Can Arctic wildlife adapt to a warming climate?

More frequent and intense droughts, storms and heat waves, melting glaciers, warming oceans and rising sea levels – climate change is already causing immense harm to the natural world, putting countless species, including our own, at risk.  
 
WWF’s ‘How climate changes wildlife’ series focuses on the need to safeguard wildlife around the world from these harmful impacts. In our final feature, we look at how wildlife in a colder climate – in the area of the Arctic from the top of Europe to the North Pole – are coping in a warming world. 

The Arctic climate is changing more dramatically than anywhere else on Earth, with temperatures rising three times faster than the global average.  

This has huge implications for the planet – from the meltwater of the Greenland ice sheet set to raise sea levels by 33cm by the end of this century to the loss of the bright white sheets of Arctic sea ice, which previously helped stop heat being absorbed by the ocean.  

These changes are also having a huge impact on Arctic wildlife – from millions of migratory birds to species uniquely shaped by the Arctic environment such as narwhal, polar bear, reindeer and walrus. As well as profound changes to the ecosystems they inhabit, these species must also contend with increased development, infrastructure and shipping as the Arctic warms. 

Every summer as the days lengthen, millions of birds migrate to the Arctic. While many of these species are declining due to threats elsewhere, in their summer homes they are mostly left undisturbed to gorge on vast clouds of insects. 

But the environment is changing – habitats altering, seasons shifting, food availability becoming disrupted. Understanding how birds are responding, and giving them the best chance to adapt, is critical.  

Tavvavouma, 55,000 hectares of wetland wilderness in northern Sweden, provides prime habitat for vast numbers of waders and other birds. It’s a landscape moulded by permafrost, dotted with semi-frozen peat hills known as palsas that provide a rich range of microhabitats. But with permafrost thawing as the climate warms, the long-term outlook is uncertain. 

WWF’s Tavvavouma Arctic Flyways project is working to protect the area and its avian inhabitants. In partnership with Birdlife Sweden, scientists and the local Sámi Indigenous people, we’re working to understand how climate change is affecting bird populations and to track their migration routes so we can protect their overwintering and resting grounds too. 

We are supporting efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change on reindeer (or caribou in North America), which have survived on the Arctic tundra for 600,000 years. Their grazing shapes the whole ecosystem, and they’re central to the culture of Indigenous Peoples across the continents.  

For example, herding communities in Sápmi – the Arctic region inhabited by the Sámi people in Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden – have depended on reindeer for food and livelihoods for millennia. 

In Finnish Sápmi, the average temperature has already risen by 2.3°C, and snow and ice conditions are changing. In the winter, reindeer dig through the snow to eat the lichen beneath – but warmer weather is leading to wetter snow that compacts and forms icy crusts, locking the precious lichen out of reach. 

In some recent winters, thousands of reindeer have starved to death. Some herders have resorted to supplementary feeding, but many can’t afford to.  

We have opposed development that could further threaten migration routes and grazing grounds. But the future of an ancient way of life hangs in the balance. 

Polar bears are the world’s largest land predator but they’re also highly vulnerable to the changing Arctic. Climate change and habitat loss are the number one threats to polar bear populations. 

The sea ice where they live, feed and breed is shrinking. And as the sea ice disappears, polar bears too are likely to disappear from parts of the Arctic by the end of the century.  

In Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, polar bears are holding on – for now. Around 300 bears are resident full-time on the islands, and while there’s less sea ice to hunt from, they’re adapting by hunting more on land, consuming more birds and eggs, and even catching reindeer.  

A larger population of polar bears visit Svalbard for some of the year, but head north as the sea ice retreats. These bears, too, are surviving for now – but face an uncertain future. 

We’re continuing to monitor polar bear populations in Svalbard and other parts of the Arctic to better understand how they’re adapting to climate change, while also working to protect key habitats and minimize potential conflict with people. 

Melting sea ice isn’t just changing the Arctic ecosystem, it’s also opening the Arctic Ocean up to more shipping. From 2013 to 2023, the number of ships entering the Arctic increased by more than a third, and the distance travelled doubled – trends which are only increasing. 

This raises the risk of fatal collisions between ships and whales, while also exposing marine mammals to underwater noise pollution, which can make it harder for them to navigate, find food and avoid predators. Endemic species – notably the narwhal, beluga and bowhead whales – are especially vulnerable, as they’ve evolved to depend on sound cues in these dark waters. 

In response, we’ve been mapping out overlaps between shipping and whale migration routes so we can protect these vital “blue corridors”.  

We’re also pushing for greater protection of the Arctic Ocean, in line with international commitments to protect and conserve 30 per cent of land and sea by 2030. We’ve mapped out how this could be done via ArcNet – a network of 83 priority conservation areas covering about 5.9 million square kilometres across the Arctic. 

By working alongside Arctic peoples to protect key habitats and closely monitor changes in the environment, we can help give Arctic wildlife the best chance of adapting to a changing climate.  

But the single most important thing we can do for Arctic species? Reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as far and as fast as we possibly can.  

See more:
WWF Global Arctic Programme

Beginning in Africa and journeying northwards to the Arctic, this four-part series examines how climate change is affecting wildlife. 

Part 1: Deepening drought and the threat to iconic African elephants
Part 2: Coping with change in a warming Mediterranean 
Part 3: Fire and resilience on the Iberian Peninsula
Part 4: How rapid warming impacts a cold climate

WWF is partnering with a pioneering public art project called THE HERDS to inspire action for climate and nature. Until August 2025, herds of life-sized puppet animals are stampeding through city centres on a 20,000km route from Africa’s Congo Basin to the Arctic Circle − an artistic representation of wildlife escaping life-threatening climate impacts that aims to inspire urgent action by people everywhere.