Pictures of Other Mammals

Taken Around Spitsbergen (2007)

People who go to Spitsbergen all want to see one particular mammal! But there are a few others. Most of the aquatic mammals, namely the whales and seals we saw, are on a different page. You can get a larger version of an image by clicking on it.

Arctic fox (Eisfuchs) in Ny Alesund - that particular female seems to be amazingly well studied!

A somewhat wilder example, at Blomstrandhalvoya. Note the different patterns in going from the light winter coat to the dark summer version.

Svalbard reindeer - different subspecies from that found on the continent, and these are wild rather than being run in domesticated herds. This one is still changing coat.

And finally, the reason most of us came. An amazing marine mammal. We saw three polar bears on this trip, one of whom was particularly curious and decided to have a closer look at the ship. We saw all these in the pack ice, walking over the floes and swimming, and all the animals were well nourished - surely a much better experience than watching starving specimen. All the pictures are of the same individual, but those on the floe were taken from a fairly great distance.