Greenland Ice sheet and coast

Greenland is the worlds largest island which is not a continent. Despite this, the population is between 56,000 and 57,000. As a result of this, there is a great deal of space for wildlife.

Greenland has a range of land based mammals, which is surprisingly large and include musk ox, reindeer (also known as caribou), Mountain caribou (a species of caribou with significant different habitat choices). Other than these, arctic foxes live here, alongside arctic hares.

The apex predators are arctic wolves, where the island hosts a population of around 200 and are usually pure white, and polar bears. There are a few thousand polar bears that live on Greenland.

Along the coast, a variety of whales can be seen. There are thought to be 16 species in the summer, but only 3 species are hardy enough to overwinter in the area. These are the bowhead whale, narwhal and beluga. In summer months the baleen whales which join them include blue whales, humpback whales, fin whales, bowhead whales and grey whales. Instead of upper teeth, the baleen whales have several long, narrow baleen plates, which the whale uses to eat. Toothed whales are characterised by their many small, pointy teeth. They hunt fish, squid or seals and use their teeth to hold on to the food. Opposite the baleen whales, toothed whales only have one blowhole on top of their head. Among the toothed whales, we find sperm whales, dolphins, killer whales, porpoises, narwhals and belugas.