
when I can't find any seal!
The walrus has reddish-brown fur, grows to be up to 4.3 m long
and can weigh up to 900 kg. The two tusks can grow to be over a
metre long. Both males and females have tusks, but the male's tusks
are slightly longer.
Favourite past time:
Sunbathing on the beach.
Believe it or not:
Walruses have air sacs in their throat that let their head stay
above the water – these air sacs act like a life preserver.
Favourite foods:
Walruses eat mostly clams, snails, mussels, worms, sea cucumbers,
and other animals that they find on the sea floor. If they are very
hungry, they will eat seals.
Rock Ptarmigan
The ptarmigan is one of the only birds with the good sense to stay
in the Arctic all year round! Truly at home in the barren windswept
tundra, it's been recorded as far north as 75 degrees N, where the
region is cloaked in 24 hours of darkness during winter.The ptarmigan
molts (sheds its feathers) three times a year, so it's usually well
camouflaged.
Feather fact:
The ptarmigan is completely covered with feathers – even the
beak and the feet. The feathers on the feet allow it to walk on
soft snow without sinking.
Arctic Tern
Arctic terns are definitely the marathon travelers of the bird kingdom.
They fly thousands of miles from the Antarctic to the Arctic each
year – that's 35,000 km, roughly the circumference of the
earth. I get tired just thinking about it!
Eating on the Fly:
No time to stop – terns snack while they fly, catching insects
in mid-air or diving to the surface of the water to catch small
fish in its beak.
Flair for the dramatic:
Immediately before beginning a migration, a noisy colony of birds
suddenly becomes quiet; then they all take to the air and fly away
(this behavior is called "dread").
Sanderling
Famous among human beachcombers around the world, sanderlings seem
to spend the day just chasing waves out to sea, then running back
to shore in retreat. Apparently, they're feeding on tiny crustaceans
and mollusks left exposed by the tide, but I think they're showing
off for the tourists! Sanderlings breed in the dry tundra of northern
Canadian islands, then winter along coastlines in North and South
America.
Identifying feature:
Sanderlings have a bold white wing stripe that helps it stand out
from other shore birds.
Stranger identifying feature:
Sanderlings lack a hind toe!
Snow Goose
Not everyone likes to hang around the Arctic during winter, I guess.
Lesser snow geese leave their northern breeding grounds in the Northwest
Territories and around Hudson Bay to winter in the southern US and
Mexico.
Favourite nesting spot:
Low grassy tundra plains and broad shallow rivers near the coast,
and on islands within shallow inland lakes.
High Flyers:
Lesser snow geese travel in huge flocks, sometimes flying so high
that they can barely be seen.
Narwhal
Some call the narwhal the unicorn of the sea. I call it dinner if
I'm lucky!The narwhal is an arctic whale that lives in the cold
deep water of the Arctic Ocean. The male has a long tooth that can
grow up to 3 metres long from the left side of the upper jaw. Narwhals
can live to be up to 50 years old and belong to social groups of
between four and 20 whales.
Favourite foods:
Fish, shrimp, crabs and other small sea creatures.
Origin of name:
Narwhal means "corpse whale" in Old Norse; this is perhaps
a description of their skin, which is bluish-gray with white blotches.
Narwhal's mystery:
No one is sure what the narwhal uses its long tooth for –
perhaps as a jousting weapon during courtship, perhaps to channel
the sonar pulses it emits. It does not use it for hunting though.
Woodland Caribou
These arctic residents don't stay in one place for long. Caribou
live in forests on the edge of the arctic, always migrating in search
of food. In the spring, thousands head for the tundra, where their
calves are born. During the summer they eat as much as possible
to prepare for the winter. Then they can live off the fat that is
stored in their bodies.
Favourite foods:
Mosses and small arctic plants called lichen.
Caribou talents:
Caribou are able to walk in the deep snow because they have wide
hooves with fur. They are strong swimmers and can cross rivers and
lakes while moving from place to place.
Strange but true:
The hollow hairs of their coats act like a life jacket and help
to keep the animals afloat.
Also strange, but also true:
Male and female caribou lose their antlers once a year, but they
grow back.
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