We like foxes and had tried to shoot Arctic Foxes in Svalbard severe times and had recently spent 5 days photographing the Red Fox in Northwest. So when we heard that Iceland’s Hornstrandir Nature Reserve features Arctic Foxes, we decided to head there after doing the puffins on Grimsey (See our report here and here). We were not disappointed, as we found 5 fox pups where we stayed and they did like most young, spend a lot of time playing.
Access to Hornstrandir Nature Reserve is from Ísafjörður, in the Northern part of the West Fjords. Ísafjörður is a small town of 3,200 and is about a 6 hour drive from Reykjavik ,so we decided to fly. It is a short 35-minute flight, we spent more time getting to the Reykjavik domestic airport and checking in than on our flight. In Reykjavik there was no one from Icelandair checking folks in until about 30 minutes before the flight was due to depart. So much for getting there an hour early.
We stayed a Hornvik Camp in a tented camp. The tented camp was not an African camp by any means, nor was it glamping, and it was certainly not the normal type place we stay. But it was very comfortable 4 person tents and a nice large common tent.
[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”22″ display=”basic_thumbnail”]Most importantly the foxes liked the camp as much as we did.
They were around the camp most of the time we were there. Their parents were leaving them by themselves so they could learn how to function on their own. Being pups, there was a lot of sleeping in addition to play time
It appeared as if their parents were leaving them by themselves so they could learn how to function on their own. The only adult we saw was one Mom who showed up 3 or 4 times, but it definitely was a drive by like the shot below.
The foxes were used to humans, some of the pups ignored you as they walked right by you (see above) while other clearly did their best to avoid you.
As usual with dealing with nature, your best shots often occur when you are least expecting it. We spend 4 days on focused on the foxes up North, and arguably our best fox shot of the trip was a grab shot of a fox with its catch. We ran across this guy on our third day in Iceland as we were heading home after some bird photography.
An interesting factoid is that the Arctic Fox is only native land mammal in Iceland, and the apex predator.
Here’s more on their play, which was throughly entertaining