NI_D500v Hvítabirnir sem sést hafa á Íslandi

Dreifing hvítabjarna sem sést hafa á Íslandi í mismunandi mælihvarði. Þekja ni_G500v_hvitabjorn, punktalag.

[Distribution of polar bear sightings in Iceland in different scales. Point layer ni_G500v_hvitabjorn.]

Ekki er hægt að tala um hvítabirni sem íslenska tegund en þó hafa þeir tekið hér land af og til og teljast því til flökkudýra. Upplýsingar eru til um rúmlega 560 hvítabirni sem skráðir hafa verið hérlendis frá upphafi landnáms. Síðast varð vart við hvítabjörn við Höfðaströnd í Jökulfjörðum 2024. Viss ónákvæmni er þarna um að ræða því vafalaust hafa einhver dýr gengið hér á land án þess að menn hafi haft þar vitneskju um eða skráð sérstaklega.

[Polar bears are not native to Iceland, although they do occasionally turn up in Iceland and are thus classified as vagrants. Information exists on just over 560 polar bears recorded as having arrived in Iceland from the beginning of human settlement on the island to the present day. This is a somewhat imprecise figure, since polar bears have undoubtedly come ashore without their presence going noticed, while bear sightings and encounters were not always documented in the past. The last polar bear observation was at Höfðaströnd, Jökulfjörður, Westfjords, in 2024. Table entries are in Icelandic.]

Nákvæmni tíma [Accuracy of time]: varies depending on the source. If only the year of the sighting is known, you find this year under fitjueigindi 'ártal 1' (artal1). In case there are more details known, there are as well entries for fitjueigindir 'dags hvítabjarnakomur' (dagsHvitabjarnakomur) or 'ártið' (artid). If the year is not quite definit, there is an entry in fitjueigindi 'um' (um). Entries in both fitjueigindir 'ártal 1' and 'ártal 2' (artal1, artal2) define a timespan for the sighting.

Nákvæmni staðarins [Accuracy of location]: varies depending on the source. All sightings for Íceland are grouped in the center of Iceland and the value for fitjueiginde 'nákvæmni XY' (nakvaemniXY) is '9000'. Sightings for Norðurland are grouped on Tröllaskagi, sightings for Norðvestur are placed in the center of the Vestfjords, sightings on Melrakki are grouped just off the north coast (nakvaemniXY = 3000 or 2000). If only the area is know, the data is placed in the center of the corresponding 10-km-reit (nakvaemniXY = 1000). If the location is known in detail, t.d. bæ, the entry for 'nakvaemniXY' is '100'. Sometimes the sources do not state the location of the sighting but the farm where the animal was processed [unnin]. And one has to keep in mind that a 'dot' in the data set can also represent an animal that has been in Iceland for a longer period of time and has traveled a longer distance.

If there are several sightings for the same place or area, the entries are scatterd using a 1-km-reit system.

Entries on age, sex, and size or weight are often missing. Fitjueigindi 'RM númer' (RMnumer) corresponds with the Natural History Collection of Náttúrufræðistofnun.

Heimild [Source]: Náttúrurfræðistofnun Íslands and the publication: Rósa Rut Þórisdóttir 2018. Hvítabirnir á Íslandi. Reykjavík: Bókaútgáfan Hólar.

Date ( Publication ): 2025-07-01

Edition: 1. útgáfu

Status: On going

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NI_D500v Hvítabirnir sem sést hafa á Íslandi

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