Arctic reindeer is another victim of global warming - they are getting smaller

Reindeer on an Arctic island near the North Pole is becoming smaller in size and it is attributed to a side-effect of climate change that has reduced winter food for the animals. The island is Svalbard, a chain of islands north of Norway.
The average weight of an adult reindeer has fallen to 48kg from 55kg in the 1990s and, in the opinion of experts, is a part of sweeping changes to Arctic life as temperatures rise.
This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 12 December 2016.

The study was carried out at the James Hutton Institute in Scotland with Norwegian researchers who concluded that while warmer summers are great for reindeer, the winters are getting increasingly tough. The reason is that less chilly winters mean that once-reliable snows fall more often as rain that can freeze into a sheet of ice. This makes it harder for the herbivores to reach plant food.
Ultimately, some of them starve and females often give birth to stunted young.
In summer, however, plants flourish in a food bonanza that ensures healthy females more likely to conceive in autumn - a pregnancy lasts about seven months.
The wild herd studied at Svalbard, located about 1300-Km from the North Pole, had increased to about 1400 animals from 800 since the 1990s. This rise in population The means more competition for scarce food in winter. Arctic temperatures are rising faster than the world average due to a build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org
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Polar bear mauls a tourist in Norway – he had come to watch the solar eclipse

#solareclipse #polarbear #svalbard #faroeislands A tourist who had come to Norway to watch the solar eclipse was mauled by a Polar bear – it went for his head and had to be shot dead as reported in news.sky.com dated 19 March 2015. It seems on an average, three bears a year are shot in self-defense by people on Svalbard.
Thousands of tourists had gathered with plans to watch the solar eclipse and the victim was in a group of six on a snowscooter and skiing tour. He was later airlifted to hospital. He suffered injuries to the face and arm but his life is not in danger. His nationality is yet to be ascertained.
The Norwegian Arctic islands of Svalbard and Faroe Islands are the only places on land from where the total solar eclipse can be seen when the Moon will totally block out the Sun. Svalbard is located about 1,300-Km from the North Pole, and the Faroe Islands to the south.
Svalbard has already cautioned tourists on the risks of polar bears and of freezing temperatures – the temperature is expected to be around -18C on Friday, with partly cloudy skies.
Incidentally, the archipelago has about 2,500 residents and is expecting some 2,000 visitors for the eclipse. The Faroe Islands expect about 8,000 visitors and it would to swell their population of 50,000.

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