Bears, Walrus and Foxes of the Far North

Travellers in red parkas on the deck of a small expedition ship watching a distant polar bear on drifting sea ice through binoculars

Field note · Along the ice edge

Where the Animals Actually Are

Most people picture polar bears padding past a hotel window. The reality in Svalbard is quieter and more patient: hours on deck as a small ship noses along the edge of the drift ice north of Nordaustlandet, binoculars passed hand to hand, until someone spots a cream-coloured shape against the white. Bears follow the ice because the ice is where the seals are.

Land sightings happen, particularly when bears are stranded ashore in late summer, but they are not the norm, and they are exactly the moments when people get into trouble. Watching from a vessel, at a distance that leaves the bear undisturbed, is both the safest and the most rewarding way to see one.

Species notes

Six Animals Worth Learning Before You Go

Each of these species is protected under the laws of the territory where you will meet it. Disturbing them is not only unkind; in Svalbard it is illegal.

Sea ice

Polar bear

Ursus maritimus spends most of its life on sea ice hunting ringed and bearded seals. Females den in snowdrifts on islands such as Kongsøya, emerging with cubs in spring.

Shallow seas

Walrus

Hunted almost to local extinction in Svalbard before protection in 1952, the walrus has slowly returned. It feeds on clams on the shallow seabed and rests on traditional beaches.

Tundra

Arctic fox

Vulpes lagopus lives on both land and sea ice. In Svalbard it patrols bird cliffs in summer and can travel huge distances across frozen sea in winter.

Deep water

Narwhal

Monodon monoceros is found mainly around Greenland and Arctic Canada. Its tusk is a long, sensory tooth, and Inuit communities still hunt narwhal under quota systems.

Endemic

Svalbard reindeer

A stocky subspecies found only in the archipelago, often grazing calmly near Longyearbyen. Calm does not mean tame: keep your distance and let it feed.

Coastal

Beluga

The white whale travels along Svalbard's coasts and glacier fronts in pods, sometimes feeding where meltwater stirs up food at the face of the ice.

A birdwatcher with a telescope sitting quietly on a rocky slope below a seabird cliff in Svalbard

Field note · Bird cliffs

The Noisy Summer Colonies

From June the cliffs fill with little auks, Brünnich's guillemots, kittiwakes and fulmars. The little auk, a starling-sized seabird, nests in vast numbers in scree slopes and is one of the most abundant birds in the Atlantic Arctic. Arctic terns arrive after one of the longest migrations of any animal, flying from Antarctic waters, and they defend their nests by diving at anyone who walks too close.

Bird cliffs are also fox and bear country. Foxes patrol the base for fallen eggs and chicks, and bears have been filmed climbing to raid nests. Sit quietly at a distance, stay off nesting slopes, and keep an eye on your surroundings as well as your telescope.

How Close Is Too Close?

There is no single magic number that works for every animal, every season and every landscape, and this is the first thing experienced guides tell new visitors. The working rule used across the expedition industry, set out in the wildlife guidelines of the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO), is simple: if an animal changes its behaviour because of you, you are already too close. A walrus lifting its head and staring, a bear stopping to sniff the air towards you, a reindeer that stops grazing and walks away — each is a signal to back off.

In Svalbard the Environmental Protection Act makes it illegal to lure, pursue or disturb polar bears in a way that could put people or bears at risk. People have been fined for following bears by snowmobile and for approaching them for photographs. Bears that become used to people often end up shot in self-defence, which is why the gentlest thing a traveller can do is stay away.

Reading Animal Behaviour

Polar bears that turn towards you, raise their heads repeatedly or approach in a straight line need to be treated as a serious hazard. Guides will retreat, gather the group and use deterrents such as flare guns long before any firearm is considered.
Walrus resting on a beach can panic and stampede into the water, crushing calves. Approach slowly, in a tight group, keeping low and downwind, and never between animals and the sea.
Arctic foxes sometimes approach people out of curiosity. Never feed them; fed foxes become bolder and can carry rabies, which is present in Svalbard's fox population.
Whales should be watched from a vessel moving slowly and parallel to their course. Cutting across their path or crowding a pod with several boats causes stress.

Photographers: a long lens is the respectful tool. A 400 mm or longer lens lets you fill the frame without pushing an animal off its rest, hunt or nest. If the picture needs you to move closer, take a different picture.

Seasons Shape Every Sighting

In late winter and spring, from about March to May, Svalbard's fjords still hold sea ice and bears may hunt close to the coast, which is why snowmobile trips in that season come with strict guiding. Summer, from June to August, is ship season: the ice retreats north, bird cliffs reach full volume and walrus gather on traditional haul-outs such as those at Kapp Lee on Edgeøya and Poolepynten on Prins Karls Forland. In Greenland, Disko Bay summers bring humpback whales feeding among the icebergs near Ilulissat.

The polar night, from late October to mid-February, brings darkness and very little wildlife watching, but the animals are still there. Arctic foxes and reindeer move about in the blue twilight, and bears can wander into settlements unnoticed, which is one reason residents carry torches and stay alert even on the walk home.