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There are more Icelandic horses in Germany than in Iceland.

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WILDLIFE

Animals

Apart from sheep, cows and horses, you’ll be very lucky to have any casual sightings of animals in Iceland. The only indigenous land mammal is the elusive arctic fox, and although polar bears occasionally drift across from Greenland on ice floes, armed farmers make sure they don’t last long.

Your best bet for spotting the arctic fox is in remote Hornstrandir, in the Westfjords – wildlife enthusiasts can push pause on their holiday and monitor these precious creatures while volunteering at the Arctic Fox Centre (see the boxed text, for details). In east Iceland, herds of reindeer can sometimes be spotted from the road. The deer were introduced from Norway in the 18th century and now roam the mountains.

Bird life, however, is prolific, at least from May to August. On coastal cliffs and islands around the country you can see a mind-boggling array of sea birds, often in massive colonies. Most impressive for their sheer numbers are gannets, guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes, fulmars and puffins. Less numerous birds include wood sandpipers, arctic terns, skuas, Manx shearwaters, golden plovers, storm petrels and Leach’s petrels. In addition, there are many species of ducks, ptarmigans, whooping swans, redwings, divers and gyrfalcons, and two species of owl. For information on where to see the birds, turn to Click here.

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Arctic terns possess kamikaze instincts and have no qualms about crashing into you if you tread on their land (or worse, near their nest). When hiking in tern territory, raise your hand above your head (as if to ask a question) or carry a long stick. Terns go for the highest appendage when they swoop for a peck.

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Another drawcard is the rich marine life, particularly whales. On whale-watching tours from Húsavík in northern Iceland (among other places), you’ll have an excellent chance of seeing minke, humpback, sperm, fin, sei, pilot and blue whales. Orcas (killer whales), dolphins, porpoises and seals can also be spotted. For more information on Iceland’s whales, Click here. Try for additional info on whale watching. Seals can be seen in the Eastfjords, on the Vatnsnes Peninsula in northwest Iceland, in the Mýrar region on the southeast coast (including at Jökulsárlón), in Breiðafjörður in the west, and in the Westfjords.

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AURORA BOREALIS

The Inuit thought they were the souls of the dead; Scandinavian folklore described them as the spirits of unmarried women; and the Japanese believed that a child conceived under the dancing rays would be fortunate in life. Modern science, however, has a much different take on the aurora borealis.

The magical curtains of colour that streak across the northern night sky are the result of solar wind – a stream of particles from the sun that collides with oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen in the upper atmosphere. These collisions produce the haunting greens and magentas as the earth’s magnetic field draws the wind toward the polar regions.

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Plants

Although ostensibly barren in places, the vegetation in Iceland is surprisingly varied – you just need to get close to see it. Most vegetation is low growing, staying close to the ground and spreading as much as possible to get a better grip on the easily eroded soil. Even the trees, where there are any, are stunted. As the old joke goes, if you’re lost in an Icelandic forest, just stand up.

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LITTLE NORTHERN BROTHERS

Cute, clumsy and endearingly comic, the puffin (Fratercula arctica, or lundi as they’re called in Icelandic) is one of Iceland’s best-loved birds. Although known for goofy antics, crash landings and frantic fluttering, the bird is surprisingly graceful underwater and was once thought to be a bird-fish hybrid.

The puffin is a member of the auk family and spends most of its year at sea. For four or five months it comes to land to breed, generally