Reisgids The Arctic Coastal Wildlife 5

Arctic wildlife guide. Freshly updated, wide-ranging natural history of frequently encountered coastal Arctic fauna and flora, illustrated with paintings and designed for expedition-cruise passengers. Covers mammals, birds, fish, invertebrates and plants. Features Bering Sea nature, a glossary of snow and ice, and a history of human activity. This extensively updated fifth edition of Bradt’s The Arctic is an engagingly written and beautifully illustrated full-colour guidebook to some of the world’s most exciting wildlife. Designed with expedition-cruise passengers in mind, it is an ideal companion both on board and ashore, providing fascinating accounts of the most likely animals and plants to be seen – from polar bears and beluga whales to snowy owls and snow buttercups. Only a small number of hardy and evocative creatures – including narwhals, walruses and Ross’s gulls – call the Arctic their year-round home. But come summer, the region explodes with life as plankton and plants flourish to support a massive population of fish, seabirds and whales, all taking advantage of seasonal abundance before retreating south to avoid the ice. For these few short months of almost endless daylight, the coastal Arctic – from Greenland to Svalbard, Alaska to the Bering Sea – offers a parade of wildlife delights. On a typical Arctic expedition cruise, you might marvel at walruses lounging on rocks or scan for harp seals bobbing in icy water. Watch Arctic foxes sniffing out goose eggs and gawp at the torrent of dovekies flooding to cliffside breeding colonies. Keep your eyes peeled for polar bears and ivory gulls on ice floes, for the bushy blow that heralds a humpback whale or for a flash of white that signifies a beluga whale. Packed with fascinating natural histories that bring to life star species, and freshly updated throughout, The Arctic is a timely celebration of polar nature in an era when climate change is profoundly affecting extreme northern latitudes.