Cover: Picture by Greenland Institute of Natural Resources When I need to take a break from work, I often stroll around the Oslo Natural History Museum. Zoological collections have always fascinated me since I was a child, and now that I work for one of them I`m able […]

A 130,000 to 115,000 years old polar bear jawbone fossil from Svalbard. Photo: Karsten Sund, Natural History Museum Oslo.

The bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) in the East Greenland Sea, the Svalbard region and the Barents Sea (referred to as the East Greenland-Svalbard-Barents Sea (EGSB) stock) has been intensively studied for many years by members of the FEZ group. The stock is classified as Endangered in the International Union of […]

By Pia Merete Eriksen and Rita M. Austin I think most of us conceptualize a seal as a comical or cute animal, darting through open waters – I don’t think many of us envisage blood-red balloons and bulging sacs, specialized for a ritual of dominance and mating. Enter, […]

Bowhead whales (scientific name Balaena mysticetus) are baleen whales that spend the entire life in the Arctic and subarctic waters. They are named after their characteristic triangular skull that allows them to break through ice for breathing. They are 15-20 meters long and may weigh up to 100 […]

The iconic polar bear (scientific name: Ursus maritimus) has become a symbol of the threats to the ecology and life history of plants and animals from climate change. Shifts in their distributions in recent years are likely caused by the altered Arctic environment. It has, for example, been […]