The ivory gull was initially described by Constantine Phipps, 2nd Baron Mulgrave in 1774 as Larus eburneus from a specimen collected on Spitsbergen during his 1773 expedition towards the North Pole.

[2] Johann Jakob Kaup later recognized the unique traits of the ivory gull and gave it a monotypic genus, Pagophila, in 1829.

[2][dubious – discuss] The genus name Pagophila is from Ancient Greek pagos, "sea-ice", and philos, "-loving", and specific eburnea is Latin for "ivory-coloured", from ebur, "ivory".

[2] It differs anatomically from the other genera by having a relatively short tarsometatarsus, a narrower os pubis, and potentially more flexibility in skull kinetic structure.

It has many other vocalizations, including a warbling "fox-call" that indicates potential predators such as an Arctic fox, polar bear, Glaucous Gull or human near a nest, a "long-call" given with wrists out, elongated neck and downward-pointed bill, given in elaborate display to other Ivories during breeding, and a plaintive begging call given in courtship by females to males, accompanied by head-tossing.

[4] Ivory gulls migrate only short distances south in autumn, most of the population wintering in northern latitudes at the edge of the pack ice, although some birds reach more temperate areas.

It takes fish and crustaceans, rodents, eggs and small chicks but is also an opportunist scavenger, often found on seal or porpoise corpses.

The ivory gull breeds on Arctic coasts and cliffs, laying one to three olive eggs in a ground nest lined with moss, lichens, or seaweed.

[1] Examination of data collected on an icebreaker plying between Greenland and Svalbard between 1988 and 2014, by Claude Joiris of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, found a sevenfold fall in ivory gull numbers after 2007.