Most people directly assume that the climate of Greenland is a polar ice cap climate, but in actuality, the area around Nuuk in the southern part of the island exhibits a polar tundra climate, while the northern uninhabited regions are characterized by a polar ice cap climate.
The tundra climate is mainly distributed along the northern edges of the North American Continent and the Eurasian Continent, parts of the coastline of Greenland, and several islands in the Arctic Ocean.
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The ice cap climate, on the other hand, is found in polar regions and their nearby areas, including Greenland, several islands in the Arctic Ocean, and the ice cap plateaus of Antarctica.
These are the places where the Arctic and Antarctic air masses originate, with perpetual night throughout the winter and perpetual daylight in the summer half of the year; however, the sunlight is slanted, and the heat it provides is feeble, resulting in a cold climate all year round, with temperatures below 0°C every month.
Most Inuit people live in a tundra climate, where from springtime the snow on the ground gradually melts, revealing green lichen or moss, and rivers aren’t always frozen, allowing at least a window of time when they’re unfrozen.
However, Bi Fang’s current location boasts an ice cap climate that is even more severe than the tundra.
Otherwise, lichens and moss wouldn’t be so scarce that one might have to search for half a day, and if one comes across some that are inedible, it’s easy to become frustrated.
The fact that Bi Fang had traveled so far and never encountered any Inuit people was due to this reason.
But life is tenacious, and even in the ice cap, it is still possible to find plants.
Especially near rivers.
Wherever there is liquid water, it’s likely one might find forests nearby.
Conifers, birches, and willow trees, these hardy plants and trees can endure astonishingly cold temperatures.
Bi Fang used a homemade shovel to dig through the snow, occasionally finding leaves, twigs, and remnants of plants, which confirmed there was indeed a plant zone nearby.
And a forest signifies a more advanced ecosystem, where one might find substantial game, such as Arctic musk oxen and reindeer. After the blizzard strikes, many animals would seek shelter within the forest, making the next couple of days an excellent opportunity for trapping them.
Perhaps it was the effect of Bi Fang’s mention of traditional Inuit cuisine yesterday, for as he walked along the riverbank, he did indeed spot some small black animals.
Even though the reflected light on the snowy plains was so intense that it was difficult to keep one’s eyes open, Bi Fang still spotted them from a hundred meters away, a small flock of puffins.
[Puffins? Where?]
[Didn’t they say they’re extinct?]
[Clearly you weren’t listening yesterday, what’s extinct is the great auk, not puffins.]
[Isn’t a great auk still a puffin?]
[A great auk is a puffin, but a puffin isn’t necessarily a great auk!]
[…]
A group of online friends, for some inexplicable reason, started arguing in the live stream chat, seemingly about to initiate an accumulated debate over the classification of puffins.
From Bi Fang’s perspective, the viewers couldn’t spot the puffins at all, even though their color starkly contrasted with the snowy plains. After all, these creatures are birds, not large carnivorous species like geese or falcons, and are relatively small in size.
Even the extinct great auk, the largest of all puffins, only had an average body length of 75 to 80 centimeters and weighed 5 kilograms, whereas regular puffins are less than half the size of the great auk.
Moreover, the viewers didn’t possess the strong visual perception of Bi Fang, who could make out the craters on the moon with his naked eye.
Fortunately, there was more than one drone; a smaller drone quietly approached, finally giving everyone a clear view of the puffin.
"Isn’t that a penguin?"
Guoba, the class representative in Bi Fang’s livestream, widened his eyes in surprise upon seeing the puffin on the screen.
It wasn’t just the class representative; many people thought the same—it looked exactly like a penguin, right?
Its head sides, chin, throat, and wings were blackish-brown, while its belly was pure white, except it had odd body proportions, with a protruding and longer neck, and its belly wasn’t as big compared to a penguin’s.
But compared to the birds one usually sees, it indeed looked plump and not adept at flying.
"Of course, it’s plump; otherwise, the Inuit people wouldn’t consider it a delicacy. Animals that can survive in the Arctic all have a good layer of blubber," Bi Fang chuckled.
In the Arctic, the more fat an animal has, the better the ingredient it is.
"But you’re wrong if you think it can’t fly. Puffins not only can fly, but they are also all-rounders."
When it comes to the animals in nature, God is very fair, always giving you at least one skill sufficient for survival.
For example, birds excel at flying, fish at swimming, cheetahs possess incredible running speeds, and pandas are born to be adorable...
However, not all animals are content with just one skill; some in the natural world possess multiple abilities, like the puffin, which is a special species of the bird class.
Bi Fang lay on the ground and slowly approached, and since the distance was still quite far, he took the opportunity to explain: "According to biological classification, puffins belong to the bird class, Charadriiformes. They are special because they not only can fly but also have strong swimming and diving skills."
"They can dive into the sea like penguins to catch small fish, and almost never fail at their hunting attempts. On land, unlike many birds that can only hop and skip, puffins can also walk, taking what looks like a comical swagger. It appears quite funny," he explained.
"So their build is between a penguin and a regular bird, combining the strengths of both, making them the ’penguins’ of the Arctic ice cap."
As he was speaking, the drone had already captured the walking behavior of the puffins.
The puffins, resembling penguins, spread their wings and then raised them high, as though putting hands in their pockets, and began striding across the snow. Their gait was completely different from the hopping of normal birds and was amusing to watch.
Puffins are innately happy-go-lucky; they are animals that love to socialize, often gathering in large groups to play and rest.
And the places where they congregate vary; sometimes they gather along the coast, other times they drift in groups on the sea surface or in the snow.
This was why Bi Fang had encountered them here.
But because of a lack of materials, Bi Fang didn’t have a net cage or any other kind of rope to catch birds with.
He could only tie a shovel to a tree stick, making it into a sharp weapon, hoping to get lucky and knock out a puffin, and of course, catching more would be even better.
By now, Bi Fang had stealthily advanced within ten meters, and the puffins were still none the wiser.
In terms of sheer survival skills, puffins were quite adept; they could fly, swim, dive, catch fish, even strut with a swaggering gait. Discover exclusive tales on Freewebnovel
As a result, there weren’t many predators in the Arctic that could threaten them, leaving them without much vigilance, which gave Bi Fang his opportunity.
With that thought, Bi Fang suddenly charged out!