Cliffside nests make for tiny spaces to raise this seabird's young!

Arctic foxes are white in the winter and brown during summer for better camouflage.  During what season do you think this photo was taken? 

This tiny, quirky, curious seabird nests under rocks and is still powerful enough to fly long distances to find food.

Did you know these seabirds have a slight tangerine scent that used to be used as mosquito repellant?  The Siberian Yupik would rub the birds onto their clothing to keep those mosquitoes away. 

And like many seabirds, the bright-colored beaks and fancy crests are only temporary. Once breeding season is over, the males are no longer as flashy!

Known as "sea parrots" for their colorful beaks and feet, these puffins spend most of their lives on the open sea and only visit land to breed in the summer. Once they land, they use their claws at the end of their webbed feet to help dig burrows for their young.  

Also known as the "Trump Puffin" (you can figure out why). Those beaks have tiny little teeth to help them hold up to 20 fish at a time!

Parakeet Auklets are often found throughout the Bering Sea, south coastal Alaska, and the North Pacific, depending on the time of year. In winter, these birds migrate south as California, Japan, Hawaii,  and Sweden.

The pelagic cormorant uses its own guano (bird poop!) to make its nest and to cement its nest to the cliff face.

Word has it that they're not very good to eat because they're very greasy. They have a gland that they use to preen themselves because their feathers aren't naturally waterproof, even though they have to dive and swim to capture their food. 

These mammoth animals will let you know they're nearby with their bawdy scent. Those tusks are valuable, not only for protection and finding food, but also for hauling themselves up on sea ice. They are also in high demand for ivory carvings which earn money for those who live in Savoonga.

Common Murres are pretty heavy birds that have a raucous, laugh-like call. They are excellent swimmers, but because their legs are placed so far back on their torsos, they look awkward and out of place on land. 

These murres have dark brown heads (almost black), but are otherwise very similar to thick-billed murres in behavior and size. 

Can you spot the difference between the Common Murre and Thick-Billed Murre? 

(Hint: Their beaks are shorter and thicker, plus they have a "milk mustache"!)

They are both astounding swimmers but pretty clumsy to watch waddle on land. Maybe that's why they only need a tiny cliffside space for laying their eggs.

These reindeer on Svalbard are the only large grazing mammal in the European High Arctic, and feed on tundra vegetation like grasses and small vascular plants, along with lichen. Something really cool is that both males and females grow antlers!

As a marine mammal,  a polar bear is as comfortable in the water as it is on land and even has webbed feet to help it swim. (Their Latin name “Ursus maritimus” means “sea bear”.)  What’s really cool is that their hollow hairs are thought to be a kind of solar heater, working as a sunlight filter through the outer tips of the hair to their black skin.  

Bowheads have been a favored whale for hunting for at least 2,000 years because of their large quantities of oil, baleen, meat, and muktuk (skin with blubber, often used as a filling snack).  They are the most important subsistence species, both culturally and nutritionally, for coastal villages in north/northwestern Alaska. The Siberian Yup’ik name is aghveq.

This photo shows the remains of Whale that could not be used due to the timing of the kill and the harvest of the body. 

If you want to know more about this particular whale, click here. 

Which birds can you see here? How many are there? 

What are their names? 

(*Answer: 3 seabirds

Left to right: Black-legged Kittiwake, Tufted Puffin, Parakeet Auklet)