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Arctic Animals: Profiles Reading 01: Polar Bear Reading 02: Ice-edge dwellers Reading 03: Land dwellers Reading 04: Ocean Communities Reading 05: Plant Communities

Animals of the High Arctic have special adaptations that allow them to survive in the harsh climate. The muskox, stays warm with a double-layer of insulation. Shaggy coarse outer hairs shed the snow and block the wind and keeps an under-layer short wool called “qiviut” dry. When Arctic storms hit, muskox huddle in groups and can become completely covered with blowing snow. They stay perfectly warm under the snow in their double-layered coats. When the storm is over, they simply stand up and shake off the snow.

The Peary Caribou have hollow hairs that trap their body heat and insulate them from the cold, much like a puffy coat traps your body heat, keeping you warm in the winter. Caribou and muskox are herbivores, meaning they have to be able to find plants and lichens to eat. In the winter this means using their sense of smell to find food under the snow and then digging with their hooves to reach the food. Climate change can make freezing rain and thaw-freeze events more common in the Arctic which can coat the ground in a layer of ice that makes it difficult for caribou and muskox to reach their food.

Polar bears have thick coats and a large nose for warming the air they breathe. A mother bear will den under the snow during the four coldest months of winter where she and her cubs will be out of the wind and warm. You might not think of a snow den as being warm, but because of the tiny air pockets trapped in snow, snow is a good insulator, just like the insulation in the walls of your house. The mother doesn’t eat during the four months she and her cubs are in their den, so when they emerge in the spring she must successfully hunt seals on the sea ice. A warming climate can reduce the amount of sea ice and make hunting difficult. It can also cause snow dens to collapse.