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Northeast Greenland National Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Northeast Greenland National Park is the largest national park in the world, with an area of 972,000 square kilometres (375,000 square miles). It is also the only national park in Greenland and in Denmark. The park encompasses the entire northeastern coastline and interior sections of Greenland, which is the largest island on Earth. Originally created on 22 May 1974, the park was expanded in 1988 to its present size. In January 1977 it was designated an international biosphere reserve. It is overseen by the Greenland Department of Environment and Nature.
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The park has virtually no permanent human population. In 1986, the permanent population of the park was 40, living at Mesters Vig although 400 sites saw occasional summertime use. These 40 were involved in cleanup and closeout operations at mining exploration sites and soon left. Recently only 27 people and about 110 dogs were present over winter in North East Greenland: [1]
- Daneborg (12) headquarters of the Sirius Patrol, the park policing agency
- Danmarkshavn (8) civilian weather station
- Station Nord (5) military base
- Mestersvig (2) military outpost with 1,800 m gravel runway
An estimated 5,000 to 15,000 musk ox as well as numerous polar bears and walrus can be found near the coastal regions of the park. This is claimed to be 40% of the world population of musk ox.[2] Other mammals include arctic fox, stoat, collared lemming and arctic hare. Reindeer left the park in 1900 and wolves in 1934, although wolves occasionally return. Other marine mammals include ringed seal, bearded seal, harp seal and hooded seal as well as narwhal and white whale.
Species of birds which breed in the park include great northern diver, barnacle goose, pink-footed goose, common eider, king eider, gyrfalcon, snowy owl, sanderling, ptarmigan and raven.
