Animals of the Arctic. Interesting facts about polar bears

Here you can read about the birds and animals of the Arctic, look at their photographs, and find out our impressions of meeting them in real conditions. I will talk about polar and (oddly enough) brown bears, walruses, arctic foxes, seals, deer, foxes, hares, ducks, geese, terns and many others.

The Arctic is home to a huge number of different animals and birds. Of course, the most important ones are polar bears. We met bears twice. Both times there were no casualties or incidents. True, it took a lot of nerves :)

Polar bears are the most famous animals of the Arctic

There are many different names for a bear: white, polar, northern, sea... Once upon a time, the white and brown bear had one common ancestor. But, about 600 thousand years ago they separated. It is believed that until recently, the habitats of polar and brown bears did not overlap. However, their rapprochement is already underway.

I am not a scientist, the reasons for this rapprochement are not known to me - maybe it’s the melting ice, maybe it’s because polar bears have recently multiplied a lot and are forced to explore new territories in search of food, maybe for some other reason, however, in one territory There may be both brown and polar bears. If they meet each other, what will it be like? further development events?

Personally, we had the opportunity to meet both polar and brown bears in almost the same place. So far they don’t seem to intersect, but it feels like it won’t be for long. For example, if polar bears reach Varandey, and we met brown bears on the Korotaikha River, not far from the sea, then it turns out that in the territory between Varandey and Karatayka, brown and polar bears can cross paths, and this is literally a hundred kilometers, which is not for them distance. Most likely, they will simply disperse. But either way it would be very exciting to watch.

You can read more about the polar bear on Wikipedia, however, I want to warn you that even there the information may not be entirely correct. For example, according to the encyclopedia, polar bear lives on drifting and fast ice sea ​​ice, where it hunts its main prey: ringed seal, bearded seal, walrus and other Arctic marine animals.

However, I would say that the bear mainly lives on sea ice. In fact, a bear can very easily live on the coast of the Barents Sea and on nearby islands, where there is no smell of ice in the summer. In summer, flowers, mushrooms, berries grow there and a huge number of different animals and birds live there. So it would be a huge misconception to think that polar bears live only on ice.

Again, Wikipedia says that the polar bear “makes seasonal migrations in accordance with annual changes in the polar ice boundary: in the summer it retreats with them closer to the pole, in the winter it moves south, entering the mainland. Although the polar bear stays mainly on the coast and ice, in winter it can lie in a den on the mainland or on islands, sometimes 50 km from the sea.”

In fact, polar bears can be found on the mainland in the summer. Actually, that’s what happened to us. We were not prepared for this, thinking that bears are here only in winter, and even then rarely. As you can see, we were wrong.

While we live in a civilized city, bears seem like nice white fluffy creatures that are very nice to look at and that need to be protected from the evil Chukchi and Nenets. When you find yourself in the north, when you meet bears, they turn out to be terrible monsters that are almost impossible to get rid of. When you look at it, it seems that such a colossus is completely impossible to kill with one rifle bullet, and this makes it especially unpleasant. After all, these are the largest land predators that have no natural enemies. They are not afraid of anyone and behave accordingly.

But what are bears really like? Maybe these are not fluffies, and not aggressive evil predators? Maybe they have nothing in common with our ideas about them?

For example, when we were traveling in the Kara Sea and unexpectedly met a bear, we experienced a real shock. We can say that from the moment we met the bear, the underlying fear did not leave us for a minute. Our comrade, who visited Novaya Zemlya this year, said the same thing. Having met the polar bear, his comrades could no longer calm down: they saw the bear in every snowdrift, on every ice floe, throughout the entire journey.

Needless to say, neither they nor we parted with our weapons after that, and even went out together when needed, with a loaded gun. In general, the feeling of a weapon constantly hanging on a shoulder or lying along a sleeping bag almost instantly became so familiar to us that the rare moments of safety, when the gun could simply be unloaded and put aside, seemed something unusual and very pleasant.

Arriving in Amderma and talking with local residents, we heard a lot of horror stories about bears and encounters with them. Before we had time to land on the shore, divers clearing the approach to the port said that just yesterday a polar bear had walked here, in this very place. Having scared the workers, he wandered among the containers and equipment, and then, having admired the frightened people to his heart’s content, jumped into the water and swam away. By the way, he jumped almost to the very place where the diver was working at that moment (he, apparently, having seen the animal that came to the port, chose to stay under water).

BUT! Do you know what's most interesting? A woman who has lived in Amderma since birth and happily entertained us with amazing bear stories, recalled only one case of a person dying from the paws and teeth of a polar bear. This happened in terry Soviet times, when 15,000 people lived in Amderma and among them a large number of children. The children were taken to school by bus, but a couple of children fell behind the bus and walked home. That's when the bear met them.

Apart from this story, the Amdermian woman did not remember anything terrible. Yes, she talked about numerous encounters with predators, about how they sat a few meters from people, how they walked around the city and even licked the heels of some local fisherman who had fallen asleep in a ravine. But all these stories ended quite peacefully, and not a single person was hurt.

Yes, this, of course, does not prove anything and does not mean that bears are safe. However, having already returned home, we met with one of the Amderma divers and once again heard from him a story about bears and the carcass of a dead walrus that had been lying on the beach near the airport for several days (literally everyone told us about this back in Amderma).

The fragrant corpse, of course, like a magnet, attracted polar bears that came here from the leeward side of the coast. While one of the bears was eating, local residents, instead of hiding in horror in the airport building, went ashore and took pictures with the predator in the background. From the photo you can see how close they were.

Or, for example, there is one photographer in Amderma: judging by his photographs, he follows the unfortunate fluffies every time, in general, on their heels - he just doesn’t get on their heads. And nothing, he’s still alive.

Well and what is it? What does it mean? Stupid recklessness? Or something that we don’t know, but the locals know? Maybe the bear, in fact, is not as dangerous as we see it? Maybe he's just acting too self-confident, and that's why he scares us so much? We are accustomed to the fact that any animal, be it a wild deer or a brown bear, prefers to hide from us as quickly as possible, while the polar bear simply stands and watches with curiosity as a man shoots into the air and swears at the shit in front of him. Apparently, fear has big eyes.

Brown bears

Yes, brown ones are also found in the Arctic. We met brown bears only once. And even that can be considered lucky, since they are cautious and avoid people.

The Latin word for brown bear is Ursus arctos. It would seem that there is a direct reference to the Arctic :) Moreover, brown bears really live there.

However, the Internet often disagrees with this. In the public consciousness, only the white (polar bear) and period are associated with the Arctic. For example, this seems unfair to me. It’s even a shame for the poor brown bear.

It even gets to the point of being funny. For example, there is such a game: “Bear Bound” - “Brown Bear in the Arctic”.

Game description: By the will of fate or in some incredible way, this happened, and our brown bear ended up in the north. His body, and he himself, are not accustomed to such bitter frosts. Therefore, during a storm, which is warned about by a special signal, he has to seek shelter and climb into the walruses’ houses. Moreover, you must be wary of meeting scouts, the ski devil, or people who are not averse to making fun of the bear, eating it, or launching it into space.

Those. the creators of the game do not even assume that there is nothing extraordinary here and brown bears really live in the north and can really meet with walruses. Yes, we saw walruses and brown bears in almost the same place, on the mainland, by the sea. Those. theoretically, they may well intersect. And practically, perhaps, too.

Fortunately, you can still find nuggets of information on the Internet about brown bears in the Arctic:

In summer, especially when there is an abundance of mouse-like rodents and berries, it is often found in the continental tundra. It feeds on a variety of animal and plant foods, the composition of which varies depending on the area and season. Among plants, it eats stems, leaves, rhizomes of various herbaceous plants, tree leaves, berries and wild fruits. Animals: fish, insects and their larvae, small rodents, carrion. Sometimes, especially in spring and autumn, it attacks large animals (elk, deer).

It just so happened that the wind was blowing in our direction and the bears did not smell us. And their vision is not good enough for them to see us. So we can say that we were lucky with this meeting. Otherwise, the animals simply passed us by, and we would not even have guessed that a mother bear with two cubs was passing by.

It all happened like this: having landed on the shore in the evening, we set up a tent and prepared to make a fire. While Petya kept the fire going, I looked around and suddenly noticed some movement. My eyesight is poor, so I didn’t understand who was walking there. Then I called out to Petka and asked to see who it was. Petka took a closer look and at the first moment decided that these were dogs, but then it dawned on him that they were a mother bear with cubs. We knew that bears most often prefer to avoid contact and avoid people, but a mother bear is capable of anything to protect her cubs.

The bears had not yet noticed us, but were wandering around the tundra, turning over stones and looking for ants. We began to fuss, afraid that they might approach our tent. And then - who knows what comes into their heads.

Petka grabbed the gun and stood ready. At first he loaded the buckshot, but then, after thinking about it, he threw away the buckshot cartridge and loaded the shot, so that, if anything happened, he would first shoot into the air and thereby scare away the animals. And I, in the absence of binoculars, looked into the camera, observed the direction of movement of the bears and photographed them along the way.

Apparently at that moment we were talking quite loudly, rushing from the tent to the fire and waving our arms, so the bear noticed us and immediately took off running. Having moved a decent distance away, she stood up to her full height and began to examine us. Realizing that there were people nearby, she, without hesitation, ran into the tundra. The cubs, naturally, followed her, not lagging behind even a step.

Realizing that the bears had left, we went to dinner, but, nevertheless, the rest of the night we slept rather restlessly. Still, this was our first meeting with bears.

And bears, of course, are beautiful. Despite the fact that they are called “clubfooted”, they run very quickly, smoothly and gracefully.

Deer

Deer are cute. Very beautiful and useful animals. They have such cool, fluffy antlers. It feels like they are as soft as a kitten's skin. And they are also pleasant to touch.

We have met deer on every trip we have taken to the Arctic over the past 4-5 years. For example, here is the first meeting on the Terek coast of the White Sea, which especially amazed us. Then this thing became more common.

Reindeer herds range from several hundred to several thousand heads. For example, a reindeer herder I met in the Bolshezemelskaya tundra said that there were about 2,000 individuals in his herd. And the Nenets met on Kanin claimed that they had about 5,000 animals.

This is what the deer management process looks like:

“A minute ago, the deer were grazing on the sandy littoral, but now it’s time to drive them further. The shepherd foreman, walking on half-bent legs (his fingers seemed to be frostbitten, so he walked with great difficulty), went out to the beach, stood not far from the herd, looked at the deer and suddenly began to make special passes with his hands and shout out special sounds.

“Hooo, Heey, Heyhooo,” he shouted in a hoarse, rough voice for a couple of minutes and suddenly the deer began to move and slowly flowed in the right direction, gradually moving to a gallop.

One of the brigade workers, dashingly crossing a shallow channel on his sleigh, went to correct the movement of the animals. Literally a few minutes later, the beach was empty, and only a deer that had strayed from the herd timidly ran past us and disappeared into the tundra.”

For an unprepared person, this looks like real witchcraft - well, how can one reindeer herder control thousands of reindeer? It's mind boggling. Meanwhile, they do this every single day. I think the secret is that they have been engaged in reindeer husbandry almost from the cradle, they know every deer “by sight” (to be honest - they remember each of their 5,000 deer), and they have studied the tundra like their own fingers (I won’t say that everyone has five pieces - sometimes there are fewer, because they really “love” to freeze their limbs).

Why does all this look like shamanism? Yes, because they control all these deer with the help of a trochee (an ordinary long stick), a lasso (an ordinary long rope) and a pair of dogs. And the herd is generally raised with the help of an ordinary cry. Well, how do they even manage to do this?)

Someone might think that the reindeer in the herd are tame, so they are easy to “lead.” But no. The deer there are practically wild, they are very afraid of people and all they can think about is how to escape somewhere. Which is what they do periodically.

Interestingly, reindeer herders graze reindeer in different ways. For example, Kola deer graze on their own in the summer. They run around in wild herds, gaining strength and fat. In the fall, reindeer herders simply catch the required number of reindeer and keep them in their villages all winter. Reindeer herders live in wooden houses, just like in most villages in Russia. Mainly reindeer herders Kola Peninsula- Komi. The specificity of their activity is that they do not need to monitor the deer all year round. After all, the animals will not go anywhere, they will run along the coast White Sea, and they won’t leave Kola. In the fall, some of the deer are slaughtered, and some are kept with them until next spring.

Nenets reindeer herders live completely differently: not in houses, but in tents. They change their parking spots every two to three days. Each brigade has its own path that they go through in search of food for the deer. Each brigade has its own herd, which they monitor very closely. As soon as the deer eat the moss and grass in a certain area, the reindeer herders gather and move on. So, during the summer they travel several hundred kilometers. In winter they are less mobile and can stand in one place for several weeks.

Here is another short excerpt from Petya’s story about how he once managed to ride a reindeer sleigh and what he experienced.

The path to the treasured corral was not close. Mikhail, understanding my worries and uncertainty, as well as the fact that I could simply get lost (the goal was at least twelve kilometers away), offered to take me on his sled - “you weigh nothing, we’ll get there!” he said, “Get ready!”

My joy knew no bounds, a stone fell from my heart, we left the chum and headed to Mikhail’s sleigh, harnessed by five reindeer. A reindeer team, in general, is a rather complex structure. As a rule, exactly five bulls are harnessed to it; this probably has some special meaning.

The team is controlled by a trochee and one rein, and the “leader” is the last deer, and he can turn, as I understand, only in one direction. The other four bulls are pulling in the other direction. And the direction chosen by the rider is maintained when balance and equilibrium are achieved between the “leader” and the “followers”. Turns are carried out by disturbing that balance, that is, the reins are either tightened or loosened, and due to this the entire harness turns in the right direction. At the parking lot, the reins are hooked onto the sleds in a special way so that the reindeer turn sharply to one side. Thanks to this, they do not go anywhere, but only move slowly in circles, looking for food for themselves on the ground. Sleighs, also known as sledges, are also not simple. They usually carry one person with a small load. This openwork structure made of wood and rope ties has two massive runners and a platform connected to the runners by oblique posts.

When a little earlier, seeing how one of the Taleyevs tightened the ties of their sleds and adjusted something, I asked why not make them from some kind of duralumin and plywood so that they would be rigid and durable, they looked at me as if I was unreasonable a child who spewed utter nonsense. “Your duralumin will fall apart!” explained Mikhail, “This design has been verified for thousands of years. Our ancestors rode them, and we ride them. There’s nothing to change here.”

And in fact, upon closer examination and understanding of the principle by which the sleds work, it became clear that it was impossible to come up with anything better. They have an elastic design that absorbs any shocks and overloads. Due to their elasticity, such sleds can serve for a very long time without breaking or becoming loose, since play and freedom of parts relative to each other are inherent in them from the very beginning. A person sitting on them can ride comfortably, since the suspension function here is performed by oblique struts standing at an angle on the runners.

Mikhail prepared his vehicle, explained to me what to do: “The deer will go, and we will have to jump on the move. Hold on tight!”, then, with a special sound and a poke from the trochee, he touched the reindeer, they ran, and I fell onto the already rushing sleigh, clutching the poles with all my might. At the same time, Mikhail plopped down next to him.

I must say that I was fully prepared for the fact that I would fall off this sled on the first bump, but no! We drove quickly and smoothly, I did not feel a single blow, although stones and holes rushed under my feet. The deer with their bodies pushed aside and crushed under themselves a tall elfin tree, through which a walking person would hardly have crawled; swamp slush squelched under their hooves; we moved forward at a speed of at least fifteen to twenty kilometers per hour.

It was now that I understood the meaning of the famous song (Nenets, by the way) about how, “An all-terrain vehicle is good, but the deer are better.” An all-terrain vehicle, of course, carries incomparably more cargo and does not need rest, however, over rough and difficult terrain it moves at approximately the same speed. An all-terrain vehicle requires a huge amount of fuel and spare parts, and the deer do not even need to be specially fed, since they eat themselves, you just have to stop the team in a suitable place...

Moose

We only saw moose once. This happened on the Kanin Peninsula. Here's what Petya wrote about it:

There was no hunting here, however, one morning two moose came to our tent. I was just crawling out into the street, waking up, and barely sticking my head out from under the canopy, I froze when I saw animals about thirty meters from us. The moose also looked at me in fascination.

At first, the hunting instinct twitched in me: right next to my sleeping bag lay a “Bekas” with a magazine full of bullet cartridges. But then I thought that, for sure, while I was reaching for the gun, the moose would run away. And if they don’t run away, then I risk simply injuring one of them, and that would be very bad. Then I drove away all these stupid thoughts, realizing that we simply don’t need so much meat, and the moose have enough enemies even without me - let them live. The moose, in turn, also realized something of their own, and turning sharply, ran away into the fog...

Walruses - animals of the Arctic

Another of the most famous animals of the Arctic is the walrus. According to Wikipedia, these huge, clumsy animals on land live mainly near the coast and rarely undertake significant travel.

Walruses are sociable and are mostly found in herds; courageously defend each other.

In general, walruses in the water are dangerous opponents, as they can capsize or break a boat with their tusks. But they themselves rarely attack boats.

Walruses have a well-developed sense of smell, and they can sense a person at a considerable distance. Noticing the danger, the sentry roars (which in walruses is something between the mooing of a cow and a rude bark) or jolts wakes up the others, the animals rush into the sea, almost simultaneously go under the water and can stay there without air for up to 10 minutes.

Here are some interesting facts about walruses:

• In Latin, the name of the walrus is Odobenus rosmarus, which can be translated as “sea horse walking with the help of its teeth.” When a walrus uses its prominent tusks to pull its heavy body out of the water onto an ice floe, it appears as if it is "walking" with its tusks, hence the name.
• Walrus skin usually makes up about 20 percent of their total body mass. Under the skin there is a layer of fat about 15 centimeters thick, which allows the animals to retain heat in icy water.
• Walruses are able to slow their heart rate in order to withstand the low temperatures of the icy waters of the Arctic.
• Walrus whiskers are not hair, but very sensitive tactile organs, somewhat reminiscent of a cat's whiskers. Animals use them to search for food underwater.
• Walruses have only two natural enemies: the killer whale and the polar bear. These predators mainly hunt walrus calves.
• Females begin to give birth at the age of 7-8 years and usually give birth to only one cub every 3 years. Pregnancy lasts 15 months, and after birth the baby requires the mother's help for another 2 years. IN wildlife Walruses live about 30 years.

We met walruses several times. The first was in 2010, the second in 2011. This year we also saw one, but it happened so quickly and unnoticed that it can’t even be counted.

Locals They are very afraid of walruses. Well, at least when we met, they described all sorts of “horrors.” They told how walruses swam up to the boats, and the fishermen had to pour diesel fuel into the water in order to scare the animals away with something. The fishermen did not have a motor, but they took a diesel fuel just for such a case. Although, the stories never included stories of walruses overturning or puncturing a boat. Maybe the animals were just curious, and people were scared by the fact that there was an uncontrollable giant carcass next to them.

In 2011, Ukrainian tourists met walruses near Matveev Island, and the walrus, according to their stories, tried to break through their tank, and even slid its tusk on the PVC. They scared the walrus away, but they were terribly scared.

We ended up on this island literally a couple of weeks after them. The walruses calmly swam past us, looked at us with interest, but did not come close. I don’t know whether it’s our luck, or whether our fear’s eyes are not so big, but the sea animals did not seem to us either aggressive or dangerous.

Although, maybe they didn’t scare us because at that time we had seen them for the second time in our lives and already had some experience of “communication.” The first time, of course, we were shocked when we noticed a walrus head a couple of meters from the kayak. You should have seen how our oars flashed, and we rushed to the shore, afraid that right now we would be kicked somewhere right here. And the walrus watched us with surprise and “twirled his finger at his temple” :)

We tried to ask specialists about walruses. We were mainly interested in whether a sea animal could really harm a person by turning a boat over. However, in conversations everyone agreed that walruses can be dangerous only during the mating period, when the males are overcome by passion and they see a competitor in every living creature.

The mating period for walruses occurs in the spring – in April and May. At this time, the sea is usually covered with ice, and boats simply do not sail there. Navigation usually begins at the beginning of June, and somewhere even at the end. And walruses don’t swim just anywhere, and they’re not interested in people. Quite the contrary.

For most of the year, females and males live in separate herds, meeting only to mate. Quite a few male walruses stay separate from females and calves in each season, especially in summer. They migrate to different sectors or the males do not migrate at all. So if someone meets walruses on the water, then with a high degree of probability they will be males who have already mated a long time ago and are currently completely calm.

No, of course, you can never be sure of the safety of a wild animal. Primitive precautions should not be neglected. Well, for example, when you see a walrus, you can turn on the engine and scare it with a menacing sound and gurgling and try to move away from the rookery site. However, there is no need to panic again. Why panic? It’s better to just admire the unusual animals and calmly go on about your business :)

Sea hares / bearded seals / seals

During our travels, we repeatedly encountered a certain pinniped that we could not identify. In general, we understand little about the animals of the Arctic, so we cannot always understand exactly who we see in front of us. You have to navigate by photographs.

So, even when looking at photographs of this marine animal, someone said that it was a sea hare, someone said that it was a seal, and someone suggested other options. In the end, I decided to find out this question on the Internet and what happened?

It turned out that the seal, sea hare and bearded seal are the same animal. It just goes by different names. So, it looks like we saw a hare.

Seals - official name, denoting a family of predatory mammals from the suborder Canidae, previously classified as pinnipeds.

Name " sea ​​hare" was allegedly given to this seal by Russian trappers because of its timid habits. Or for the semblance of “jumps” that he makes when moving on land and ice.

But with the word bearded seal- the plug came out. Everywhere they write that this is the same as “sea hare,” but almost nowhere do they explain where such a word actually came from. However, on one of the sites I was suddenly able to read that the name “lakhtak” is Kamchatka, and “hare” is Pomeranian. True, again, it is not known what kind of “language” this is - “Kamchatka”. Well, at least it's something. It seems like we don’t have a Pomeranian language either))

And here he is, by the way:

A very cool animal. Curious beyond belief. He, of course, is afraid of people, but at the same time he is very interested in us and never misses an opportunity to see who is hanging around his territory.

Arctic foxes (polar foxes)

The Arctic fox is a small predatory animal that lives in the Arctic and resembles a fox. Based on color, they distinguish between the ordinary white fox (pure white in winter, dirty brown in summer) and the blue fox.

The typical habitats of the arctic fox are open tundras with hilly terrain. On sandy hills and coastal terraces, it digs holes, complex underground labyrinths with many (up to 60-80) entrances. The Arctic fox digs a hole in soft soil surrounded by stones (they protect the entrance from digging by large predators) to the level of permafrost, deepening it as the soil thaws.

The burrows are never more than half a kilometer from the water. There are few suitable places for building holes in the tundra, so arctic foxes use them for years, sometimes for 15-20 years in a row, and with intervals for hundreds and even thousands of years, so that some hills are completely dug up. Less commonly, Arctic foxes settle among scattered stones or in piles of driftwood on the coast. In winter, the arctic fox is often content with a simple den in the snow.

The arctic fox is omnivorous. However, it is based on small rodents, especially lemmings, as well as birds. It feeds on both beached and caught fish, as well as plant foods: berries (blueberries, cloudberries), herbs, algae (seaweed). Does not refuse carrion. On the coast, the arctic fox often accompanies polar bears, and gets part of the meat of killed seals. Finally, he eats animals caught in traps, making no exception even for other arctic foxes. In summer, it stores excess food in the den for the winter.

It is quite difficult to meet the arctic fox - it hides in holes, but our dogs somehow drove a couple of animals out of there. One of the arctic foxes even began to snap at the dogs and attack them. We were afraid that the animals might be rabid and drove them away. In fact, it is known about arctic foxes (and foxes) that many of them can suffer from rabies.

Foxes and hares

Our meeting with the fox:

Somewhere in the distance I suddenly heard Sevkin barking, took a gun and a rope, and went to see what happened there. I quickly found him by barking: the dog was running around a separate bush and barking furiously at someone hiding there. I fired the cartridge and carefully looked into the thicket. There was someone hissing and moving angrily. Having looked closely, I realized that it was a fox. “To shoot or not to shoot?” I thought, and in the end decided that there was no need to kill her after all; unloaded the gun and went after Natasha so that she could photograph the animal. As soon as she approached and tried to look at the animal, the fox slipped almost at her feet and quickly ran off into the distance. Sevka, naturally, could not resist and rushed after her, pulling the leash out of my hands. Fortunately, he never caught up with the fox. But I ran around a lot.

And one of numerous meetings with hares:

The local hares, unlike those usually found in other places, were somehow especially swift and careful. Even Seva, having barely chased the animal, very quickly lost it, and I was only able to see them for a split second, and then only in the distance.

Over time, the hare’s habits, which were determined by the local landscape, became a little clearer to me. The topography of this place consisted of several parallel ridges of sand hills; Closer to the sea there was sand and sparse bushes, and behind the ridges began a damp grassy tundra, completely covered with bushes. The hares, of course, took refuge in this bush, and, as usual, went out onto the sand, to the sparse bushes, to graze. To keep the situation under control, and also, if something happened, to escape from their enemies, they crossed the hills across, looking around from the very ridge. But if a predator or hunter caught them below, then they quickly left, taking advantage of the folds of the terrain, and neither man, nor dog, nor fox could catch up with them.

As soon as the long-eared one hid behind a sandy hummock, all hopes of overtaking him immediately melted away, because, cunningly confusing his tracks, he went to the other side of the ridge, and there disappeared into the bushes. Then he could also quietly emerge from these bushes, and while the dogs, all covered in foam, tried in vain to find him, the hare calmly ran across again to the other side of the ridge, and there he disappeared completely...

Pets in the Arctic. For example, cats and dogs.

Almost everyone in the Arctic has dogs. Especially, of course, among hunters and fishermen. What’s interesting is that very often, if someone has two dogs, then almost certainly one will be black and the other white. This is such an interesting feature.

Many people also have cats, but of course there are fewer of them. Basically, they are established where people live permanently - both in summer and winter, and do not just come to the hut for a few days.

Arctic sharks

It was a huge surprise for me, but it turns out that there are sharks in the Arctic.

Recently, a polar shark was discovered even near the Franz Josef Land archipelago, which is less than 1000 km from the North Pole. Unfortunately, we don't have a photo of the shark.

Polar shark - ruler of the Arctic

The polar shark (Somniosus microcephalus), which scientists have long considered the “gravedigger of the Arctic” for its predilection for carrion, has turned out to be an excellent hunter. The polar bear has a rival in the fight for the throne of the king of the Arctic - a polar shark, reaching a length of seven meters and capable of “eating” even the most polar bear. A marine biologist from Norway made an unusual discovery in her laboratory. She discovered the jaw bones of a polar bear (Ursus maritimus) in the stomach of an arctic shark. Until now, researchers believed that the polar bear has no natural enemies. However, it is not yet clear whether the shark attacked a living bear or ate its remains. No arthropods (Arthropoda) - arthropods that feed on corpses - were found in the stomach along with the bear bones, which means that the shark could have attacked a living bear.

Polar shark menu: seals and polar bears

Previously, deep-sea polar sharks were considered lazy and capable of feeding only on carrion. Since they live mainly at depths of up to 2200 meters, scientists have not been able to study this species. However, several years ago, American biologists were able to track the movement of sharks and found out that these animals also swim in surface waters and also feed on ringed seals. It has not yet been possible to determine how actively polar sharks hunt, but their diet is very rich. It includes both fresh meat and carrion: halibut, salmon, herring, narwhals, as well as mammals: beluga whales, seals.

Sharks appeared near Kolguev Island

People are at a loss as to where they came from? Surely global warming is not to blame for this, and these the most dangerous predators Are they starting to develop new maritime territories for themselves? After the famous horror film “Jaws,” people began to be wary of the shark tribe. It’s clear that these toothy and eternally hungry creatures did not evoke sympathy before, and only after the events of last summer, when “jaws” of different sizes began to maim our fellow citizens, now in Egypt, now in United Arab Emirates, or even in Primorsk in their native Far East, they began to be treated accordingly.

Residents of Kolguev ask each other whether their island will soon turn into a place of pilgrimage for toothy predators? Just recently, there have already been three encounters with sharks there. They swim very close to the shore and circle around fishing boats. Recently, a baby shark got into the gear of one of the local residents, judging by “jaw” measurements. But, as you can see in the picture, it was also quite big.

As soon as he was pulled ashore, a large fin of an adult specimen appeared not far away. Apparently, the mother shark tried to free her baby, but she was unsuccessful. She swam past the shark catchers several times and disappeared into the depths of the sea. According to the islanders, local dogs flatly refused to eat shark meat, so the entire carcass had to be disposed of. Local residents are at a loss as to where this family came from near the island, whether the ecology is to blame for this, whether this is connected with the beginning of various geological works on the shelf of the Barents Sea, or there is some other reason.

They say that during the war, beluga whales, stingrays and sharks were butchered on the piers of Shoina, then this “good” was used for processing and food for the population of the warring country. There were plenty of sharks in the White Sea, but they had never swum so close to people. And the White Sea sharks were not very large, a little more than a meter. Here the islanders encountered a huge specimen. The mother shark still swims not far from the island, creating some discomfort for Kolguev’s fishermen and hunters. Moreover, according to ichthyologists, sharks are vengeful and vindictive creatures, they remember offenders, so people are warned about the danger. I don’t want to think that the “Arctic jaws” might start hunting people.

P.S. We contacted ichthyologists, and they said that there was nothing unusual in the meeting of Kolguy fishermen with a shark. In our northern latitudes, three species of sharks safely exist. The rarest of them is the giant shark, the size of this monster is from one and a half to 15 meters. Prefers the seas off the coast of Northern Norway with their warm currents, where there is enough food for these giants. Well, from there it’s a stone’s throw to us. I could have gotten lost.

But it is most likely that the fishermen encountered a polar shark, an inhabitant of almost all the seas of the Arctic Ocean. Sharks of this species grow up to six meters. The polar shark hunts fish, seals, and walruses. There has not been a single case of them attacking people. This shark is an edible species. In the 20th century, Russian, Norwegian, and Icelandic fishermen actively fished for it. The most common of the three species is the small spiny shark, which White Sea fishermen call nokotnitsa, and residents of the Black Sea countries call kat-ran. Its length is no more than 120 centimeters; it is one of the main commercial shark species throughout the world. It was practically never seen in the Barents Sea, but in the White Sea it is still common. It poses no danger to humans.

Geese in the Arctic

Geese are funny, intelligent birds, and although they are not particularly attractive in appearance, they take care of their chicks very touchingly and attentively.

According to my personal observations, geese, after their chicks acquire the ability to move independently, prefer to stay in groups of several “families”. A family, in my understanding, is a goose, a goose, and several chicks. Sometimes there is only one chick.

Geese spend most of their lives on land, and they also raise their chicks on land. However, if any threat arises, the herd goes together to the nearest body of water, taking their chicks with them in columns one at a time. Their chicks, as far as I understand, are not divided into friends and foes - they all simply line up and follow the geese leading them. Males follow from the flanks of the moving herd.

If there is no water nearby, or if there is no escape from danger by water, then part of the herd, mostly males, rise into the air and begin to distract the potential aggressor by flying low, shouting, and generally attracting attention to themselves in every possible way. The remaining females, on the water or on land, meanwhile, try to take the chicks as far as possible, gathering all the broods into large teams. And groups of birds, busy distracting the enemy, are apparently ready to sacrifice themselves to save their offspring, even if not their own.

Once, during our next meeting with geese, the same thing happened. Three geese got up and began circling around us, screaming, smoothly landing and flapping their wings some tens of meters away from us. This had the most correct effect on Sevka: distracted from the female with the goslings, he rushed in pursuit of the birds that were teasing him, but they quickly rose up and deliberately flew slowly and low, leading the dog away from their offspring.

The female with the goslings, in turn, waited for the moment when we were distracted from her, took the chicks to the other side of the lake, and together they walked towards the sea. Their relatives, who were in the air, seeing this, immediately flew up to them, sat down on the ground, and all of them, as a group, reached the saving open water.

And once, having noticed our kayak, they did not fly away, but stayed with their kids, trying to do everything possible to hide from us, even on foot.

The birds split into groups (four or five kids had two adult geese each), lined up and walked forward in a line. The kids are in the middle, and the adults are on the edges - one goose in front, the other behind.

The geese walked and, at the same time, one group separated and went towards the mainland, the other swam away on the water, and the rest of the birds continued to move forward. So the flock of geese continued to divide until all the birds were scattered evenly over land and water. This is how cunning and wise their organization is. They knew that they couldn’t put all their eggs in one basket, and they had to hide from a potential enemy in different places- both at sea and on the mainland.

Swans

Swans are beautiful, majestic birds, songs are written about them, and poets urge “not to shoot white swans.” But, despite the fact that people romanticize them so much, other birds would hardly recognize swans as beautiful and innocent creatures.

« I didn’t see anything interesting among the stunted bushes. Sometimes various small birds flew up from under my feet; I saw several ducks on the lakes, but those ducks were distant and cautious. A pair of swans could also be seen in the distance. I couldn’t get the swans no matter how hard I wanted, since they tended to keep their eyes peeled and not let anyone suspicious come within a hundred meters of them. I hate swans with all my heart, because from the place where these nasty birds settle, all other edible birds flee».

In the comments we were asked an interesting question: “ I wonder why no other birds live near the swans. It seems that it should be the other way around: strong birds, capable of resisting gulls, skuas and even arctic foxes, protect the nesting site, and at the same time the nests of other, weaker birds from predators».

And, really, why? Maybe the information that swans disperse other birds in the area is just a stereotype? Yes, there is plenty of information on the Internet about the aggressiveness of swans. But how verified and reliable is this information? Everyone knows that you can write anything here - but is it true?

Law enforcement officers, officials, scientists, and hunters have expressed a variety of opinions about hunting swans, ranging from the need to reduce their numbers to demands for a complete ban on hunting these birds.

Supporters of the first point of view argue that a pair of swans living on a pond “pushes out” all the other birds from there. It has indeed been noted that when a swan lays eggs and reproduces within a radius of one hundred meters, as a rule, it creates intolerable conditions for other birds and conflicts with them. To this, ornithologists respond that if there is a food supply, the swan coexists well with other bird species.

So what's right? At the moment, I have found a couple of more or less substantiated opinions that confirm our point of view that swans are more likely to harm other birds than not. But perhaps we can find equally valid opinions that will contradict us. So the question is still open.

1. Zoological work on the relationships of birds of the order Anseriformes kept in the ponds of the Kharkov Zoo, V. P. Sevastyanova, zoologist of the bird department, Kharkov Zoo

“The bird community of the pond is dominated by swans. There is tension in intra- and interspecific relations. Cases of death of whooper swans, injury, and then the death of a male mute swan due to the fault of a dominant pair of whooper swans have been recorded. Moreover, the boundaries of the nesting area are determined by the entire territory of the enclosure with the pond .

Swans are also highly aggressive during the period of leading the brood, and the female unmistakably recognizes her cubs, driving away and sometimes killing other people's swans; the male can also lead other people's chicks for some time.

For a number of years, the dominant pair of whoopers did not allow the pair of mute birds nesting at the opposite end of the pond to complete their incubation. Aggression in the behavior of dominant pairs of swans of both species is characteristic of Canada geese.

Mountain geese, greylag geese, and all types of ducks can nest successfully in close proximity with a nest of swans. And, nevertheless, there were 2 cases of death of Carolina ducks trying to nest under the nesting house of mute swans on the Small Pond. The behavior of black swans has been marked by aggressive actions towards barbarian geese on nests and towards pelicans, with which they are often kept together. But this applies only to sexually mature, established married couples. Immature or unpaired individuals occupy a subordinate position and do not show aggression."

2. Swans. Myths and reality. Russian hunting newspaper from 07/05/2006, M.D. Perovsky, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor

“From the cradle, the swan bird enters the human consciousness as a symbol of purity, beauty, love, fidelity and other wonderful qualities of human nature and imagination. Swan, little swan - such affection and admiration in these words. And here: “Look - on top of the flowing waters a white swan floats..." - our genius Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin exhales. And the swan turns into a lovely princess. The baby only bats his eyes and opens his mouth when his parent reads this fairy tale to him. His untouched childhood consciousness has already absorbed the charm of what he read and imprinted it for the rest of his life. Well What can we say? All this is wonderful, and swans are really beautiful, proud and, I will add, unkind birds towards their neighbors and fellow feathers.

There are three species of swans in Russia: the mute swan, the whooper swan and the little swan. The latter lives in the very Far East and is listed in the Red Books of the USSR and the RSFSR. The mute swan is considered the most unfriendly and aggressive, which is probably where its snake nickname comes from. Where these birds nest, there is no room for other species within a radius of 150-200 m, be they ducks, waders or geese. These birds are driven out of the nesting area by large white-feathered proud birds, who seem to be declaring: “I don’t mess around with anyone and don’t want to have anything to do with them. I don’t respect anyone but myself.” They have no rivals in this, and only pound bustards can compare with them in size and strength. But, as you know, their habitats do not coincide.

The whooper swan is not much different in size, color and character from the mute swan, except that it has a straight neck like a stick and the absence of a black knob at the base of its beak. Aggression in behavior is approximately the same "...

Oystercatcher

And here is another interesting bird we met - the oystercatcher. She has red paws, a red beak, and, most surprisingly, red eyes. At first I even thought it was a mistake in the photo when I saw the red eyes. But no, it turned out that this is actually the case.

These birds are distributed all over the world, but I personally see them for the first time. By the way, they also live up to 35 years. I just don’t know – is this a feature of terns and waders, or are birds generally so long-lived?

The oystercatcher has the most powerful beak among other waders. According to the method of obtaining food, individual individuals can be divided into “surgeons” and “hammers”. The surgeon inserts the beak between the valves of the mollusk when they are open in the water and cuts the muscle that closes the valves. And the “hammer” simply smashes the doors to smithereens with blows. Outside the nesting season, oystercatchers stay in huge flocks, most often gathering on those sea coasts where there are high tides. By the way, we met them in such places.

With the onset of low tide, large areas of the beach are exposed in these places, where a self-assembled tablecloth is always covered for birds. Oystercatchers are noisy and aggressive. During feeding, neighbors often step on each other with their chests with shrill screams, marking the boundaries of their lands.

And I was wondering why they were yelling like that. I thought that this could be their way of warning their relatives that people were nearby. But, apparently, they were simply showing who was the most important here.

The basis of their diet is mollusks and crustaceans, and less often insects. In search of food, birds slowly wander through the shallows, peering intently into the water. Noticing the subtle movement of a mollusk hidden in the soil, the oystercatcher sticks its beak into the sand or pebbles and pulls out the bait. Hunting at night, the birds diligently comb the wet sand with their beaks. To get to the tasty meat, the oystercatcher grabs the shell in its beak and beats it on a stone until a piece breaks off from the prey.

This is what we mostly observed them doing: the birds walked along the shallows or flew, looking for something in the exposed sand.

And other birds of the Arctic

In the north, birds, and especially small birds, are almost not shy. On the contrary, they are very interested in people. For example, this little bird walked in circles around me, gradually tightening its ring and getting closer. If I had sat on the grass a little longer (it didn’t work out because the dogs came running), the bird could have come within arm’s length, and maybe even settled next to me :) It seems that it rarely sees people and there is no danger from doesn't feel us.

Such small birds are not found everywhere in the north, but if you notice them somewhere, you can be sure that everything here is teeming with birds. They prefer sunny places sheltered from the wind with grass, flowers and fresh lakes. For obvious reasons, there are not many such places, which is why they gather there in such quantities.

The list of Arctic animals is not exhaustive. And there was no such goal. Here I would like to write only about those whom we saw in person or about those who interested us very much (for example, sharks). For example, we did not meet wolves, polar owls, narwhals and many other animals, so I did not mention them.