Greenland
Greenland is a very large country: to put the size in perspective it is the area of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom together. Alternatively it is roughly the size of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is the worlds largest island, which is not a continent.
Land mammals on this huge island include:
- Northern collared lemming
- Greenland Arctic hare
- Greenland Arctic fox
- Polar bear (2200 on the West coast, East coast is less well known but estimated to have the same population or more)
- Beringian ermine
- Walrus (5000)
- Hooded seal
- Bearded seal
- Harp seal
- Harbour seal
- Ringed seal
- Barren-ground caribou (combined population of roughly 140,000)
- Peary caribou
- Muskox (15,000-27,000)
There are also around 200 wolves, and the population is thought to have lived on the island for 7600 years (oldest carcass found) however, caribou arrived 8900 years ago, suggesting that the wolf may well have arrived earlier. It is possible that the population has remained low, due to the lack of food, as there are not many species which live on the vast island (as you can see above).
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.
It should be noted. that the human population is under 57,000
We will hope to bring you as much wildlife destinations as possible, as it is incredibly important for eco-tourism to take off in Greenland, as this is the more sustainable use of the wildlife in the area.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jqw_RfFn5g
Greenland News
The little-known population of Greenland wolves
- Tim
- April 16, 2024
@meline.wildlife Surrounded by 13 wild wolves in the Arctic 🐺
The Greenland wolf, is known from remains, to have lived in Greenland for at least 7600…
Greenland is loosing 30 million tonnes of ice per year.
- Tim
- April 13, 2024
The Greenland ice sheet is melting
The Greenland icesheet is vast, which can bee seen from this image, which had to be taken from space to show the scale.
Greenland…
Unknown, seemingly impossible Polar bear population found living in Greenland
- Tim
- June 27, 2023
2200 polar bears live on the west coast of Greenland. It is unknown how many live on the east coast, but this group appears to be living in a place…
Environmental and political stories from the UK in recent times
- Tim
- February 27, 2024
On this post, I will list a group of articles on British politics. Unfortunately, there have been quite a lot in recent times, hence this way to deal with them….
Ozone layer hole early – Antarctic sea ice in danger?
- Tim
- September 4, 2023
The fear is that, with the Tonga eruption, this larger than normal hole might do extra damage to the vast store of ice on Antactica.
Is the conservative party in the UK (and perhaps similar parties around the world) supporting of climate change doubt and climate change denial
- Tim
- January 9, 2023
The mountain of evidence which shows that climate change is real is enormous. The temperature has increased, and all of the evidence points towards carbon emissions being the reason.
Polar bears appear to be surviving despite the lack of sea ice, should we take this as a positive sign?
- Tim
- August 18, 2022
A group of polar bears are surviving in south-east Greenland are surviving despite there not being sea ice for most of the year.
Polar bears in Iceland
- Tim
- October 24, 2020
Despite Iceland actually having less ice by far than Greenland (a strange marketing ploy to get people to settle there centuries ago), it is very much arctic nation and and…
The largest single unbroken ice sheet in the Arctic has just got smaller
- Tim
- September 23, 2020
The largest single un-broken piece of ice in the Arctic existed in Greenland, but it has just got significantly smaller. The piece that broke off is not exactly small, measuring…
28 trillion tones of ice lost in 26 years
- Tim
- September 4, 2020
Permanent ice caps are melting at increasingly rapid rates. The permanent ice that covers Antarctica Greenland and large parts of Canada lock up vast quantities of water that would otherwise…
Microbes that have lain dormant on the bottom of the ocean for 100 million years have been able to to start living again
- Tim
- August 7, 2020
One-hundred million years ago the earth was very different. The landmasses were in very different places. Largely covered by dense sweaty rain forests and vast deserts.
A map would have…
Polar bears in Iceland
- Tim
- July 27, 2020
Despite Iceland actually having less ice by far than Greenland (a strange marketing ploy to get people to settle there centuries ago), it is still very much an arctic nation…
The fear about methane leaking from the melting permafrost
- Tim
- July 27, 2020
While there are still some people arguing that carbon dioxide is not a greenhouse gas that causes warming, for all those not in denial this has been known for at…
Polar ice is now melting 6 times faster than it was in the 1990s
- Tim
- April 15, 2020
This statistic on its own is alarming but to put it in Context this suggest that we are tracking the worst of the three scenarios put forward by climate scientists…
Boreal forests burning at a rate not seen in 10,000 years
- Tim
- August 3, 2019
The boreal forests form a ring of trees around the North Pole. These forests house around 30% of the world’s trees. This forest exists in Russia, Canada, the USA, Finland…
