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Tuesday, August 15 2006

Walrus

morse

Walrus are arctic mammals; they usually look quite calm (whenever they’re not in rut period, when they fight each other). They belong to the same family as seals: they feed and reproduce underwater. They are excellent swimmers who can stay underwater for half an hour about dozen meters deep. They mainly eat fish, and mollusks. Their natural predators are orcas, polar bears and men (because of their ivory tusks).


source : flickr (Andre Boffin) and wikipedia

Friday, August 11 2006

Lemming

Lemming

The lemming is a little arctic rodent, living mainly in tundra where it can build tunnels everywhere. The lemming is known to be quite prolific, and actually, lemmings have high reproductive rate. In case of overpopulation, lemmings tend to leave in every direction looking for food and shelter. That’s why lemming is considered as a suicidal animal. The truth about that strange behaviour is because lemmings have notoriously poor eyesight and cannot distinguish a small river, which they can easily cross, from a fjord, in which they will almost surely drown. Legends slightly exaggerate this behaviour characterize just a few animals and are strictly accidental. There are no mass suicidal tendencies in these cute lil’ rodents.


source : flickr (kristians) and wikipedia

Monday, August 7 2006

Beluga whale

béluga

Belugas or white whales usually live in the Arctic Ocean but one can find few of them in the Saint Lawrence River and Saguenay River in Québec. It lives in big communities up to thousands animals. As an adult, its body is entirely white (when youngers’ is grey) and cylindrical when well-fed. It can be as long as 5 to 6 metres and can weigh one to two tons. Its flexible forehead is composed by a membrane in the shape of a bulb the beluga can inflate whenever it wants, giving so the impression that it can have several facial expressions (which is always a success in European aquariums). Beluga’s natural predators are bears and killer whale. When belugas are stuck in ice, bears knock them out and kill them on shore. Unfortunately, man stays the most dangerous predator of belugas. Hunting and pollution threatens the specie.


source : flickr (ash matadeen) and wikipedia