PSA: Cold weather animals and where they live

Time for a nerdy Zoology journal.



Leopard seals: southern hemisphere, exclusive to the waters around Antarctica.


Walrus: Waters around the Bering strait, Baffin bay and Northwestern Passages; Berents sea and Kara sea(both north of Siberia), east Siberian sea.


Ribbon seal: Bering sea.


Steller's Sea Lion: The largest of the sea lions. Range from northern California, through the gulf of Alaska, through the Bering sea, the Okhotsk sea, to the waters around northern Japan.


Penguins: Unless you mean the original penguin, then all penguin species are found only in the southern hemisphere, with the Galapagos Penguin being the northernmost species of penguin in the world.


Snow leopard: From the Himalayas, around the western edge of china, north into Russia


Moose (Alces alces, called "Elk" in Europe): Largest moose live in Alaska, range throughout Canada and northern USA; in Eurasia, they range through Scandinavian peninsula, across Russia, all the way across to Kamchatka.


Wapiti (Cervus canadensis, called "Elk" in north America): Pockets of populations in western USA and south-western Canada. None in Alaska, though unusually there is a subspecies in Mongolia. Dat Bering land bridge, confusing taxonomy since the Pleistocene!


Red deer (Cervus elaphus, close relative the Wapiti, though smaller): Not as "cold weather" as the wapiti, but similar enough to cause confusion. Exclusive to Eurasia, small pockets in northern Africa and dotted across Iran, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and western China.
*Introduced (non-native) populations present in New Zealand, Australia, Argentina and Chile, to devastating effect of the local wildlife.


Caribou (Rangifer tarandus, called "reindeer" in Europe and around December): Western edge of Greenland, Labrador peninsula/Newfoundland and through Canada to the middle of Alaska; south to just shy of the Canadian-USA border. In Eurasia range through the northern edge of the Scandinavian peninsula, across Russia to Kamchatka.

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Wolverine: Northern Labrador, across Canada and Alaska. Eurasia range from westernmost Russia, through all the way to the Scandinavian peninsula.

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Arctic fox: Northern Russia, northern Scandinavian peninsula, edges of Greenland, Iceland, northern Labrador, northern Canada, northern and western edge of Canada. Icelandic foxes do not turn white, winter coats are brown/blue.


Wild Boar: Northern Africa, down along the Nile, all of Europe except most of the Scandinavian peninsula, southern Russia, from Turkey and Syria and Iran, through the continent to the eastern coast of China (avoiding southern Mongolia and a greater part of central China). South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Sumatra, East Java.
*Introduced to Papua New Guinea, northern Australia, southern Argentina, and select parts of USA (Florida, Georgia, Alabama,Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, California) where they devastate native wildlife.


Arctic Hare (Lepus arcticus, different from the Snowshoe hare, Lepus americanus): Edges of Greenland, north-eastern Canada.


Red Fox: Most of Canada, all of Alaska, eastern and most of central USA, Washington state and Oregon, pockets in California. All of Europe, almost all of Asia, middle east, northern Africa and along the Nile. High degree of morphological variation across range.
*Introduced to Australia.


White-tailed Deer: Southern Canada, central-eastern USA, Mexico, through to northern tip of South America.




Any other animals that you see often put into snowy landscapes?