Wapusk National Park of Canada

Fauna

Polar bears
Lesser snow geese

Arctic Tern.
© Parks Canada

If you were to visit Wapusk in winter, the land might appear utterly empty of wildlife. But look closer: Wapusk is home to a surprising bounty of plants and animals. Each of the park's major landscape areas has its own distinctive communities. In all, 44 mammal species and more than 250 species of birds have been found here. The area also shelters rare bird species like the Hudsonian godwit, Ross' gull, Ivory gull, Caspian tern, gyrfalcon, peregrine falcon, and great grey owl.

In coastal areas, geese and shorebirds abound. Wapusk's snow geese are expanding their nesting colonies so prolifically that they are leaving some areas stripped of vegetation. Arctic and red foxes, jaegers (seagoing predatory birds) and even the occasional polar bear will rob eggs from the snow goose nests.

Snow goose.
© Parks Canada

Wapusk's beach ridges and tundra areas are important to the Cape Churchill caribou herd. These are "synchronous calving" caribou: they migrate each year to the same general area, and all have their calves over the same short span of time in late spring. They find shelter and food in the park's forested areas in winter. In late winter, beach ridges blow clear of snow and provide important feeding areas for the caribou. Wolves in the park prey on the caribou.

Creeks and rivers in Wapusk provide habitat for moose, though there are fewer moose here than in more favorable southern moose habitat.

Caribou
© Parks Canada

Wapusk is also a place to find lemmings, small mouse-like mammals that are prey for many other carnivorous species. Stories of lemmings stampeding into the sea are myths. But their populations here do cycle from very high to very low. WHEN they are at the high end of their cycle, snowy owls, foxes, wolves, and others enjoy a steady diet of lemmings. In other years, lemmings and other small mammals like voles and mice are almost impossible to find.