Wildlife

For a country as vast as Greenland, some 830,000 sq. mi., it has a fairly small number of wildlife critters. This is primarily because it is covered by an ice sheet that represents 80% of the Island’s surface. This ice sheet does not support life of any description, even human beings, unless they are ensconced in artificial habitats, like the historically significant Camp Century in the early 1960’s. Today, there are other very contemporary research centers that operate for a number of years, but the interior of Greenland remains a wonderland of snow and ice.

The most productive and vital part of the Island is the surrounding margins of the landmass, the 20% that is not locked in frozen conditions all year. Here, there are an abundance of life forms, plants, animals, fungi, mosses, birds and even insects. For a place so far north on the planet’s surface the range of land animals and plants is truly amazing. There are limits to this variety, for instance there are no true tree species, though a few have been introduced with very limited success, and other life forms that are more tropical in nature are either unrepresented, or underrepresented. But then there is the sea.

Greenland is an island, and as such it is surrounded by water representing the Greenland Sea, the Labrador Sea, the Arctic Ocean, and the North Atlantic Ocean. These are subdivided into Baffin Bay, the Davis Strait, the Lincoln Sea, the Fram Strait, the Irminger Sea and the Denmark Strait. What all of these have in common are the very impressive range of sea life that they contain. It is often thought by the causal observer that the tropical seas have the greatest concentrations of sea life, both the animal varieties and the plant specimens. But colder bodies of water actually contain greater concentrations of oxygen and provide better conditions for the proliferation of life forms, and so it is with the waters around Greenland.

Much of the scientific research that is conducted currently and even in the recent past is aimed at sea life. One of the superlatives of these seas is the presence of the oldest species of animal life on the planet, the Greenland shark. It has been stated that specimens of this fish have lived as long as 500 years. It is part of the Family – Somniosidae. But there are other sea creatures that only occur in these arctic waters including the Narwhal or toothed whale. In a fantastical sort of way, it is referred to as the Unicorn of the Sea. It has the unique appearance of a single spiraled horn that is actually a tooth that protrudes from 4-10 feet from its snout. It is also one of the deepest diving species of ocean animals, having been tracked to 7,800 feet down from the surface of the ocean, a mile and a half. There are some 170,000 Narwhals in the Arctic Seas so it is not considered threatened.

The Inuit Culture has fished and hunted creatures from these northern seas for at least 4,500 years off Greenland and have lived almost entirely from sea life, with only the occasional success of bringing down a caribou, polar bear or even musk ox. Today, Greenland still relies on fishing as its primary source of foreign revenue with 90% of their exports going out as fish and related products. But there is a small commercial hunting industry in the country where polar bears, musk ox, caribou, arctic hares and some bird species are hunted primarily for sport. Birds too, are surprisingly well represented.

While some 240 species of birds have been observed at one time or another in Greenland, a truly amazing number this far north, about 60 varieties are indigenous to the Island and another 20 or so migrate there in the summer months. There is a particularly detailed and overall excellent guide to all things wild in Greenland, entitled Nature Guide Greenland by Bo Normander. It is published in Denmark by Nature and Environment Publishers and is a very comprehensive compendium for anyone studying or researching a trip to Greenland. According to that guide there are also some 250 species of fish, though research is still a new field that far north and there are probably far more in the sea. And as has been observed all over the planet, because of global warming and the oceans warming further and further north and south, there will probably be far more species in the coming decades and beyond.

Again as a surprise, scientists have identified some 850 insect species and 75 spiders as well. With winters as severe as they have been around much of the Island this variety of insect species and arachnids is surprising. That does seem to go with the fact that there are some 520 plant species with about 100 of those commonly found according to Mr. Normander. In the years to come there will probably be an increase in those species. It should be noted, however, that while the margins of this largest of all islands will proliferate in new forms of life as the climate warms, the immense interior will still be ice bound for hundreds of years before it melts to the point where plant and animal life can take hold and propagate.

Contact any of the following websites for more information about the natural environment of Greenland: