Monday, July 9, Tuesday, July 10

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2 Monday, July 9, 2012 The day began, for most, with a hearty buffet breakfast at the Spitsbergen Hotel in Longyearbyen. There was a lot of small talk as we were getting to know each other, but conversations largely centered around everyone sharing their excitement, hopes and expectations of the impending tour. After breakfast, with free time to explore the town and adjacent areas, the group scattered. Some gravitated to the shops, restaurants and to the museum in Longyearbyen, while others headed for the great outdoors with binoculars and spotting scopes to see what they could find. Within sight of town were several reindeer, some bedded, some grazing. The melodious calls and flashy sightings of snow buntings were ubiquitous in and around town, complete with begging chicks and parents making food deliveries. Swarms of little auks (dovekies) were coming and going from the cliffs to the west of town, occasionally accompanied and harassed by parasitic jaegers, while a Svalbard rock ptarmigan moved along on the rocky hillside below the cliffs. At 3:30 pm the bus came to the Spitsbergen Hotel to transfer us to the old dock along the ocean s edge just north of town where our ship, the Polar Pioneer, was waiting. We boarded the ship, got our room assignments and had an orientation. We departed the dock at 4:30 pm, participated in a safety drill, and enjoyed our first of many delicious meals on the ship. After dinner, Dennis Mense, Wayne Lynch, Gary Alt and Chris Leahy gave an overview of tomorrow s plans for travel and Zodiac landings to initiate our Svalbard exploration. The first day of our 10-day tour was coming to a close. As the Polar Pioneer steamed west out of Isfjorden and turned north along the western edge of Svalbard, the anticipation was building concerning what tomorrow would deliver. Tuesday, July 10 Following an appropriately sobering briefing by Dennis on the dos and don ts of behavior in polar bear habitat, we headed for the Zodiacs at 9:15 am and made our first landing of the cruise at New London, the site of an abandoned marble mine. With Dennis, Santiago and Gary Page 2

3 standing armed guard on adjacent heights, Wayne took a large contingent on a highland circuit while Chris Leahy explored the tundra near the beach and a boggy wetland with the rest of the group. With an abundance of blue sky, no wind and a temperature in the 60s, it was hard to imagine a more perfect introduction to the wilds of Spitsbergen. As if to complete the welcoming ritual, a pair of barnacle geese came honking overhead as we set out. The tundra here was adorned with brilliant pink cushions of moss campion and gleaming mats of Dryas or mountain avens, interspersed among rivers of well-sorted rocks and ovals resembling burial mounds, caused by the continual melting and freezing of the permafrost. In the rocky hills, Wayne s group located a long-tailed jaeger s nest, while Chris group spent time studying and photographing a parasitic jaeger s nest in the wetlands below and watched a snow bunting gathering minute insects to feed her noisy brood in a nearby rock crevice. Other birds encountered during the morning included purple sandpipers, arctic terns, and a female common eider with a newly-hatched brood of ducklings. Also of interest was a freshly dead reindeer with broken legs, very likely a victim of a polar bear. As we donned our life vests for the return to the ship, a long-tailed jaeger flew down and perched above us on a pole attached to one of the abandoned mine buildings and, as we pushed off, it wheeled over the Zodiacs as if to bid us farewell. After lunch and time for a brief snooze, Chris gave the first lecture of the trip an Introduction to the Natural History of the Arctic. Later in the afternoon, we cruised into Magdalena Fjord in search of walrus along the shoreline. Though no walrus appeared, the great, snow-streaked walls of the fjord rising into the mist provided a majestic backdrop for several Atlantic puffins at close range and huge flocks of dovekies, looking like swarms of gnats against the towering, cloud-draped peaks. Our journey was off to a most impressive start! Wednesday, July 11 We were awakened once again this morning at 7:00 am by Dennis cheerful voice. The temperature was 41 F (5 C) under a cloudy sky. Overnight we had entered the north end of Hinlopen Strait and were cruising south at 10 knots/hour. After breakfast, Page 3

4 Wayne gave a lecture on photo composition and we were soon able to put his suggestions into practice when we spotted a pair of walruses lounging on a small pan of ice. For almost an hour, the Captain maneuvered the ship to give us different views of the tooth-walkers the endearing nickname given to these blubbery beasts, derived from their scientific name, Odobenus. The walrus pair consisted of a large-tusked adult male and a juvenile male. The Svalbard population of walruses numbers about 2,000 animals and is shared with the Russian islands of Franz Josef Land to the east. Normally in the western and central parts of the Svalbard Archipelago there are only male walruses; the females with their calves stay farther to the east or in Franz Josef Land. The wildlife action really started to happen just before lunch when we arrived at a large expanse of shorefast ice at the front of the Hochstetter Glacier (78 55 North) south of Wilhelmøya. From the bridge we counted at least a dozen polar bears, perhaps as many as 15, wandering about on the ice. Included among the bears were two females, each with a pair of cubs. Shorefast ice, which is ice anchored to the coastline, is usually the last of the seasonal sea ice to melt and this summer the ice had melted quickly so the bears had few remaining places where they could hunt. Sea ice is a vital hunting platform for polar bears and, as the sea ice in the Arctic continues to decline each summer, the bears are increasingly challenged to catch enough seals to provide them with the fat reserves they need to sustain them for the year. On the ice we could also see at least a dozen ringed seals that had hauled out to molt. The seals continually lifted their heads to scan their surroundings for danger and their vigilance made hunting difficult for the bears. We passed the early afternoon watching the bears at a distance and, despite our wishful thinking, none of them were curious or bold enough to approach the ship for a closer view. Midway through our afternoon vigil, Gary gave a lecture comparing the three northern bears the polar bear, brown bear and American black bear to help us better understand the behavior we were seeing. His lecture was interrupted when a juvenile bear wandered close to the ship. From the edge of the ice the young bear peered up at us longingly, most certainly not wishing to join us for a social visit but to relieve its hunger with a tasty tourist. By dinnertime, most of us assumed that our afternoon bears-at-a-distance, plus the curious teenage bear, were ample wildlife rewards for a day, but fate had other plans for Page 4

5 us. Midway through our beef stroganoff, two adult bears, one right after the other, decided to visit the Polar Pioneer. In golden light, the pair ambled out to a picturesque point of ice, lay down together, mouthed and nodded at each other in acceptance, then slowly strolled back to the ship giving us ample opportunity to capture the action with a plethora of pixels. Someone joked that the bears did everything but dance a duet. We ended the day by gathering on the bow for a group photograph. Thursday, July 12 At 6:30 am we were just northeast of Barentsøya when an intercom announcement from our Expedition Leader, Dennis, informed us that two humpback whales were surfacing near the bow of our ship. Nearly everyone hopped out of bed, dressed in a hurry, and rushed out on the bow with binoculars or cameras to be rewarded with an intriguing whale show. For 45 minutes the two small humpbacks swam synchronously in a slow, lazy, gliding motion, returning to the surface for air every few minutes between shallow dives in front of and alongside our ship. There were times when we could see the whales swimming almost directly below us in the clear arctic water then surfacing less than 20 feet away! The whales seemed curious and not the least bit put off by the presence of our ship idling along. Then, at 8:30 am, the whales moved on, breakfast was served, and the dining hall buzzed with all the excitement of our amazing early morning whale encounter. Today was largely a day of travel. Our goal was to head southeast out of Hinlopen Strait in search of a large patch of ice which likely would have a large number of polar bears. However, the ice was not to be found as the previous days' wind had cleared it from the area. After breakfast, Chris presented an informative PowerPoint lecture on arctic birds, providing some basic natural history and adaptations of the birds of Svalbard and other arctic areas. After lunch, Wayne provided a very entertaining lecture, beautifully illustrated with his own photographs, of the mammals of Svalbard. No one can squeeze more laughs out of a discussion of hairy mammals Page 5

6 than Wayne! Our day concluded with a delicious BBQ dinner on the stern of the ship with lots of food, drinks, music and conversations and laughter a celebration of arctic travel. Friday, July 13 It was a brilliantly clear, calm morning with the sea like a mirror as we steamed northward through Hinlopen Strait. Our destination was Alkefjellet, which can be translated as Murre Mount for the immense colony of thick-billed murres and other seabirds that we hoped to explore. The sheer 100-meterhigh (330 feet) cliffs rising vertically from the sea, the result of a dolerite (volcanic basalt) intrusion into earlier limestone rocks million years ago, are sufficiently impressive in their own right. At first the only birds apparent were a few flocks of murres, winging rapidly in various directions over the glassy sea. But as the Polar Pioneer drew closer, it became apparent that we were looking at an avian housing project of immense proportions with an estimated population of 60,000 pairs of murres. (*See note about bird names at end of logbook.) We were soon in the Zodiacs, working our way from north to south along the base of the cliffs, beginning at a broad glacial front with masses of black-legged kittiwakes feeding in the plankton upwelling at the edge of the ice. On a mossy area between the rock faces, some of us were lucky enough to watch a nearly white arctic fox as it picked its way gingerly across the nearly vertical landscape looking for whatever morsels it could find to bring back to its den or to cache for the long winter ahead. We were treated to several other vignettes of arctic life as we scanned the cliffs a pair of barnacle geese with two freshly-hatched powder gray goslings, a glaucous gull killing and devouring a hapless murre, and exquisite marine invertebrates, such as sea butterflies (pteropods) and comb jellies (ctenophores) drifting in the clear water beside us. But the main event, of course, was the murres surrounding us on the sea, squeezed like feathered sardines in countless rows on mere inches of real estate, and ascending into a sky that was also filled with birds commuting between their fishing grounds and their overcrowded skyscraper. Their voices created a continual cacophony, their guano a distinctive pungency. Page 6

7 Alkefjellet must surely rank as one of the great highlights of this arctic adventure, but the day never ends at these latitudes. We now steamed south along the eastern shore of Hinlopen Strait and anchored off the stepped gravel beach of Torellneset (Torell Point, named for Otto Torell, a Swedish naturalist and geologist who explored the region in the mid-19th century). The main event here was a haul-out spot for a herd of male walruses lounging scratching, grunting, very occasionally confronting a fellow behemoth, and showing only mild interest in the strangely-colored visitors who came to stare at them and take their pictures. Strict guidelines require visitors to remain at a respectful distance from these animals and to observe them in groups of 25 or fewer, so Wayne and Santiago took half the group to pay a call on the walruses while Dennis, Gary and Chris explored the beach. While explaining the large amount of beached timbers in a land with no trees they originated in the Siberian taiga forests, floated down one of nine Russian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean and were delivered to Torellneset by the Transpolar Current a pair of parasitic jaegers showed off their aerobatic skills as they tried to relieve a panicky arctic tern of the fish in its crop. We then turned our attention to the ground, which at first appeared utterly barren until we looked more closely and discovered a miniature world of lichens and dwarf flowers, including Svalbard poppies, tufted saxifrage and arctic chickweeds and buttercups. As the groups changed places near the great brown heap of walruses, a good-sized bull, apparently unable to contain his curiosity, waddled out of the sea, gave us all a thorough inspection and seemed about to ask our business. But he soon lost interest and returned to his pinniped brethren. After capturing a few thousand additional digital images, we returned to the ship at the end of another extraordinarily memorable day. Saturday, July 14 After a night spent cruising along the southern edge of Austfonna, the second largest ice cap in the Arctic after Greenland, we approached the tiny island of Isispynten (79 40 North), located midway along the ice front. The name Isis refers to a river in Oxford, England, and was bestowed on the island by a British mapping team that visited the area in On arrival, our closeness to the ice cap was reflected in the temperature, which was just 4 C (39 F). Page 7

8 Shortly after breakfast we left the ship for an intended quick Zodiac cruise around the island to be followed by a close look at the vertical face of the ice cap. A pair of polar bears had other plans for us. As we slowly cruised along the gravel and barren black bedrock of the island, enjoying extended views of arctic terns, common eiders and red-throated loons, the first bear was spotted walking toward the beach near our location. The visitor was a juvenile bear, presumably stranded on the island when the pack ice melted. It would likely have little to eat until the chill of autumn froze the sea again in late September or early October. From the bear s behavior, it was hungry and anxious to figure out how it could reach the meaty morsels floating in the rubber boats just a short swim beyond the water s edge. After wading into the sea up to its belly, the bear returned to shore and strolled along its edge, perhaps hoping for a another chance to reach us in the water. As it walked along it disturbed a pair of nesting parasitic jaegers and was dive-bombed repeatedly. Eventually the bear lost interest in us and disappeared among the rolling hills of the island s interior. We found the second bear on the back side of the island as we were heading toward the ice face. This second bear was a battle-scarred adult male. It was not nearly as curious as the first bear had been and, after an initial inspection of us from the wave-polished rocks along the shore, it settled down to sleep on a small patch of snow. With the two bears behind us, we made the short Zodiac ride out to the face of the ice cap. The southern edge of Austfonna, or East Ice, stretches for roughly 200 kilometers (120 miles) and this impressive wall of ancient glacial ice ranges from 10 to 40 meters (32 to 131 feet) in height. As we approached the ice face, the sun periodically peeked through the clouds illuminating different stretches of the ice and providing some stunning scenery. On our return to the ship we sighted a third bear on the island but it was lying down far from shore and seemed disinclined to come any closer, so we headed back to the warmth of the Polar Pioneer. Back aboard we learned that, while most of us had been out in the Zodiacs, another bear swam out to the ship, which was anchored at least 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) Page 8

9 offshore, and had circled the bow for a few minutes before swimming away. Two passengers who had remained on board (Caroline Taylor & Jayne Samuel-Walker) captured the swimming bear on video and happily shared the experience for all to see. The excitement wasn t yet over for the day and in the late afternoon we started out on a sixhour cruise along the eastern end of Austfonna, heading for the small island of Storøya. Shortly before dinner was announced some sharp-eyed passengers on the bridge spotted a small pod of six or seven white-beaked dolphins surfacing ahead of the ship and thrashing about in the water. A few black-legged kittiwakes circled above the dolphins, which suggested that the whales were feeding on a school of fish and that the gulls were hoping to get a meal for themselves. While most of us were watching the dolphins on the starboard side of the ship, Dennis spotted a separate group of whales on the port side. This second group of cetaceans turned out to be three or four narwhals an exceptionally rare sighting in the waters around Svalbard. All of the whales had the typical mottled pattern on their backs, but none were dark grey or had a spiral tusk, which suggested that it was a small group of females without any calves. Passenger Gino Garcia later confirmed that the group were indeed narwhals. A photo he took was of a mature male narwhal and showed the tusk underwater. Our after-dinner landing on Storøya was temporarily threatened when a thick bank of fog moved into the area, but this soon dissipated and we launched the Zodiacs at 8:22 pm. On shore, we were delighted to see a tight crowd of walruses, perhaps 150 strong, mounded along the water s edge. Unlike the walruses we had seen previously in the voyage, which were invariably males of different ages, the animals on Storøya were mostly adult females with calves and juveniles. A few inquisitive ones swam close to the Zodiacs but most just stayed ashore resting. At one point we watched a newborn calf nursing a rare event to witness. Sunday, July 15 The day began at about 7 am with an intercom announcement from Dennis about our location and plans for the day. He indicated we were at North and 26 9 East, just north of the northeast corner of Svalbard. The temperature was 5 C (41 F) and the sun was trying to break through the fog. Our plan was to continue to steam north to the edge of the ice to find seals and polar bears. True to our plan, we continued north until we located the edge of the ice, then began moving westward. We were now in the perfect habitat for ringed and bearded seals and for hunting polar bears. Knowing this, the anticipation quickly grew and soon all the leaders and most of the group were on the bridge glassing the ice for any hint of seals or bears. At 12:21 pm Chris Page 9

10 spotted the first polar bear on a mound of ice about 400 yards away, just to the right of where the ship was heading. But this discovery was soon minimized when, four minutes later, Dennis announced, There are four more bears on the ice to our left! This concentration of bears coupled with gull activity near the bears was strong evidence to those of us who had been on previous trips that we were probably near a seal kill. Sure enough, as we moved in closer, one of the big male bears was feeding on the remains of what appeared to be a bearded seal. Apparently the seal had been killed earlier in the day and all of the fat and nearly all of the flesh had already been removed from the carcass. That might explain why there was already such a concentration of bears (all adult males, except for one) lying around. The fact that nearly the entire carcass had been consumed and that the hide still lay on the ice next to the carcass provided clues as to the lack of an abundance of food for the bears and to what species the hapless seal belonged. The two most common seals killed by polar bears in this area are ringed seals and bearded seals. This was probably a bearded seal due to its large size, but also because the bears had not consumed the hide. When polar bears eat ringed seals it is more typical that they peel and eat the hide with the blubber. In the case of bearded seals they usually remove the hide to get to the blubber, but don t eat the hide. Also, when seals are abundant, polar bears will often primarily consume the blubber and move on to the next one, leaving the flesh and entrails for other scavengers, such as gulls and arctic fox. However, when food is scarce they will eat most of the carcass. That was clearly the case here. As we moved in closer we noticed that the bear was lying next to the stripped carcass trying to remove the last pieces of flesh from a scapula (shoulder blade) and one of the front flippers. The main carcass consisted of only a more-or-less complete skeleton with small bits of flesh attached. About six feet away, the hide was stacked in a neat pile and various smaller parts were scattered in the immediate area. Two glaucous gulls were present trying to opportunistically snatch a tidbit from the carcass whenever the bear moved away. While all of this was going on, three other adult males were lying on the ice in various directions within several hundred yards of the kill site doing what polar bears do best waiting. Page 10

11 After about an hour one of the other adult males got up and meandered back to the kill site. Tension grew as the two monarchs approached each other but, after a repertoire of circling, sniffing and checking each other out, they moved back to the carcass and began feeding within six feet of each other. Soon after, this whole process was repeated again as a third adult male joined the group and they settled in feeding on the remains of the carcass side by side. It was amazing to see such incredibly large and powerful predators exhibit such tolerance of each other while sharing the kill. However, there was little left to fight over at that point and the congeniality would probably have been less if the carcass had been fresh. We stayed at the kill site for the remainder of the day and the bear show went on pretty much nonstop. Bears continued coming and going back and forth from the carcass to the ship. This was an amazing day filled with opportunity to watch and photograph polar bear behavior in the heart of their ice kingdom. Monday, July 16 We remained in the ice near the seal carcass through the night while the bears continued to approach the ship, sniffing avidly and, no doubt, wondering how they might climb aboard and sample some of the resident seal-like creatures that looked like they d be easy to catch. In the early hours of the morning, one of our photographers peered over the stern and found himself nose to nose with one of the white giants an experience that may prove memorable for both. Page 11

12 The weather continued cloudy and raw with patches of fog and only occasional moments of sunshine. Far from dampening spirits, however, the changing light made the icescapes, with their intense blues and myriad shades of white, even more interesting and beautiful than they were in full sun. After breakfast we moved out of the ice and headed west toward the Sjuøyane (Seven Isles), the northernmost islands in the Svalbard Archipelago. Most of these largely barren islands were named in 1861 by the explorers Otto Torell and Adolf Nordenskjöld. Among those commemorated were members of the Phipps Arctic Expedition of 1773, including Horatio Nelson (of Trafalgar fame) who was then an obscure midshipman. Though it is one of the smallest of the seven islands, Nelsonøye is arguably the most distinctive a flat-topped 140- meter-high (460 feet) butte, with a passing resemblance to a top hat. The Sjuøyane harbor the world s northernmost population of Atlantic puffins and a mountain-top colony of ivory gulls, though we saw neither as we passed by. Birds were in fact on the thin side on this day, though as we were leaving the ice this morning, we were visited briefly by two pomarine jaegers just off the stern, the only ones we would see during the cruise. Shortly before 10 pm in the evening, we gathered on the bridge and raised a glass as we approached and then crossed 81 North latitude our farthest north for the expedition. Tuesday, July 17 At 7:30 am, as Dennis bid us good morning with the customary Russian greeting, Dobray utra, he also announced that a pod of belugas had been sighted from the bridge. The ship slowly changed course and followed the white whales at a distance for about 30 minutes. It was hard to count how many whales were in the group, but it seemed there were three separate clusters, totaling about 20 whales in all. During the time we shadowed the animals, most of us got wonderful views of these unique arctic cetaceans. At 9:30 am we boarded the Zodiacs hoping to see a female polar bear and her cub of the year that we spotted on one of the Duck Islands (Andøyane) at the entrance to Leifdefjorden. In all, we had five Zodiacs in the water but, despite an hour of searching, we could not see the bears from our viewpoint on the water, even though the animals were plainly visible from the elevated vantage point of the ship s bridge. It was too dangerous for us to land on the island to Page 12

13 try to find the bears, so we landed on a nearby island instead to enjoy a stroll on the tundra. The island turned out to be a miniature arctic garden covered with grasses, sedges and lush beds of moss. There were beautiful clumps of scarlet moss campion, ivory-colored mountain avens and white tufted saxifrage. The island also had much to offer the birdwatchers in our group. Many among us saw newly-hatched red phalarope chicks huddling under their male parent to regain some body heat. There were excellent views of a pair of great skuas that defiantly swooped on any who came near a dead kittiwake they had recently killed and were feeding on. Scattered across the small island was an unusual number of shed antlers from female Svalbard reindeer. Nearby Reinsdyrflya, an expanse of rolling tundra, has a large reindeer population that is free to walk across to the islands when the ice is solid. Gary hypothesized that, because the island had so many female antlers scattered about, it might be used as a calving grounds. Female reindeer are the only members of the deer family to grow antlers and they shed them within a day or two of giving birth to their latest calf. As we were about to return to the ship someone noticed that the female polar bear and her cub, previously hidden from view, were now visible and moving about. We immediately launched the Zodiacs and, within 30 minutes, we were enjoying intimate views of the bear family. The playful cub romped about, chewed on a dried out kittiwake carcass, and mouthed some kelp that had washed ashore. The bears gave us a fantastic photo opportunity as they posed quietly on the shoreline against a backdrop of red sandstone. Wayne had seen the bear family on the same island several weeks earlier, so it s likely they had been landlocked since at least the middle of June, many weeks earlier than is typical. If the mother s fat reserves were less than usual the cub might not survive. The early disappearance of the sea ice can prematurely force polar bears ashore and is another example of the impact that global warming is having on arctic wildlife. Page 13

14 As we headed back to the ship, a misty rain settled over the fjord. The inclement weather had kindly delayed its arrival until our outing was complete. Clearly, the good karma on the ship was continuing to work in our favor. We soon pulled up anchor and set our sights on Fuglesangen (Bird Song Island) in the northwest corner of the archipelago. Fuglesangen is a major dovekie colony in Svalbard. Dovekies, also called little auks, are the most abundant seabird in the islands, numbering over one million breeding pairs. In contrast with most seabirds in Svalbard, dovekies nest under large boulders on steep scree slopes so most colonies are inaccessible. Our landing on Fuglesangen, albeit challenging because of the slippery rocks along the shoreline, offered relatively easy access to these endearing little birds. During our 2½-hour visit most of us got closeup views of the birds as they vocalized, preened, courted and sometimes mated. The throats on some birds were visibly swollen with copepods they were bringing back to their newly hatched chicks, safely hidden underground among the maze of crevices. Intermittently, great flocks of these garrulous little birds would suddenly take off in noisy, circling flights. Some of these flights were in response to the flyover of a predatory glaucous gull, but others may have served a social function to synchronize breeding activities in the colony. Everyone was back on board by 9:00 pm after a truly exhilarating day in the arctic. Wednesday, July 18 Our location was near Prins Karls Forlands when the day began. Right after breakfast we launched our Zodiacs to visit a group of walrus hauled out at Poolepynten. Twenty-five to thirty walrus were resting along a sandy beach with a beautiful background of rugged mountains and glaciers. We slowly and quietly moved to within about 50 yards of them and watched. Most of the walrus were content to just lie there and rest, but much of the time there were a few who rose up, vocalizing and tussling with neighbors and providing wonderful behavioral Page 14

15 interactions and photographic opportunities. It wasn t long before three walrus, two young males accompanied by an adult male, were in the water and coming our way, apparently driven by curiosity. They cruised along the shore, stopped briefly, and each rose up out of the water to study us more carefully. Then, apparently unimpressed, made their way back to the others. A solitary person had set up a tent and was leaning against a small wooden building about a hundred yards beyond where the walrus were hauled out. He slowly walked over to us and introduced himself. He was a Frenchman on a long kayak voyage. He had left Longyearbeyn ten days earlier and was exploring up the west coast of Spitsbergen. He was very tired from his challenging course the night before, fighting the northward currents from the Spitsbergen coast to Prins Karls Forlands Island. He was traveling alone and said he was having a hard time sleeping because he was afraid due to the threat of polar bears. His feelings were a bit ambiguous on one hand he wanted to see a polar bear, but on the other he was afraid to have them around, especially when he was sleeping. His plan was to return to Longyearbeyn, get supplies and rest up for a few days, and then explore the southwestern coast of Spitsbergen until August 24th. It was a treat to talk with him and to share in his adventures, but I think most of us were grateful we had Zodiacs, a ship and regular meals. After lunch we made a short Zodiac excursion to Alkhornet with a goal of observing arctic fox, Svalbard reindeer, and to see some of the lusher tundra vegetation on Spitsbergen. Arctic foxes often den about a half mile west of our landing site, along the rocky ledges at the base of the mountain, just below a huge black-legged kittiwake breeding colony. Santiago had seen eleven kits at the den less than two weeks earlier. Our hopes were high they would still be there, though we knew that much can change on the tundra of Svalbard in a few weeks. Immediately after making our landing we headed directly to the fox den to check it out. We were initially disappointed to see no foxes, but upon closer inspection we saw a young fox sleeping in the rocks near the den entrance. Soon the three-quarters-grown kit got up and began exploring cracks and crevices in the rocks, slowly making its way along the ledges. Most Page 15

16 of the group lined up with binoculars and cameras and spent the better part of an hour observing and photographing the fox as it searched for food in the ledges and rested in the tundra in front of us. Then, after a brief rest, the fox became restless and made its way up the mountain, across some remaining snowfields, and headed directly for the black-legged kittiwake colony no doubt in search of another meal in the cliffs above. Some of us went back to the entrance of the den site to see if we could find evidence of what the foxes had been preying on. Wings, bones, feathers and other remains of scavenged carcasses, which consisted primarily of black-legged kittiwakes, but also included some black guillemots and parts of pinkfooted geese, littered the ground all around the den site. Also near the entrance we found an arctic fox kit that had recently died. Though we did not disturb the carcass, there were no obvious external signs of injury. With a large litter it is not unusual for some to die of starvation. After scanning the scattered remains at the fox den site it was easy to see how important the inaccessible cliffs are to the survival of the breeding bird colonies above, and the importance of the breeding birds to the survival of the foxes. Less dominant birds are often relegated to take the least protected nesting sites, which surely results in higher levels of predation and lower chances of survival. Predatory opportunities not only limit the size of the breeding bird colonies, but the nutritional opportunities for foxes which in turn determines their reproductive success and survival. The nesting black-legged kittiwakes and arctic foxes are intimately connected in their annual struggles, as individuals and as species, to reproduce and survive on this opportunistic, yet unforgiving, arctic island. While the group s attention was primarily fixed on the arctic fox, its den and the prey carcasses, Svalbard reindeer moved into the area causing photographers and naturalists to split their attention between the competing opportunities. Two young cows grazed within 30 yards of a dozen of us taking fox pictures, seemingly oblivious to our group and almost never taking a break to look up or do anything other than to nip off more fresh growth of grasses and wildflowers. At one point three adult bulls with three-quarters-grown velvet antlers incessantly Page 16

17 grazed within 40 yards of all 50 of us without showing any concern or fear. Food was now abundant and the race was on to double their weight as fast as possible before another impending rut and seasonal scarcity. Within five months they will once again be tested by another ruthless season when they must gamble to run out of winter before they run out of stored calories but unlike a financial bankruptcy a nutritional bankruptcy is lethal. No bailouts here. Last winter was mild, with periods of above-freezing temperatures that led to formation of thick layers of ice on the ground essentially blocking most of the vegetation and its nutrients from hungry reindeer. The meteorological events that lead to land ice, that lock up the meager vegetative nutrients from the reindeer, have occurred for millennium, but unfortunately recent climate change has increased their frequency. Evidence of carnage from the most recent winter was all around us. Carcasses of the very young and very old were scattered about the landscape. Entire intact skeletons and hides gave clues of what had happened. The patterns of tooth wear and replacement and the size of antlers indicated that most of the dead were very young with pencil thin spiked antlers, with milk or baby teeth premolars still present, and with second and third molars had not yet erupted the reindeer equivalent of children prior to ages six or seven. They are among the most vulnerable to winter starvation because they are growing rapidly and are not able to store nearly as much fat as adult reindeer. Inspection of several other carcasses indicated they were very old, as their teeth were worn down almost to the gum line. When reindeer become very old (age 10 or so) their teeth wear out and they are not able to chew their food sufficiently. They become malnourished, making them vulnerable to winter starvation. Three young reindeer had died near each other less than 100 yards apart. The jaw of a very old reindeer was on the ground between them, probably a fatality from an earlier time. They all died in a beautiful landscape, but one that is seasonably forbidding. Typically, in winter, reindeer move about in search of wind-blown areas where vegetation can be reached without the need for energy sapping hoof clawing to remove the snow or ice. Reindeer can either stay, Page 17

18 remaining sedentary and living off their fat reserves, or take the risk of migrating to other areas which may or may not have land ice but migrating costs valuable energy. Such are the gambles of life and death in the reindeer world in Svalbard. As we made our way back to the ship for dinner, we felt grateful for the food that would surely be there when we arrived. Thursday, July 19 Dennis gave us our last wake-up of the expedition, we ate our final breakfast aboard, and said our goodbyes to the crew of the Polar Pioneer. During breakfast the crew moved our luggage to the back deck in preparation for being taken ashore. Once the luggage was onshore, we were whisked ashore by Zodiac and boarded our bus for "downtown" Longyearbyen. Some of us continued looking for wildlife near town, while others spent time in the excellent museum and stores. We had lunch on our own and met at 1:15 pm to board the bus for the airport. For most, our last goodbyes were said at the luggage carousel in Oslo. Chris, Gary, Wayne and Dennis all agreed that ours was the best group they had ever had...that week. Wow what a trip! *A NOTE ON BIRD NAMES In many cases the British and Americans use different names for the same species of birds that occur on both sides of the Atlantic except when they don t! This can be very confusing when using field guides and other books. Equivalencies for birds seen on this cruise are as follows: American Red-throated loon Red phalarope Parasitic jaeger Long-tailed jaeger Pomarine jaeger Great skua Thick-billed murre Black guillemot Dovekie Atlantic puffin British Red-throated diver Grey phalarope Arctic skua Long-tailed skua Pomarine skua Great skua Brünnich s guillemot Black guillemot Little auk Puffin Page 18

19 TravelWild Expeditions thanks the passengers who joined us and made this a very memorable cruise! We would also like to thank our Naturalist Leaders, Gary Alt, Chris Leahy and Wayne Lynch, as well as Expedition Leader Dennis Mense, for their excellent work. Logbook written by: Gary Alt, Chris Leahy and Wayne Lynch. Photo credits: All photos Copyright Gary Alt, except photos on pages 2, 8 and 12 which are Copyright Wayne Lynch. Page 19