Up North

Today I arrived in Polar Zoo, in Bardu municipality, Norway. At 68,5 degrees North, it is the Northernmost zoological garden in the world. At the moment it is -6 degrees Celsius, but yesterday it was raining - and last week temperatures were at winter lows of -31.

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Polar Zoo has kept wolves since its start in 1994. There's currently 6 wolves here - 4 of them socialized (the alpha male - their father, and one of the two shy wolves - is 10 years old, and was born in the zoo). I will meet them all tomorrow (and until Thursday). Plus the brown bear cubs Salt (female) and Pepper (male).

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This afternoon I have been talking with the staff (3 permanently here (of which I have met 2), and an additional 2 visiting at the moment). Bear trainers and the like. A lot of information to digest.

Visit scheduled with PolarZoo

I have scheduled a visit to PolarZoo, in Bardu, Northern Norway, March 8-11th. My contact is Stig Sletten, the primary animal caretaker.

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PolarZoo, which claims to be "the world's Northernmost zoological park", is one of three (public) places in Norway with captive wolves. At PolarZoo some of them are so tame that they have physical contact with caretakers and some guests.

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Later this year I will also visit Langedrag Naturpark, plus revisit Kristiansand zoo.

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Remarkably, my visit to PolarZoo in March will actually be my first visit ever to Northern Norway! By car, it's 1.785 km from where I am currently sitting making these plans (I will go by plane from Oslo to Bardufoss, an hour's drive away).