Flights London-Longyearbyen and Tromso stopover?

OP You are aware that musk oxen are not naturally occuring in Norway. So - if you are for seeing wild animals in their natural habitat, this is not something to go for. Although the Norwegian musks of course are more "wild" that those in London zoo (if there are any there?)

The Norwegians muskox are certainly wild! There weren't any here after the ice age and they were imported in the 1930's but that doesn't mean they're not wild animals and very well adapted to their habitat. If you're out to take pictures I hope you have a good zoom lens since the animals can be dangerous. KEEP YOUR DISTANCE!

Yes you can freely enter and wonder around on foot (or skis on winter) in the natural park, no payment or permit is needed.

Bjoern - you are correct. In my short-sightedness, I assumed they were once found in northern scandinavia and then reintroduced after an extinction, but it seems they were indeed never there. So perhaps better to save that one for a Canada/Greenland trip one day. The same area is however good for moose and reindeer (I should see some in Svalbard although I believe the mainland ones are more pure??).

I have heard it is possible to snorkel with killer whales off the west/north coast somewhere - presumably around Lofoten. Has anyone heard about this? I do shoot underwater too, so this would really appeal to me.

The key sites Im seeing for wildlife are the Lofoten area for whales and white-tailed sea eagles, and the Varanger region in the north for ducks and various waders etc. I will keep looking though.

Eh, the muskox are certainly just as real and just as wild in Norway as in Canada/Greenland, and the environment is just as suitable for them. I guess you wouldn't be interested in seeing moose on Newfoundland either, for the same reason?

The reindeer on Svalbard is just as "pure" as the wild herds at Dovre, and no they weren't brought there by humans....

I've never heard of snorkeling with killer whales. Keep in mind, the water is rather cold up there. :-)

the muskox are certainly just as real and just as wild in Norway as in Canada/Greenland

I think you might be unsurprised if someone decided not to go and see one in a fenced wildlife park. But there is a gradual spectrum from fenced wildlife parks, to unfenced introductions but with natural boundaries which act like fences in practice, to introduced populations expected to expand, to reintroductions, to wild populations benefiting from support like artificial feeding, to wild populations.

I was rather surprised to learn that many British bird-watchers consider spotting the reintroduced red kites in England (easily spotted out of your car while driving at full speed along certain motorways) to be "plastic" in comparison to the continuity populations in mid-Wales, though even these have benefited from artificial feeding. By that criterion, the only capercaillie and white-tailed sea eagles we have in Britain are "plastic".

OK but this is no fenced-in park but a large area of relatively undisturbed nature and the muskox are left to themselves. But no they're not native to the area and never have been so for a purist they are kind of "plastic". But the reindeer at Dovre (and Svalbard) are really wild in the sense that nobody owns them, unlike reindeer most other places in Norway :-)