Gyrfalcon, Prince Leopold Island, Nunavut, Canadian ArcticMinty_20120906_123802_copy
This high-speed raptor is the apex, aerial predator of the arctic. Ptarmigan and waterfowl are its main food, but it also hunts small mammals like hares, voles and lemmings, and has even been known to take fish. When I managed Salmonier Nature Park, Newfoundland/Labrador's wildlife rehab centre, two gyrfalcons were confiscated from a European fishing trawler in the late 1970s and delivered to our care. Most likely they had been captured on the Labrador coast and were bound for the Middle East falconry market where they each could have fetched tens of thousands of dollars.

Gyrfalcon, EtahGyrfalcon, Etah