Petite Polar Gulls

     Two kinds of small, beautiful gulls, the ivory and Ross', spend most of their lives on the vast Arctic Ocean where ocean currents and wind create leads of open water in the pack ice.  These gulls add beauty and interest to that ocean, particularly in winter when few other creatures are there.  Few of us will ever visit the Arctic Ocean, but it's inspiring to know that an intriguing community of animals live in that extreme habitat, including those two kinds of handsome, interesting gulls.
     Both these lovely gulls are well adapted to living on the Arctic Ocean.  Their small bodies allow them to function well on limited food.  Ivory gulls have white feathering, which blends them into the snow and ice of the Arctic.  Predators don't easily see them.  Ross' gulls are light in color, camouflaging them.  Both species have strong, pigeon-like flight that carries them over ice to scattered, watery leads in the ice where they get food.
     Ivory gulls are fourteen inches long, a bit larger than pigeons.  They are white with black legs and a gray beak, tipped with yellow.  Young ivories, however, have some dark dots and blotches on their white plumage.
     At all times of the year, except their breeding season, ivories travel long distances to scattered food sources.  They consume the dung of meat-eating Arctic wolves and Arctic foxes, scraps of meat and fat from mammals, including seals and whales, killed by polar bears and Inuits, and any other dead birds and mammals they find along their way.
     Ross' gulls are eleven inches long, about the size of pigeons, and have red legs and small, pointed, black beaks.  The pretty adults have pale-gray upper wings and tails and a blush of pink underneath.  They also have a black ring around their necks during the breeding season.  Young Ross' have a dark W across their upper wings and back.  
     Year around, except during nesting time, Ross' gulls follow leads in the pack ice to find and ingest small crustaceans such as scuds, plankton and tiny fish, all of which they pick out of the water with their small, thin bills.       
     Obviously, each of these gull species has food sources different from the other kind of gull, reducing competition for food between them.  And each gull species' bill is suited to get its food, a case of form following function.  Like all living beings, these gulls are built for what they do to sustain life.   
     Ivory gulls and Ross' gulls nest apart from each other.  Ivories nest in colonies among rocks on sea-facing cliffs and gravel-covered, polar ice in northern Greenland and on Canadian islands just west of Greenland.  Each pair builds a cradle of moss, lichens and seaweed.  Meanwhile, Ross' gulls nest in colonies on the ground in river valleys and deltas in northeastern Siberia.  But both species winter among icebergs, ice floes and leads on the edges of the polar pack ice on the Arctic Ocean, even during the long, dark, polar night.
     Ivory and Ross' gulls are fascinating in themselves, and where they live the year around, a brutal habitat we can hardly imagine.  Though most of us will never see them, it's intriguing to note where and how these hardy kinds of gulls live.