polar bear
The most representative and symbolic animal in the Arctic is the polar bear.
The polar bear is the largest animal in Xiong Ke, with a body length of 2.5m, a height of 1.6m and a weight of 500kg. Polar bears are not only good at swimming in cold sea water, but also good at jumping quickly on ice. In order to resist the cold, its ears and tail are small, and its whole body is covered with thick white hair except the soles of its feet and the tip of its nose, while its skin is black. Polar bears have a keen sense of smell and can judge the position of their prey. Powerful, a fatal blow. Polar bears feed on the carcasses of seals, fish, birds and whales. The mother bear gave birth in a sheltered snow cave. When Xiong Gang was born, she was only 0.3 meters long. She can't open her eyes and can't hear the sound. It took 3 to 5 years to grow into a beast. As the "king of the Arctic Circle", polar bears have almost no natural enemies except humans.
The polar bear, also known as the white bear, is the largest individual among bears. It is huge, with a body length of more than 2.5 meters. When walking, its shoulder height is 1.6 meters and its weight can reach half a ton. The largest polar bear can reach 900 kilograms. Polar bears are amazing in strength and endurance, running at a speed of 60 kilometers per hour, but they can't last long. Its limbs are thick and flexible, especially its front palm, which is so powerful that one palm can kill people. Knocking down or killing prey with the forefoot is its usual method. There are very sharp bear claws on the palm of your hand, which can hold food tightly. Polar bears also have an unusually sensitive sense of smell. They can smell the fat of barbecued seals from 3.2 kilometers away, and can accurately judge the position of prey by their sense of smell from several kilometers away. After "sniffing" the prey with a familiar smell, you can jump from the ice to hunt at a fairly fast speed, and the distance of jumping and running in one step can reach more than 5 meters.
Polar bears often live on the ice sheet and live an amphibious life. They usually feed on seals, fish, birds and other small mammals. If they are lucky enough to see a dead whale, they can have a good meal. In the long cold winter, polar bears usually spend their time in their nests. Polar bears don't come out until February and March of the following spring, and polar bears are most active from March to May. In warm summer, polar bears come out of their holes and look around for prey.
Arctic reindeer
The only species of reindeer in the family Cervidae. Also known as deer. It is divided into 9 subspecies.
Medium build, body length 100 ~ 125 cm, shoulder height100 ~120 cm; Both sexes have horns; The horn trunk bends forward, and each branch has branches. Bucks lose their horns in March, and females are a little late, probably in the middle and late April. Reindeer have long and straight heads, short ears like horses' ears and sunken foreheads. Long neck, slightly raised shoulders and straight back; Short tail; The main hoof is large and wide, the central dividing line is deep, the hanging hoof is large, and it can land when walking, which is suitable for walking in snow and rugged roads; The coat color on the back of the body is grayish brown and chestnut brown in summer, and the ventral surface, lower tail and inner limbs are white. In winter, the hair is slightly light, grayish brown or grayish brown, and it begins to fall off in May and grow in September. Distributed in Eurasia, North America and southern Siberia. China subspecies are distributed in the northwest slope of Daxinganling, and only a few are raised in Ergongzuoqi, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Habitat in cold zone, sub-cold zone forest and frozen soil zone. In China, it mainly lives in the cold and warm zone dominated by coniferous forest and mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forest. Living in many groups, they often migrate long distances because of lack of food. It feeds on lower plants such as moss and lichen, and with the change of seasons, it also eats branches and buds of trees, mushrooms, tender grass, leaves and so on. Mating from mid-September to 10, 7-8 months pregnant, giving birth to 1 per child, occasionally giving birth to 2 children, and nursing for about 5-6 months. Female cubs mature sexually in 18 months, and males are a little later, which takes about 30 months.
Reindeer is a precious animal, and velvet antler, meat, skin and milk can be used. Ewenki people in Heilongjiang Province, China use it as a means of transportation.
The Chinese name of reindeer is a bit of a misnomer, because reindeer is not domesticated artificially. Caribou in English refers to wild reindeer distributed in North America, while reindeer managed and domesticated by Lapps in Northern Europe are called reindeer. Reindeer are relatively large, with the female deer weighing over150kg and the male deer slightly smaller, about 90kg. Both males and females have a pair of dendritic horns, the width of which can reach1.8m, and they are replaced once a year. As soon as the old one falls off, the new one begins to grow.
Historically, deer and human beings have a very close relationship. About 2 million years ago, it was called the late Pleistocene in geology, and reindeer distributed in Eurasia was once one of the main foods for human beings. At that time, humans mainly absorbed nutrition by hunting reindeer, which lasted for thousands of years. Therefore, our ancestors have always regarded deer as sacred and endowed them with many beautiful myths and legends. The same is true in the West. They let deer pull carts for Santa Claus and give presents to children.
The most amazing behavior of reindeer is the annual migration of hundreds of kilometers. As soon as spring comes, they leave the forests and grasslands that winter in the subarctic region and migrate north along the same route for hundreds of years. Moreover, it is always headed by the doe, followed by the male deer, in an orderly way, driving straight ahead, eating while walking, and traveling day and night, taking off thick winter clothes along the way, and giving birth to new thin summer clothes, and the fluff fell to the ground, which just became a road sign. So year after year, I don't know how many centuries have passed. They always advance at a constant speed. Only when disturbed by wolves or chased by hunters, they will run violently, make earth-shattering noises, raise dust all over the sky, break the tranquility of grassland and launch a life competition in the originally silent Arctic land.
Little reindeer grow faster than any other animal. The female deer is pregnant in winter and gives birth during the migration in spring. Two or three days after delivery, the cubs can follow the doe on the road. A week later, they can run as fast as their parents, up to 48 kilometers per hour.
Arctic musk ox
Musk ox looks like a domestic cow, but it runs like a sheep instead of a cow. It has a big beard and its hair can be dragged to the ground. Studies by zoologists show that musk oxen are closer to goats and sheep. Close relatives of musk oxen can be found in the tropics. They are different from pronghorn in four ways. Musk ox does not secrete any musk. There are only a few musk oxen in the Arctic, totaling about 7,000.
whale
The largest whale in the Arctic is the Greenland whale, which is 20-22 meters long and weighs 150 tons. Newborn whales are generally three or four meters long and weigh about two tons. The mother whale loves her baby very much. When she was in danger, she used her body to protect her young and frantically stopped the attack of whaling ships. There is a small and strange-looking whale called narwhal in the Arctic. It is only 4-5 meters long and weighs about 900- 1500 kg. Its shape is very strange, with an angle of about 1 ~ 2 meters on its head. The local residents nicknamed it unicorn. In fact, the narwhal's horn is not a horn, but a big tooth. Some people call it a toothed whale. For hundreds of years, people have been studying the physiological effects of toothed whales, especially on extremely long teeth.
Arctic golden plover
In autumn, the golden plover, which is distributed in most parts of Alaska and the Arctic of Canada, first flies to the Labrador coast in southeastern Canada, where it has a short rest and a full meal. After the body has accumulated enough fat, it will fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean to Surinam in South America, flying more than 4,500 kilometers in one breath, and finally come to the Argentine pampas grassland for the winter. The golden pheasant in western Alaska can fly 48 hours a day and travel more than 4,000 kilometers, flying directly to Hawaii, and then flying more than 3,000 kilometers from there to the Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific and even further south. Moreover, during such a long flight, they can choose the shortest route accurately and reach their destination impartially, which shows that their navigation system is very accurate, but how they do this is still a mystery.