Iceland · A living archive
A photographic and historical record of Iceland’s only native land mammal—and of the island that shaped it.
Before us
Arctic foxes reached Iceland before people did and remained as the ice withdrew. Small, watchful and shaped by scarcity, they became part of the island’s coasts, heaths and highlands—and later, part of its human history.
Discover the species
Summer coat · blue morph · Claudia.Garad / CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped · License02 / A CHANGING COAT
White or blue, winter or summer—the coat records a life lived between snow, stone and sea.
Explore the habitatsThe archive
Move from the fox’s human history to the places it lives and the work of understanding its future.
How law, livelihood, literature and science shaped the relationship between Icelanders and the fox.
Read the record 02Coast, heath and highland—and the food, shelter and territory a breeding pair needs.
Explore the habitats 03Research, monitoring, management and the field ethics that reduce human pressure.
Understand the work
A field ethic
“If the fox changes its behaviour because of us, we are already too close.”Read the field ethic
The project
Arctic Fox is an independent project by Thor Olafsson. It brings natural history, research, photography and Iceland’s complicated relationship with the fox into one evolving record—made in Iceland, looking north.
Meet Thor