Wildlife in Svalbard has adapted to the harsh living conditions in the Arctic. Many of them have to endure extreme cold, periods with little food and a long winter with darkness.
Svalbard has only two species of land mammals: Arctic fox (Alopex lagopus) and Svalbard reindeer (Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus). The polar bear spends most of its life in the drift ice and is therefore considered a marine mammal.
Svalbard reindeer
The round and short-legged Svalbard reindeer is a separate subspecies of reindeer that does not live anywhere else. Its body shape is adapted to life in the Arctic. This means that the animal, which is very calm in winter, has little heat loss in the cold. Unlike other reindeer, Svalbard reindeer do not usually live in herds, preferring to live alone or with a few other animals. The animals are not very shy and tend to wander between the houses in the settlements. In winter, only the swallows have antlers. In the summer, bucks also have antlers, and they are often impressively large. When Norway took over sovereignty over Svalbard in 1925, the population of Svalbard reindeer was greatly reduced as a result of hunting. The species was immediately protected and has increased in numbers. Today, around 10,000 reindeer are scattered around the archipelago, but the greatest density of reindeer is found on Nordenskiöld Land. Here, controlled hunting is permitted in certain areas that are reserved for permanent residents.
Arctic fox
The small Arctic fox is common throughout most of Svalbard. Its food supply varies from summer to winter, with seal pups, seabirds, geese, eggs and grouse being important sources of food in spring and summer. In winter, they feed on Svalbard ptarmigan, hoarded food, carrion from seals and reindeer, and rubbish from the settlements. The Arctic fox often follows the polar bear to eat the remains of the bear’s catch. In the spring, seal pups are important prey, and the fox catches and kills them on the fjord ice. Arctic foxes can travel great distances in search of food, even far out in the drift ice. A fox tagged in Svalbard has been found as far away as Novaya Zemlya in Russia. There are two color varieties of Arctic fox. The blue fox is solid blue-gray all year round and is relatively rare. The white fox is gray-brown on the back and yellow-white on the belly in summer, but in winter it is completely white.
An Arctic fox pair stays together for life. The female stays pregnant for about 50 days and gives birth to an average of five or six cubs. The average age of an arctic fox is three to four years, but it can live up to 13 years. There are no population estimates for the Arctic fox population in Svalbard.
Marine mammals
When Svalbard was discovered at the end of the 16th century, bowhead whales were very numerous. It is estimated that the population numbered 25,000 animals when whaling began in 1611. After three hundred years of whaling, the bowhead whale was considered extinct in Svalbard. However, some rare sightings indicate that a few bowhead whales still exist here.
Walrus
The walrus (Odobenus rosmarus), Svalbard’s largest seal species, suffered almost the same fate as the bowhead whale. It used to be highly sought after for its tusks, the blubber used for cod liver oil and the very strong skin used for ropes and leather. When the walrus was protected in 1952, there were only a few hundred animals left in Svalbard. The walrus is an impressive sight: Large males can weigh up to two tons and be four meters long. This is the size of a passenger car! The animals are very social and often appear in herds of several hundred animals. Walruses often stay in shallow waters where they eat shells and other benthic animals. Today, the population numbers several thousand, and several factors indicate that the walrus population is growing rapidly.
Polar bear
The polar bear (Ursus maritimus) was totally protected in 1973. The polar bear hunt never had the same catastrophic consequences for the population as for the two previously mentioned marine mammals. The polar bear is one of the world’s largest predators, but its weight varies greatly throughout the year and between individuals. In the fall, the animals put on a lot of weight, while they are often lean in the summer. Large male bears can weigh up to 800 kg, but males weighing half this are more common. Females are significantly smaller than males. The main food for polar bears is ringed seal and bearded seal. Today, polar bears are common in Svalbard, and the population is estimated at around 3,000 animals. The protection of polar bears and walruses are good examples of management decisions that have had the desired effect.
Seals and whales
The ringed seal (Phoca hispida), or “snadd” as it is also known, is the most common marine mammal in Svalbard. This species is the smallest of our seals, and it is common to see many ringed seals scattered on the fjord ice in the spring. The harbor seal (Erignathus barbatus) is the largest of the seals in Svalbard after the walrus. This calm seal is not as numerous as the ringed seal, but is commonly seen in areas of shallow water throughout Svalbard. The most common, and probably most abundant, species of whale is the white whale (Delphinapterus leucas), also known as the whitefish. This four-meter long whale can sometimes be seen in small herds close to land. Adults are white, juveniles more slate gray.
Svalbard plaice
The Svalbard char (Salvelinus alpinus) is the salmonid fish that lives furthest north in the world and is the only freshwater fish in Svalbard. It can be found in lakes and rivers across large parts of the archipelago. Some populations live only in freshwater, while others migrate between sea and freshwater.
Bird life
High Arctic areas such as Svalbard have few bird species compared to more southerly regions. But even though there are few species, some species are very numerous. Svalbard has three to four million breeding seabirds, and Bjørnøya, Hopen, Storfjorden and the west coast of Spitsbergen are home to some of Europe’s largest bird cliffs. Brünnich’s guillemots (Uria lomvia) nest in several places in colonies of over 100,000 pairs. In the bird cliffs, the close interaction between life in the sea and life on land is very clear. The birds collect large quantities of small fish and crustaceans from the sea to feed their chicks.
Unlike most of the other mountainsides in Svalbard, the vegetation beneath the bird cliffs is green and lush due to the fertilizer from the bird droppings. This benefits herbivores, such as geese and Svalbard reindeer.
Mockingjay King
The little auk is the most numerous of the bird species. In the summer, there are probably over a million pairs in Svalbard. It nests in large colonies in crags and cliffs all over the archipelago, but is particularly abundant along the west coast of Spitsbergen. These birds circle in large flocks over the breeding colonies before heading out to sea in search of small zooplankton.
No birds of prey
Apart from occasional visits by snowy owls (Nyctea scandiaca) and harrier falcons (Falco rusticolus), there are no birds of prey on the archipelago. This is probably due to the absence of natural populations of small rodents. At the same time, the glaucous gull (Larus hyperboreus) feeds on eggs, chicks and adult auks and therefore fills the role of birds of prey.
Svalbard ptarmigan, Arctic tern and snow bunting
Most of the birds leave the archipelago in winter and go to sea or migrate south. The only terrestrial bird that lives on the archipelago all year round is the Svalbard ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus hyperboreus). The ptarmigan in Svalbard is not very shy and is easy to approach because it does not perceive humans as a threat. This is despite the fact that the species is the most sought-after prey during the fall hunt in Svalbard.
The Svalbard bird with the longest migration between summer and wintering grounds is the red-billed tern (Sterne paradisaea), and some individuals overwinter in Antarctica! Svalbard’s only songbird is the hardy little snow bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis). It usually appears at the beginning of April and spreads its song to the delight of the local population.
Polarhare
Polar hares were once released in Svalbard. They no longer exist. Life in the Arctic became too hard for them.
Musk
Atle – the last musk ox in Longyearbyen
As with the polar hare, so it went with the musk ox. A tribe was brought from Northeast Greenland in 1929 and released. At first, they seemed to thrive. As late as the 1960s, herds of calves could be seen. But then there was a steep decline. Atle, who despite his name was a musk ox, was the last of the tribe. At the beginning of the 1980s, she settled by the quay in Longyearbyen. Because she disturbed traffic and work, she was transported to a valley a few kilometers away. She liked it there. Hikers could come within a few meters of her. But in 1983, she disappeared from the area without a trace. The muskrat was extinct.
Source: Governor
