Kong Karls Land or King Charles Land is an island group in the

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range ...

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...

, in the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

. The island group covers an area of and is made up of the islands of

Kongsøya Kongsøya is an island in Svalbard, Norway. It is the largest of the islands in King Charles Land (Kong Karls Land). Its area is . The other main island in the chain is Svenskøya. Geography Kongsøya is the largest island in Kong Karls Land, an ...

Svenskøya Svenskøya (English: "Swedish Island") is an island in Svalbard. It is the second largest island of Kong Karls Land with an area of 137 km². Svenskøya is separated from Kongsøya by the strait Rivalensundet. The island is separated from ...

Abel Island Abel Island ( no, Abeløya) is an island in Svalbard. It is the third-largest island of Kong Karls Land with an area of . It is named after the Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel. Abel Island is separated from Kongsøya by the strait Lydiann ...

Helgoland Island Helgoland Island ( no, Helgolandøya) is an island in the Svalbard archipelago, one of the islands of Kong Karls Land Kong Karls Land or King Charles Land is an island group in the Svalbard archipelago, in the Arctic Ocean. The island group cov ...

, and Tirpitzøya. The islands, which have the largest concentration of

polar bear The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the largest extant bear specie ...

in Svalbard, are part of the

Nordaust-Svalbard Nature Reserve Nordaust-Svalbard Nature Reserve ( no, Nordaust-Svalbard naturreservat) is located in the north-eastern part of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. The nature reserve covers all of Nordaustlandet, Kong Karls Land, Kvitøya, Sjuøyane, Storøya, ...

, along with

Nordaustlandet Nordaustlandet (sometimes translated as North East Land) is the second-largest island in the archipelago of Svalbard, Norway, with an area of . It lies north east of Spitsbergen, separated by Hinlopen Strait. Much of Nordaustlandet lies under la ...

and

Kvitøya Kvitøya (English: "White Island") is an island in the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, with an area of . It is the easternmost part of the Kingdom of Norway. The closest Russian Arctic possession, Victoria Island, lies only to the e ...

. There is a ban on traffic to the islands, which includes the areas of the sea up to 500 metres away from shore and the airspace up to 500 metres above the area. Kong Karls Land was discovered by an expedition sent by the

Muscovy Company The Muscovy Company (also called the Russia Company or the Muscovy Trading Company russian: Московская компания, Moskovskaya kompaniya) was an English trading company chartered in 1555. It was the first major chartered joint s ...

in 1617, probably from a high point on

Barentsøya Barentsøya, sometimes anglicized as Barents Island, is an island in the Svalbard archipelago of Norway, lying between Edgeøya and Spitsbergen. Barents Island has no permanent human inhabitants. Named for the Dutch explorer Willem Barents (who ...

. They named the group ''Wiche Islands,'' after a member of the company, Richard Wyche.

Ecology

The

is found during portions of the year at Kong Karls Land; this bear feeds on local

harp seal The harp seal (''Pagophilus groenlandicus''), also known as Saddleback Seal or Greenland Seal, is a species of earless seal, or true seal, native to the northernmost Atlantic Ocean and Arctic Ocean. Originally in the genus ''Phoca'' with a number ...

s and

ring seal The ringed seal (''Pusa hispida'') is an earless seal inhabiting the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. The ringed seal is a relatively small seal, rarely greater than 1.5 m in length, with a distinctive patterning of dark spots surrounded by light g ...

s. The sub-population of polar bears found here is a genetically distinct set of polar bears specifically associated with the

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; no, Barentshavet, ; russian: Баренцево море, Barentsevo More) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territo ...

region.C. Michael Hogan (2008
''Polar Bear: Ursus maritimus'', Globaltwitcher.com, ed. Nicklas Stromberg

References

External links

Kong Karls Land
from www.Svalbard-images.com Islands of Svalbard {{svalbard-geo-stub

Ecology

See also

References

External links