Norway

Norway extends over more than 1,700 kilometres of latitude, from temperate forests in the south to the High Arctic of Svalbard, and its coast, cut by fjords and dotted with tens of thousands of islands, generates exceptional marine productivity. Warm Atlantic currents let marine life thrive at latitudes where other continents have only ice: blue whiting, herring and capelin sustain immense seabird colonies on Lofoten, Runde and Vardø, and draw orcas and humpbacks that follow the herring shoals into the fjords in winter. The mountainous interior holds the last truly wild reindeer population in Europe, on Hardangervidda, alongside wolverines, lynx, Arctic foxes and a small brown bear population. On Svalbard the fauna narrows to a purely Arctic cast: polar bear, Svalbard reindeer, Arctic fox and walrus.