Arctic fox, Scoresby Sund, Greenland

Scoresby Sund, the area of east Greenland we visited on our Visionary Wild trip last month, is spectacularly beautiful. But I didn’t expect to see much wildlife there, because this region is actively hunted by the local Inuit people.

So I was pleasantly surprised by how much wildlife we actually saw, including musk oxen, Arctic hares, Arctic foxes, and polar bears.

Our polar-bear sightings were at a distance, but memorable. High on a tundra slope above our ship a mother bear nursed her two cubs, then the trio fell asleep until dark. Though these bears were far away, we could clearly see them through binoculars or a long lens. This is a severely cropped photo made with a 400mm lens, but shows one of the moments we witnessed:

Polar bear mother and cubs, Scoresby Sund, Greenland

That same evening, at dusk, another bear descended a nearby slope and entered the water (probably to hunt for seals). This was a little closer view, but it was so dark by then I needed to crank the ISO up to 20,000 (!). Although Lightroom’s Denoise handled this well, the image isn’t quite as crisp as I’d like, but it captures a moment I’ll long remember:

Polar bear entering a fiord, Scoresby Sund, Greenland

On another day we were able to get fairly close to a small herd of musk oxen with the ship. These animals would probably flee if they saw a person on foot, or even an approaching zodiac, but seemed oblivious to a large, slow-moving vessel offshore as they grazed through some beautiful patches of autumn tundra:

Musk oxen in autumn tundra, Scoresby Sund, Greenland

We also were able to photograph the local “bunnies” – Arctic hares – at close range, on two different occasions. The first time a hare approached us by descending a high, rocky slope to graze in the meadow we happened to be occupying. It was unconcerned by the numerous photographers pointing lenses in its direction.

The second time we spotted two hares from our zodiacs as we came in for a landing. We carefully approached them, and one decided to saunter up a hill, away from us. But the other seemed unfazed, dozing, then fastidiously cleaning its enormous paws. Here are a few of my favorite bunny images from the trip:

Arctic hare and frosted tundra, Scoresby Sund, Greenland

Arctic hare cleaning its paw, Scoresby Sund, Greenland

Arctic hare feeding, Scoresby Sund, Greenland

But perhaps our most memorable wildlife encounters were with Arctic foxes. Again, these animals seemed unafraid of humans – in fact some of them were rather curious about us. Or at least curious about our gear. One fox approached our guide, Jan. The fox went up to Jan’s pack lying on the ground, and tugged at a pack strap –apparently trying to make off with the whole thing. But these foxes are tiny – maybe around eight pounds for an adult – and the pack was too heavy.

Later this same fox found another pack and camera that a member of our group had left on the ground. The fox started chewing on the camera, so we had to chase it off, and found that it had gnawed off a small chunk from the camera’s eyecup. For some reason many animals like to chew on rubber or soft plastic, including this fox.

We were told that these fox sightings were rare. It seemed that the fox population was high, perhaps because the hare population was also high. We saw both white and “blue” morph foxes. Even in September the white ones had already turned almost pure white. The blue-morph foxes were actually dark gray or brown, and keep that dark coloration all year. These are some of my favorite fox images from the trip:

Blue-morph Arctic fox, Scoresby Sund, Greenland

Blue-morph Arctic fox reflected in a pond, Scoresby Sund, Greenland

Backlit Arctic fox, Scoresby Sund, Greenland

I’ll post more landscape photographs from Greenland in the weeks ahead, but I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the Arctic wildlife. We feel very lucky to have had such vivid encounters with these creatures – encounters that made this wonderful journey even more special.

— Michael Frye

Related Posts: Greenland Fiords; Life on Ice

Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He lives near Yosemite National Park in California, but travels extensively to photograph natural landscapes in the American West and throughout the world.

Michael uses light, weather, and design to make photographs that capture the mood of the landscape, and convey the beauty, power, and mystery of nature. His work has received numerous awards, including the North American Nature Photography Association’s 2023 award for Fine Art in Nature Photography. Michael’s photographs have appeared in publications around the world, and he’s the author and/or principal photographer of several books, including Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, and The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite.

Michael loves to share his knowledge of photography through articles, books, workshops, online courses, and his blog. He’s taught over 200 workshops focused on landscape photography, night photography, digital image processing, and printing.