Erstellt am: 1. 4. 2016 - 06:15 Uhr
Johnny's Journeys: The trail of the elusive pigdeer
Svalbard ("Spitsbergen") is a curious, and interesting place; on one hand, you have fossils strewn everywhere from millions of years ago, back when the archipelago was located near the equator and was a tropical rainforest.
Johnny Bliss, 2016
On the other hand, you have a large living population of polar bears, larger than that of human beings (on the entire archipelago of Svalbard, you have 2,642 humans and approximately 3,000 polar bears).
Johnny Bliss, 2014
Humans have only been living on Svalbard since they started coal mining in the early 1900s. Nowadays adventure tourism is an increasingly large industry (while mining is arguably on the decline), but that doesn't change the fact that everywhere you find evidence of people on Svalbard, you also find evidence of mining in the past or present.
Johnny Bliss, 2014
* - and birds, but I'm referring to mammals here
Nowhere is this more evident than in the local wildlife. Svalbard, located far up in the Arctic Circle, has a harsh and unforgiving climate which would kill all but the hardiest animals. Until recently, the local wildlife (above water) consisted of nothing more than the Arctic Fox, the Svalbard reindeer, polar bears and Southern Vole*. Back in the early 20th century, meat chickens and pigs were briefly introduced by certain mining companies for the benefit of their employees, but these never lived (or survived) out in the wild. So it would have remained, if it were not for genetic engineering.
"In the old days", a very informative local fisherman named Jim Johansen told me over drinks at the local pub in Longyearbyen, "both in Barentsburg and in the settlement Pyramiden, the Russians - these are Russian settlements - were more or less self-sufficient, and in both these places, they had hens that laid eggs. They had horses, pigs, and also cows that gave them milk. They even grew their own vegetables and such. [But] at one point, the Russian scientists thought that they needed a more sustainable source of meat, which could be outside all winter. So they actually made a [cross], between the pig and the Svalbard reindeer.
Siegi Schulz, 2014
"[This was] a pig who could walk outside all year long, because he had a very strong sense of smell, and really strong hooves, so he can smell the food through the ice and snow, and then dig through it. He doesn't have antlers like the reindeer, but you can sense that he has small bulbs on his forehead, so there is something there.
"They actually gave this species the Latin name 'Bacon Polaris'. Even to this day, they are in Barentsburg. Like all gene-made animals, they can be unstable and aggressive, so you should never approach them, actually. Luckily I haven't had a close encounter myself."
Johnny Bliss, 2014
I convinced Jim to take me out onto some fjords near Barentsburg yesterday to find some of these reindeer pigs.
Unfortunately, we didn't find any conclusively, but here are some pictures of some Svalbard reindeer.