When the extreme becomes the norm for Arctic animals

APRIL 8, 2019

by Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Think of reindeer on Norway's Svalbard archipelago as the arctic equivalent of sloths. It's not a perfect analogy, except that like tropical sloths, Svalbard reindeer move as little as possible to conserve energy.

This, combined with the fact that they don't have any predators, allows them to stay in the same area year-round, nibbling on the grasses, herbs and sedges they can find. When snow comes, they simply paw it away and keep nibbling. It's a lifestyle that has allowed Svalbard reindeer to persist over the millennia, long enough for them to adapt physiologically and evolve into a separate subspecies.

But over the last few decades, the warming climate has brought more rain and less snow in some winters. These rain-on-snow (ROS) events can cause ice to form on the ground. The ice coats the reindeer's preferred food and causes them to starve— a potential catastrophe.

In a study just published in Nature Communications, researcher Brage Bremset Hansen, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics (CBD) and colleagues describe how they modeled the effects on reindeer population dynamics if icing becomes the norm, rather than an extreme event.

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Norway rats trade different commodities

Date:  February 1, 2018

Source:  University of Bern

Summary:

Researchers have shown for the first time in an experiment that non-human animals can also exchange different kind of favors. Humans commonly trade different commodities, which is considered a core competence of our species. However, this capacity is not exclusively human as Norway rats exchange different commodities, too. They strictly follow the principle "tit for tat" -- even when paying with different currencies, such as grooming or food provisioning.

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More than 100 reindeer killed by freight trains in Norway 'bloodbath'

Sixty-five animals died on railway track on Saturday while further 41 killed last week during winter migration

Agence France-Presse in Oslo

Monday 27 November 2017 10.37 GMTLast modified on Monday 27 November 2017 23.12 GMT

More than 100 reindeer have been killed by freight trains in northern Norway in the past days in what has been called a senseless tragedy.

One train killed 65 deer on a track on Saturday while 41 died between Wednesday and Friday, the public broadcaster NRK reported late on Sunday.

“I’m so angry that I’m dizzy,” the owner of the 65 dead reindeer, Ole Henrik Kappfjell, told NRK. “It’s a senseless animal tragedy … a psychological nightmare.”

Norway is home to about 250,000 semi-domestic reindeer and most of them live in the far north of the country. At this time of year, herders take the reindeer to the winter pastures in search of grazing grounds, a perilous journey as many animals are hit by cars and trains. Some also drown.

Photos taken by the documentary filmmaker Jon Erling Utsi showed dead reindeer lying in the blood-stained snow. Some were shot after they were left wounded in Saturday’s incident. “It was a nightmare to watch,” he told NRK.

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A last refuge for Europe's blighted killer whales

3 November 2017

Europe's killer whales wowed in the BBC's Blue Planet II series but these animals face extinction. Chris Gibson travelled to the small Norwegian island of Kvaløya where the orcas retain a strong foothold. But for how much longer?

It was one of those television moments. The sight of killer whales herding shoals of herring into tighter and tighter balls to trap the prey near the surface of the water.

The killer whales work as a pack of skilful hunters before deploying their secret weapon - tail-slapping the fish so hard they are either dazed or die.

The story behind those shots is even more remarkable.

They were filmed in the majestic Norwegian fjords. These long, narrow inlets are now among the few places in Europe you can see a pod of killer whales.

Across Europe, these cetaceans are declining rapidly.

In the Mediterranean and the North Sea, they have vanished.

Elsewhere, there are now only eight killer whales in the NW Scotland-Ireland population, and only 36 left in the Strait of Gibraltar population.

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Norway reprieves 32 of 47 wolves earmarked for cull

Under Norway’s endangered predator laws, only 15 lone wolves proved to pose a threat to livestock

Tone Sutterud and Elisabeth Ulven, Oslo

Tuesday 20 December 2016 16.56 GMT

First published on Tuesday 20 December 201616.56 GMT

The Norwegian government has issued a last-minute reprieve for 32 of the 47 wolves that had been earmarked for a cull to protect sheep flocks.

The plans to kill two-thirds of the country’s wolves caused outrage among conservationists at home and abroad when they were announced by local predator management boards in September, with warnings the cull would be disastrous for the species.

But on Tuesday Vidar Helgesen, minister of climate and the environment, refused to sanction the cull, saying lawyers at the justice ministry had concluded it would contravene domestic biodiversity legislation and the international Bern convention.

The laws state that culling of endangered predators – there are an estimated 68 wolves in Norway – can only be granted if there is a satisfactorily documented risk of damage to livestock. This proved not to have been the case with 32 wolves from four packs in the county of Hedmark.

The other 15 animals which will still be hunted are young lone wolves which range over greater distances and are more prone to killing livestock, and environmental groups have not objected to these being culled.

“This is a great day and the best Christmas present you could wish for,” said Nina Jensen of WWF Norway. “At last the government has shown that Norwegian wolves also have protection in law. It is a protected species that is critically endangered and has a natural place in Norwegian fauna.”

Today’s pardon for the 32 wolves caused surprise among both the conservation and hunting lobbies, as the government had been expected to support the cull. More than 300 hunters who were cooperating with the police and the county governor to prepare for the hunt, due to start on 2 January, now have to put away their guns.

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Norway plans to cull more than two-thirds of its wolf population

Environmental groups criticise plan that will allow hunters to shoot up to 47 of an estimated 68 wolves living in wilderness


Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent

Friday 16 September 2016 18.53 BST Last modified on Friday 16 September 2016 22.49 BST

Norway is planning to cull more than two-thirds of its remaining wolves in a step that environmental groups say will be disastrous for the dwindling members of the species in the wild.

There are estimated to be about 68 wolves remaining in the wilderness areas of Norway, concentrated in the south-east of the country, but under controversial plans approved on Friday as many as 47 of these will be shot.

Hunting is a popular sport in the country. Last year more than 11,000 hunters applied for licences to shoot 16 wolves, a ratio of more than 700 applicants to each licence.

The government has justified this year’s planned cull – the biggest in more than a century – on the basis of harm done to sheep flocks by the predators. Environmental groups dispute this, saying the real damage is minimal and the response out of all proportion.

The government did not reply to a request from the Guardian for comment.

The government has taken action to prevent illegal wolf hunting. Wolves are also an attraction for some tourists to the country. But the new legal hunting limit is beyond anything that the wild population can withstand, according to Norway’s leading green groups.

Under the arrangements, 24 wolves will be shot within the region of the country designated for wolf habitat, while another 13 will be shot in neighbouring regions and a further 10 in other areas of the country.

According to environmental groups, the number of wolves the government plans to kill this year is greater than in any year since 1911.

 

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Freak Lightning Strike Kills Hundreds of Reindeer in Norway

by REUTERS

A freak lightning storm has killed 323 reindeer in a remote mountainous area of Norway, officials said on Monday.

Dead animals were found lying on top of each other, many with their antlers entangled, after the thunderstorm on the Hardanger plateau in southern Norway on Friday.

"We've never had anything like this with lightning," Kjartan Knutsen of Norway's nature surveillance agency said, adding there were sometimes isolated cases of sheep or reindeer struck down.

Reindeer tend to group together when in danger. It was unclear whether the herd had been killed by a single lightning bolt or several.

Hardanger was extremely wet on Friday, helping conduct lightning.

"The high moisture in both the ground and the air was probably an explanation for why so many animals died," Olav Strand, a senior researcher at the Norwegian Institue for Nature Research, wrote in a statement.

Experts flew in by helicopter to take samples of the dead reindeer, amid a rising stench of decay, as part of a project to monitor elk and deer for diseases. Five of the 323 animals were found alive but badly injured and were shot by wildlife officials.

It was unclear what would happen to the bodies. One option is to leave them to decay.

"It's part of the natural ecology, this is far from where people live," Knutsen said. Hardanger has about 12,000 reindeer and hunters are allowed to shoot 2,000 a year for their meat.

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Why is it raining worms in Norway? Bizarre weather phenomenon sees creatures fall from the sky across the south of the country

Teacher Karstein Erstad found thousands of live worms on top of the snow

There have been reports of worm rainfall in Norway following his report 

Mr Erstad says the 'very rare phenomenon' happened in Sweden in 1920s

By JENNY STANTON FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 18:49, 16 April 2015 | UPDATED: 20:48, 16 April 2015

Thousands of live earthworms have been falling from the sky in Norway - a rare phenomenon being reported across large swathes of the south of the country.

A biology teacher discovered the worms on the surface of the snow while he was skiing in the mountains near Bergen at the weekend.

Numerous reports have been coming in after he told his story, and there have been sightings of worm rainfall.

Teacher Karstein Erstad told Norwegian news website The Local: 'When I found them on the snow they seemed to be dead, but when I put them in my hand I found that they were alive.'

Initially he thought they had wiggled their way through the snow, but dismissed this when he realised it was up to a metre deep in some places.

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Norwegian court to rule on six men accused of illegal wolf hunt

Landmark case pits survival of one of Europe’s smallest wolf populations against Norwegians’ cherished hunting rights

Elisabeth Ulven and Tone Sutterud in Oslo

Sunday 19 April 2015 15.33 BSTLast modified on Monday 20 April 201500.04 BST

Six men charged over hunting some of Norway’s last wolves will learn their fate this week when a court rules on a landmark case that has gripped the country.

Illegal hunting of wolves is thought to be extensive in Norway, driving down population numbers to perilously low levels.

Now, for the first time, the authorities have prosecuted an alleged hunting team, charging the six men with environmental offences and organised crime, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 11 years.

“It’s such a serious offence that we were given almost unlimited investigative powers by the state attorney,” said Tarjei Istad, a prosecutor in the case.

The indictment includes attempted illegal hunting, firearms offences and organised crime. The prosecutor has asked for a five-year ban from hunting, which is something most Norwegians see as a birthright. The defendants are pleading not guilty.

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Why is it raining worms in Norway? Bizarre weather phenomenon sees creatures fall from the sky across the south of the country

Teacher Karstein Erstad found thousands of live worms on top of the snow

There have been reports of worm rainfall in Norway following his report 

Mr Erstad says the 'very rare phenomenon' happened in Sweden in 1920s

By JENNY STANTON FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 18:49, 16 April 2015 | UPDATED: 20:48, 16 April 2015

Thousands of live earthworms have been falling from the sky in Norway - a rare phenomenon being reported across large swathes of the south of the country.

A biology teacher discovered the worms on the surface of the snow while he was skiing in the mountains near Bergen at the weekend.

Numerous reports have been coming in after he told his story, and there have been sightings of worm rainfall.

Teacher Karstein Erstad told Norwegian news website The Local: 'When I found them on the snow they seemed to be dead, but when I put them in my hand I found that they were alive.'

Initially he thought they had wiggled their way through the snow, but dismissed this when he realised it was up to a metre deep in some places.

Read more: 

Norwegian lemmings dress loudly and scream even louder to survive

Date:

February 5, 2015

Source:

Springer Science+Business Media

Summary:

Researcher looks at why the Norwegian lemming is so boldly colored and brave. The conspicuous, bold colors of the Norwegian lemming's fur and its loud barks serve as warnings to predators that it is not a creature to be messed with. This ferocity makes it unique among small rodents.

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Norway to remove seal trade subsidies

Norway’s seal trade could be over if the government’s decision to cut its 12 million kroner ($1.8 million) subsidy from next year’s budget goes ahead, The Local (Norway’s news in English) has reported.

The Government said it was a decision based purely on economics as seal hunting businesses are run on 80 percent subsidies and during 2014 just three boats and their crew caught 11,980 seals.

The government denied they were bowing to pressure from animal right campaigners and the EU, which placed a ban on the trade of seal products within the European community in 2009. This was a decision Canada and Norway challenged in 2013 through the World Trade Organization to overturn the EU ban on seal products. The WTO Appellate Body however upheld the ban in May 2014 on moral issues.

However this argument was not believed by Norway’s Centre Party 

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Norway fishermen post record-breaking whale haul

Oslo (AFP) - Fishermen in Norway have caught 729 whales this year, the highest number since it resumed the controversial practice in defiance of international pressure, industry sources said on Monday.

"The season is more or less finished and it's been very good," said Svein Ove Haugland, deputy director of the Norwegian Fishermen's Sales Organization.

The eventual figure may increase slightly before the season's end but is already the highest since 1993, when Norway resumed whaling despite a worldwide moratorium, which Oslo officially rejected.

In 2013, Norway caught 590 rorqual whales, far higher than the previous year.

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Norwegian minister pledges to push whale meat sales in Japan

Posted by: Leya Musa / 2 days ago

Elisabeth Aspaker, Norway’s fisheries minister, has said that she will push for greater sales of whale meat caught by Norwegian whalers into Japan’s markets. She made the promise in an interview on Norway’s NRK TV channel. This is despite Japan having stockpiles of whale meat that people do not want to buy.

The minister said, “We have Japan as a potential export country. We must see if we can work been harder promote it.”

The commitment was made after a documentary was shown on the weekend that claimed that whaling in Norway would disappear in 10 or 15 years if current trends continue.

The documentary looked at the history of a whaling family and highlighted how the whaling fleet of Norway consisted of 350 ships in the 1950′s but today only has 23 ships left today.

The journalist, Frank A. Jenssen, who has written extensively on whaling in Norway said, “In about ten to 15 years, there may be no whalers left in Norway , and it would be a tragedy.”

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Polar Bears on Thin Ice, Arctic Expedition Finds

By Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer | April 22, 2014 10:07am ET

An expedition to the islands of Svalbard, Norway, to study how rising temperatures and melting sea ice are affecting polar bears concluded Monday (April 21).

Over the 10-day trek, researchers outfitted female bears with satellite tracking collars that will send back data, giving researchers a picture of how shrinking sea ice may be affecting the polar bears' movements and denning patterns.

"The bear denning habitats appear to be shifting further north," Geoff York, one of the expedition leaders, told Live Science via satellite phone from the team's ship in Svalbard Thursday (April 17). The team had so far deployed 11 of their 20 collars, York said.

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Fisherman finds large red dildo in cod he has just caught

A fisherman was baffled after he found a massive dildo inside a cod he had just caught.

Bjoern Frilund, 64, was pleased to have reeled in the six kilogram fish while on a boat near Eidsbygda, in Norway.

But his happiness soon turned to dread when he inspected the cod further and saw it contained a large red vibrator.

‘I was astonished. I had never seen anything like this before,’ he told The Local.

‘We have a kind of multi-coloured octopus in Norway, maybe the cod thought this was one of these and ate it.’

The fisherman now seems to have got over the shock of discovering the dildo after posing happily with it in his hand.

http://metro.co.uk/2014/04/12/fisherman-finds-large-red-dildo-in-cod-he-has-just-caught-4697054/

Otter Goes On Rampage At Fast Food Restaurant In Norway

Posted: 03/17/2014 9:24 am EDT Updated: 03/17/2014 5:59 pm EDT

The patrons of Skippy's Fast Food in Alesund, Norway, were terrorized last week by a wounded otter that made its way into the establishment, the Independent reported.

"We did not know what kind of animal it was. I have never seen an animal like that in my life," owner Mohamed Rashed told TV2. "I was terrified it was going to attack."

Officials believe that the otter, which was suffering from a gash on its leg and wounds on its face, was injured by a boat propellor before making its way into the restaurant.

Witnesses said the otter was breathing heavily, and customers were so afraid that they fled from the business.

Wildlife officials were called to the scene, and officer Hakan Sunde was bitten on the finger by the marine mammal.

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Norway's Quest to Discover All of Its Native Species

Dec. 19, 2013 — More than a thousand new species -nearly one-quarter of which are new to science -- have been discovered in Norway since a unique effort to find and name all of the country's species began in 2009.

The Norwegian Taxonomy Initiative is one of just two government efforts worldwide where scientists are being funded to find and catalogue the country's true species diversity.

The Norwegian initiative is focused on describing poorly known species groups across the country's varied habitats, from its alpine plateaus to the northernmost reaches of the island archipelago of Spitsbergen.

The finds range from new species of insects and lichens to new species of molluscs and cold-water sponges. The information gives scientists and policymakers a better platform for understanding of the complexity and function of Norway's ecosystems.

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Iron age horse found as Norway glacier melts

The remains of an iron age horse has been found in a glacier two thousand metres up in the mountains of Norway, one of the first times such an animal has been found at such altitude.

"It shows that they were using horses for transport in the high alpine zone, in areas where we were quite surprised to find them," Lars Pilø, the head of snow archeology at Oppland council told The Local. 

The find, which was made in August, is the latest of a string of discoveries archeologists have been making around the world, as global warming melts glaciers and ice sheets, leaving perfectly preserved relics behind. 

"Even though the finds up there are fantastic, the background to the science is very serious," Pilø said. "Norwegian climate experts tell us that all the ice in the Norwegian high mountains will be gone by the end of this century, and of course that also adds an urgency to the work that we're doing." 

Pilø, who is Danish, and his team have been concentrating their research around the Lendbreen glacier near Lillehammer, which he believes was used both for hunting and as a short cut over the mountains from the late iron-age to the early medieval period. 

"When it gets hot in the summer, the reindeer will get pestered by horseflies, and when they get horseflies they move up to the ice, which made the ice excellent hunting grounds," he explained. 

"The other reason that we have many finds is that people wold also cross the glaciers as a transport route over the mountains. You can imagine, if people went over ten times a year and dropped one thing every time, that adds up to a lot of items." 

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Whale hunting: 'It is like killing an ox'

Whale hunters tend to shy away from publicity because of the controversy surrounding their profession. But the crew of the Jan Bjorn in Norway - a country whose fishermen kill around 500 minke whales a year for commercial purposes - agreed to let us join them on a hunting trip.

Boom! The shock of the cannon judders through the old boat.

It's a hit.

The minke is motionless maybe 30 yards away, the rope attached to the harpoon trailing in the water. The skipper, Jan, strains his small frame to haul in the catch.

It does not give an inch. So Fred lends his considerable bulk to the task. He turns to me with a flicker of a grin.

"Now the work begins," he says.

Fred is a paramedic by day. "Whaling is like a vacation," he told me one afternoon as we sat in the crow's nest, scanning the sea for tell-tale puffs of vapour.

The International Whaling Commissionintroduced a ban on commercial whaling in 1986

It was a beautiful day to be out in the fjords. There were no clouds to muzzle the ferocious mountains guarding the coast of Lofoten, in the far north of Norway, and no wind to ripple the water.

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