page_title: Sirmilik National Park
section_title: Fauna and flora
hierarchical_section_title: Sirmilik National Park / Fauna and flora
caption_attribution_description: English: Bowhead tail wave near ice edge north of Baffin Island
context_page_description: Sirmilik National Park is a national park located in Qikiqtaaluk, Nunavut, Canada, established in 1999. Situated within the Arctic Cordillera, the park is composed of three areas: most of Bylot Island with the exception for a few areas that are Inuit-owned lands, Oliver Sound, and Baffin Island's Borden Peninsula. Much of the park is bordered by water.
  Geographically, it is representative of the Northern Eastern Arctic Lowlands Natural Region as well as parts of the Lancaster Sound Marine Region.
context_section_description: Fauna
  Beluga whales, Arctic foxes, seals, Arctic hares, walruses, and caribou are found in this park. Bylot Island is a migratory area for narwhals. Sirmilik is one of eight Canadian national parks that contains polar bears. Arctic wolves roam and inhabit this park.
  A major seabird colony is located in the area of Baillarge Bay. Seabird colonies are also located on Bylot Island which have a large colony and nesting area of greater snow geese. More than seventy species of birds have been recorded here, of which about forty are known to breed. The park is known to be an important bird sanctuary. In 1965, Bylot Island enclosed within the park was also declared as a "Migratory Bird Sanctuary" in view of the large number of migratory birds in the area. A record 100,000 birds are reported to pass the park during summer months every year, and the large geese population of the island is known to constitute the most abundant herbivores of the island. On some of Bylot Island's rugged cliffs within the park, thousands of nesting birds can be found including 300,000 thick-billed murre and 80,000 black-legged kittiwake.
  Flora
  The wetlands of the park (10% of the area) have abundant vegetation of water sedge (Carex aquatilis), white cottongrass (Eriophorum scheuchzeri) and tall cottongrass (Eriophorum angustifolium). Other types of grass include the Fisher’s tundragrass (Dupontia fisheri), the polar grass (Arctagrostis latifolia) and semaphore grass (Pleuropogon sabinei). In addition, several species of brown moss have been recorded. In the Arctic environment of the southern part of the island 360 species of plants have been documented, which are considered to have rare quality and productivity.
  Vegetation in the upland (on hill slopes and terraces) which constitute 90% of southern drier areas of the park consist of forbs, such as Arctic heather (Cassiope tetragona), mountain avens (Dryas integrifolia), Arctic poppy (Papaver radicatum) and mountain sorrel (Oxyria digyna), grasses, such as polar grass (Arctagrostis latifolia), northern foxtail (Alopecurus alpinus), bluegrass (Poa arctica) and northern wood rush (Luzula confusa) and shrubs, such as Arctic willow (Salix arctica) and northern bilberry (Vaccinium uliginosum).
caption: Bowhead whale tail-slaps in a distance
exif: {}