Day Eleven: Sunday 18th August
Location: Suðavik, Iceland

An Arctic Fox with its white winter coat.

So Lyonel wanted me to post something about the Arctic Fox Centre in Suðavik that we visited on our way to Isafjörður. I will be very brief since we arrived late and had only about 45 minutes to view the display. I also I want to move along and post the rest of the updates which have been waiting for a while.

The Melrakkasetur Arctic Fox Centre is a non-profit research and exhibition center founded in 2007.  It has a small but fascinating exhibition about the Arctic Fox (Vulpes lagopus), which is apparently the only native terrestrial mammal in Iceland.

Since we were pressed for time we only managed to look through the display in the main building, but did not have time to view the films which were also available. The display was very interesting and it explained in simple language details about the foxes, such as what colors they can have, how they are different from the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), what their diet consists of, and what kind of threats they face. There was some information about fox hunting in the past and today, as well as information about the fur industry and what impact it has on the wild populations of foxes.

After looking through the exhibition we admired some of the local artwork related to foxes and the region which they had on display in the giftshop. We were also amazed by the fact that the supervisor at the centre had studied in Tromsø as well and we even had some common acquaintances. It really is a small world here in the North!

Finally, we left the centre and were amused to see on our way out that they had an arctic fox in a small enclosure outside. I’m not sure what the reason was, and we couldn’t ask since they were closing, but here is a short video of the fox running around just for fun.

Now on to the rest of the updates!