The Finnish folk musician Liisa Matveinen lives in a mustard-coloured house in Ilomantsi, 12 miles (20km) from the Russian border. Large books of folk songs line her walls. Sitting in her kitchen, Matveinen sings about a humble hunter going into the woods to find reindeer. The song tells us how they were “honoured” providers of […]
Tag: reindeer
As polar ice caps melt, how are ‘Christmas animals’ faring?
Between snowy winters and holiday songs, many animals come to mind during Christmas. There are polar bears wearing Santa hats and red-nosed reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh. Turtle doves and the partridge in a pear tree are also immortalized in the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” But climate change and habitat loss are taking a […]
Arctic Animals Face Growing Disease Threats as Climate Warms
Karyn Rode, a seasoned research wildlife biologist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Alaska Science Center, emphasizes the polar bear‘s role as a bellwether for broader ecological shifts. “Pathogens’ transmission pathways are changing, including in the Arctic,” Rode notes, highlighting the rapid environmental transformations underway. The region is warming at a pace four times the global […]
Hedmark, Norway
I’ll be off to Hedmark again before I am finished with the posts from my trip last week. Here are the final pictures and now it is only videos to go. This post features amongst others Siberian Jay, Three-toed Woodpecker, Parrot Crossbill, Slavonian Grebe, Waxwing, Cuckoo and Willow Tit (which was seen in an as […]
NON-PROFIT expedition workshop to see polar bears in Svalbard, 2014
Join us on a once-in-a-lifetime voyage in the High Arctic to experience polar bears in their environment, while learning about their biology, their current and future status, the threats against them, and what you can do to help protect them. While we will provide and ensure the full experience that a regular small-ship expedition cruise […]
Roe (and other deer) Hazards
People, cars, and deer—put them together and you’ve got trouble. A rapidly urbanizing planet is transforming wild lands into habitat for humanity, and the non-human species living in these previously undeveloped areas must either adapt to the new landscape, find someplace else to live (not an easy task), or be erased from the biological census. […]