Baffin Island evidence of contact with Europeans prior to the Vikings' arrival in Greenland". Dr Sutherland's research eventually led to a 2012 announcement that whetstones had been found with remnants of alloys indicative of Viking presence. The archaeological site at Tanfield Valley is thought to have been a trading post, and thus Baffin Island would be Helluland. Baffin Island is part of the Qikiqtaaluk Region. The hamlets of Cape Dorset and Qikiqtarjuaq do not lie on the Baffin Island proper. Cape Dorset is situated on the Dorset Island which is located few kilometers from the south eastern tip of the Foxe Peninsula.
Baffin Island to the southern part in winter, even to the Frobisher Bay peninsula, next to Resolution Island and migrate back north in the summer. In 2012, a survey of caribou herds found that the local population was only about 5000, a decrease of as much as 95% from the 1990s. Polar bears can be found all along the coast of Baffin Island, but are most prevalent where the sea ice takes the form of pack ice, where their major food sources — ringed seals (jar seal) and bearded seals — live. Polar bears mate approximately every year with from one to