Many consider the Snowy owl as one of the world’s most beautiful and impressive birds. They can fly in almost complete silence, which makes them excellent hunters. This is a female. The male is snow-white. (Photo: Uri Golman)
Reindeer are the only type of deer in which both sexes have antlers. Reindeer also have the heaviest antlers in relation to bodyweight. A male reindeer in his prime can have antlers that weigh up to 15 kg. (Foto: Uri Golman)
The Arctic fox has the warmest coat in the world. Pictured here is a colour variant called the White Arctic fox. This is its summer suit. In winter, it becomes white as snow. (Photo: Uri Golman)
Also among the Greenlanders is the puffin. It holds the world record for maximum number of fish in the mouth at the same time with no less than 62. (Photo: Uri Golman)
Greenland is also home to the world’s largest land predator, the polar bear. Polar bears are very sensitive to climate changes as their habitat is shrinking drastically. They need large areas with lots of animals because they need huge amounts of meat to stay alive. (Photo: Uri Golman)
The beluga whale, or white whale, can grow up to 4.5 metres long. The white whale is a highly threatened species. (Photo: Uri Golman)
A Greenland seal with a pup peeping out through a hole in the ice. Although the pup’s white fur coat has been popular with Canadian seal hunters, the species is not endangered. (Photo: Uri Golman)
The Arctic hare, also known as the polar rabbit, lives throughout Greenland, with the exception of East Greenland. In winter, it lives on twigs and barks and eats snow to hydrate itself. (Photo: Uri Golman)
The eider is capable of extracting salt from water, which enables them to drink salt water. They can dive 20 metres into the water, and the king eider can dive up to 50 metres. (Photo: Uri Golman)
The walrus has the world's longest tusks. They can grow up to 50 cm in length. One of the functions of the tusks is to create and maintain breathing holes in the ice. (Photo: Uri Golman)
A new, richly illustrated book about Greenland's wildlife has just been published. See some of the beautiful pictures in the above gallery. (Photo: Uri Golman)

Greenland’s beautiful wildlife in pictures

The extreme conditions in Greenland have created a unique wildlife. See some of the stunning pictures here.

Jeppe Wojcik
Published

Greenland is one of the northernmost places where there are animals. The cold, ten-month-long winter has forced the various species to live a life on the edge of what’s physically possible.

A new, richly illustrated book describes this struggle. Its author is one of Denmark’s leading mammal experts, Mogens Trolle, zoologist, author, wildlife photographer and in charge of educational programming and events at the Natural History Museum of Denmark.

”I’ve been fascinated by Greenland’s wildlife since I was a little boy,” he says.

“What’s particularly interesting to me is the way the animals adapt to extremes. And they live in a landscape that’s beautiful and rough at the same time.”

Most of the nearly 200 pictures in the book are taken by Danish wildlife photographer Uri Golman, who specialises in Arctic photography.

Pictures and facts about Greenland

The book, which unfortunately is only available in Danish, contains some interesting facts: did you for example know that Greenland is home to the animal with the longest life span (the bowhead whale, also known as the Arctic whale), the warmest coat (the Arctic fox) and the longest migration in a year (the polar bear)?

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Read the Danish version of this article at videnskab.dk

Translated by: Dann Vinther

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