Resourcefulness Of A People

 Scattered throughout the Arctic Gallery are video displays. Press a button for your preferred language, and people begin speaking about a given subject on life in the North. This particular one features Mary Simon, an Inuit leader, speaking about employment and education in the Arctic. Today she is the Governor-General of the country. 

People in the far north have had to be very resourceful in living there. Everything finds a use. This display case includes a fur, as well as a lantern that a century or more ago would have used whale oil for light.

Here we have a work of art. Rookery is by Ben Kovic, combining elements like bowhead whale bone and ivory.

This is the brain case of a bowhead whale.

Millions of years ago, the climate was warmer, and the Arctic was a place of dinosaurs. Fossils of dinosaurs and their successors are still found in the current day.

This is puijila darwini, a forerunner of contemporary seals.

The skeleton here is a contemporary camel. Note the diagram on the display case below, where it is seen in black, compared in size to the High Arctic camel, which was bigger.

Here we have the skull of a mammoth, a resident of the ice age.

Other species died out following the ice age, while others moved into northern waters. The Jefferson's ground sloth ranged far into the north, while the short-faced bear outweighed the contemporary polar bear.

At top is the lower jawbone of a contemporary beaver. Compare it to the lower jawbone of the extinct giant beaver.

Life On Land And In The Ocean

 Here we see the Snowy Owl, which spends at least some of its time in the far north.

The caribou migrates vast distances in the Arctic. Beluga and narwhals are residents of Arctic waters.

Fish thrive in Arctic waters. This video shows them swimming in a passage between the ice.

Here we have a ringed seal.

Belugas, bowheads, narwhals, and killer whales all call the Arctic home.

So too does the Greenland shark, which can live four hundred years or more, thought to be the oldest animal lifespan.

Here we have living residents often found in Arctic waters.

The thick-billed murre is a bird that lives in colonies along cliffs, providing protection for their nests, and dive deep into the ocean for fish.

The common eider is a resident of the north.

This display case includes small things, like soft shelled clams, and the skull of a walrus or section of baleen from a whale. We'll continue on from here tomorrow.

A Varied Ecosystem In The Arctic

 The Arctic Gallery emphasizes how much of a variety of life can be found in the far north, from single cell organisms to apex predators. It does this through displays and examples, and emphasizes how fragile that ecosystem can be.

This is a snow goose, with water sedge encased behind it.

There is a vast array of insect and arachnids in the Arctic as well, some of whom live years.

The variety extends to birds, some of whom spend at least some time in the far north. Snow buntings, plovers, and sandpipers can be found in their ranks.

Lichen and algae would be organisms easily overlooked, and yet they are vital for the ecosystem of the Arctic.

The Arctic hare is known for changing its fur seasonally to blend in.

The Arctic fox does the same.

Lemmings and squirrels of the far north might be the prey of an Arctic fox.

The Willow Ptarmigan also changes its colours seasonally.

At The Canadian Museum Of Nature

 The Canadian Museum of Nature is one of several national museums around the National Capital. I paid a visit a few days ago in late March. Approaching from the west, I photographed the mammoth family and the building, which combines Tudor and Gothic Revival influences in its architecture.

 The walls outside have animals carved into the stone.

The glass tower is much more recent, and is called the Queens Lantern. A model of the Moon hangs inside.

Stained glass is above the doors inside the main entrance.

A visit is best done by starting on the top floor and working your way down. I photographed this perspective, looking out into the Queens Lantern and the Moon. Below hangs Gaia, a model of the Earth, which rotates in this central space. We'll see more of both as the series goes along.

My first stop was in the Arctic Gallery, which examines life in the far north. The first thing the visitor sees is this set of slabs of ice, with images projected onto them.

Beyond, the path is colourful, and features wildlife.