MORE COOL SPECIES

NORTHERN COLLARED LEMMING Dicrostonyx groenlandicus

mouselike rodent that lives in treeless areas of northern Canada; one of three species in the Arctic only species of lemming on which fur colour changes with the seasons: grey with brown in summer, solid white in winter can reproduce within weeks of birth remains active throughout the Arctic winter without freezing to death front feet develop two enlarged claws, presumably to help dig through the hard-packed tundra snow has colonized the Queen Elizabeth Islands right to the northern tip of Ellesmere Island roughly four-year cycles of drastically fluctuating populations because it is an important food for ermines, Arctic foxes and snowy owls, fluctuations have significant effect on Arctic life cycles IUCN status: least concern

BELUGA WHALE (EASTERN HIGH ARCTIC–BAFFIN BAY POPULATION) Delphinapterus leucas

adults range in total length from 2.6 to 4.5 m and weigh up to 1,900 kg name from the Russian belukha, which means white adults are pure white in colour; newborns are born dark grey or mottled thick skin and lack of dorsal fin probable adaptations to ice-filled Arctic waters well-developed sense of hearing and refined ability to detect objects by sound in summer, found in the waters of the central Arctic Archipelago, many in the estuaries of Somerset Island; migrate through Lancaster Sound in the fall to over-winter in Baffin Bay off Greenland in High Arctic waters, feeds on turbot and Arctic cod; further south, also eats Arctic char, squid, shrimp, molluscs and marine worms vulnerable to predation by polar bears and killer whales; returning to the same locations yearly increases vulnerability to human hunting and disturbance