Mammals Of The Arctic

The Artic is rather like Star trek “Where No Man Has Traveled,” okay not quite but only a small percentage of the population every have the opportunity to explore the great white north and observe the mammals of the arctic.

If you ever get the chance take an Arctic tour. It’s the most pristine part of the world, with its cold, crisp, and as pure as the driven so. What an amazing backdrop, and there is an amazing amount of wildlife including polar bears, caribou, grizzly bears, oxen, walrus, and so much more. So let’s find out a little about the mammals of the arctic.

The polar bear is the largest land carnivore in all of North America. When you watch their actions at the zoo you would think they are a very slow moving mammal but nothing could be further from the truth. In the wild polar bears cover a huge amount of territory over the space of a year. In fact one scientist recorded a whopping 3500 miles for one female bear that was being tracked.

An adult polar bear will reach 8 feet in height and 1500 pounds in weight. They have a yellowish white coat and they are able to maintain their body temperature because their fur is very thick and under that fur is a thick layer of fat.

A polar bears diet consists of mainly different seal species which they can smell up to 20 miles away. Now that’s a powerful nose! 60% of all the polar bears in the world live in the Canadian Arctic.

Walruses are easily identified by their tusks and huge cinnamon brown bodies. An adult male is just over 9 feet in length and 2000 pounds, while an adult female is just a bit smaller. Both the males and females have tusks but the males are longer and straighter.

Walruses dine on organisms that live at the bottom of the sea. Organisms like worms, snails, fish, clams, and crabs. Can you imagine how much a 2000 pound walrus has to eat with such small sized food sources? To give you an idea of the amount of food they consume, one walrus can eat 3000 clams in a single day.

The Harp Seal, Ring Seal, and Bearded Seal all live in the Arctic, but the Ring Seal is the only one that takes up residency all year round. Ring seals can be seen basking in the sun on the floe edge.

The harp seal is much larger than the ring seal and are called the Kairulit by the Inuit, which means jumping seal. They generally live far away from the shore.

The bearded seal is the largest of the seals with an adult weighing around 770 pounds. They have a dark gray body with a brown face and long whiskers that droop. Their beard is a thick collection of whiskers. During the summer months they are found at Pond Inlet.

There are many whales that also found in the Arctic like the bowhead, Beluga, and narwhal.

The bowhead stays in the icy Arctic waters all year round. It is able to survive because it has thick layers of blubber on its body. The bowhead got its name because it has a mouth that is shaped like a bow. It has a black head and body with white underneath its lower jaw and the occasional white spots on its belly.

The Beluga used to be called the sea canary because of its vocabulary of chirps, trills, clicks, clucks, and whistles. It’s curved mouth makes it appear like it always smiling. Adults are white in color and in Russian the word Beluga means white one. Belugas travel in pods feeding on fish, octopus, squid, and other marine creatures.

The narwhal lives in the deep cold waters of the Arctic Ocean. Generally they have a gray back and white sides. The male can be recognized by it’s long tusk. Narwhals eat crab, shrimp, fish and other small sea life. The polar bear is the natural enemy of the narwhal.

The mammals of the Arctic are some of the most magnificent species on the entire planet. In the past man and his hunting practices were the largest threat to the extinction of these magnificent creatures. Today man is once again a threat to their existence because of global warming.

Deon Melchior is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit ArticleClick.com. Article Click is a free content article directory. This means that as a publisher you may reprint the articles that are included in our site, as long as the article is unedited and the author box is included with it's live hyperlinks.