The Arctic island is called the cradle of polar bears. Wrangel Island - a maternity hospital for polar bears

“Everyone who is lucky enough to visit and work on it will love and remember this“ Unknown Land ”for the rest of his life. (A.I. Mineev)

The main policy of the reserve is non-interference with natural processes. We proceed from the fact that this territory belongs to Nature, people only observe the ongoing processes. Over the years of its existence, the infrastructure of the reserve has merged with the landscape of the island. Bears often wander around the houses, in winter musk oxen come to the village. Arctic foxes hunt lemmings near houses, while snowy owls use buildings as broods. Wolverines play near the cordons. During spring migration, white geese often rest after a long flight near the village.
MAIN "MATERNITY HOSE"
The Chukchi name of Wrangel Island is Umkylir, which means Bear Island. And indeed it is. The Arctic is impossible to imagine without a polar bear. It is the largest of the land-based predators. The white giant (up to 700 kg) surpasses its land relatives in mass. Every year, starting at the end of July, many bears come to the shores of Wrangel Island. Their existence depends on the presence of walruses and seals, the nature of the ice cover. Wrangel Island is also called the "maternity hospital" of polar bears. The maximum density for the entire Arctic in the distribution of ancestral dens was recorded on the Herald Island.
Counting polar bears throughout the Arctic is a complex undertaking that requires the constant combined efforts of scientists and practitioners from all polar countries. The total number of polar bears is estimated at about 22 thousand individuals. The Chukchi-Alaskan population numbers about 2000 individuals. However, these figures are approximate. Just two decades of intense polar bear hunting has put it on the brink of extinction. In Russia, any hunt for polar bears has been banned since 1956, and poaching carries a criminal offense. This rare species is included in the "Red Book".

International Union for Conservation of Nature and natural resources(IUCN) and the Red Book of Russia. Sometimes there are cubs that the mother-bear lost or she was killed by poachers. Sometimes young female bears lose their cubs, especially if there are several cubs in the litter, when chasing them by humans. This is not always associated with a desire to hunt a bear, often people want to photograph them at a short distance. So in 2010, with the participation of the reserve staff, a bear cub found near the island of Ayon was transferred to the Moscow Zoo. They called him Aion. His mother was never found.
At present, the conservation of the polar bear population and its study is one of the priority tasks of the reserve. It is being successfully solved by Nikita Ovsyanikov, the leading researcher of the reserve, Candidate of Biological Sciences. Despite lengthy controversy, polar bear hunting was never permitted. We think this is a great achievement. Natural conditions are changing too quickly at the present time, there is not enough data to be sure that hunting a small number of bears will not affect the population. It is necessary to conduct large-scale research using the most modern achievements of genetics, tagging using satellite tracking sensors. The reserve has accumulated a lot of experience in polar bear research, but, unfortunately, there are often not enough funds to carry out such research.
V modern world the well-being of polar bears is threatened by poaching, global warming, and pollution of the Arctic. In recent years, one of the main factors affecting the state of the population has become the absence of ice in late summer and autumn. Animals are forced to go on land, starve for a long time. This leads to problematic meetings with people in the villages along the coast. In the reserve, animals also come to the village where its employees live, however, thanks to the vast accumulated experience of communicating with these predators, problems do not arise. Scientists of the reserve in their lectures and consultations share their experience in preventing problem encounters with polar bears.

WHAT IS STILL RICH
The avifauna is rich in the reserve - more than 169 species of birds, of which 62 species nest on the island. Every year from North America white geese arrive on Wrangel Island. The creation of the Wrangel Island nature reserve was closely related to the need to protect the unique nesting sites of white geese in Asia. In the middle of the last century, Wrangel Island became the only place of existence of a colony of this species in the Old World. The uniqueness of the Wrangel population of white geese is primarily due to the fact that here, on the territory of one colony, geese nest side by side, arriving from two geographically separated wintering grounds.
The annual monitoring of the Wrangel population of white geese was started by E.V. Syroechkovsky in 1969 and has been conducted by the staff of the reserve for 40 (!) Years. For the duration and intensity of observations in one population, these studies are exceptional.
The largest seabird colonies in the Chukchi Sea are located on Wrangel Island. The rare black geese are very interesting. Here you can also see the Fork-tailed Gull and Yellow-toed Sandpiper, and in the fall, if you are lucky, you can admire the rarest, mysterious and beautiful creatures of the Arctic - Rosy Gulls off the coast of the island.
The musk ox, or musk ox, is a hoofed animal. "Umingmak" ("bearded") is the name given by the Eskimos of the Nunivak island to the musk ox, which was moved to Wrangel Island in 1975. And he took root remarkably, now the scientists of the reserve have more than 800 individuals. From the very beginning, Wrangel Island was considered as a natural reserve for the creation of a full-fledged donor population of musk oxen. In the future, it was planned to relocate the musk oxen to the northeastern territories (Chukotka, Eastern Yakutia) to create a full-fledged resource species in these places.

The reserve has developed a method of ground-based capture of musk oxen, and since 2002, catches have been periodically carried out for settling in Yakutia. Currently, the issue of approving a regional program for creating free-living populations of musk oxen in Chukotka is being considered.
Reindeer have been living on the island since 1948, when a reindeer herding state farm was organized in the village of Ushakovskoye. With their appearance, the composition of the island's fauna was enriched - through the Long Strait, which separates the island from the mainland, came the wolverine and the wolf.
After the closure of the branch of the state farm, the deer began to run wild and acquired a wild color. Their behavior also began to change. In recent years, the island's reindeer population has declined dramatically. This is due to ice conditions in winter. So in the winter of 2005, more than 6,000 deer died on the island.
Arctic fox is a permanent inhabitant of Wrangel Island. In winter, the Arctic fox is handsome, it resembles a fluffy ball of wool. The reserve has the highest density of polar fox burrows.
The subspecies of Siberian lemming and Vinogradov's hoofed lemming, living on Wrangel Island, are endemic. Once every three years, there is a mass breeding of lemmings, and then many skuas, snowy owls, and Arctic foxes appear on the island. In "lemming years" the tundra becomes empty.
In late July - early August, thousands of Pacific walruses come to Wrangel Island, migrating north after wintering in the Bering Strait. Gray whales appear off the coast of the island every summer. In autumn, herds of belugas pass by the shores of the island.
The flora of Wrangel Island is one of the richest in the Arctic. There are more than four hundred plant species on the island, some of which are endemic. The world of higher plants has more than 480 species. Three of them, named by scientists after Wrangel, grow only here, these are poppy, cinquefoil and bluegrass.
The island's entomofauna has not yet been fully studied. Each time entomologist Olga Khruleva, during the processing of scientific collections, finds new species for the island, and sometimes for science.

FOR A CLEAN ARCTIC
In 2010, the reserve announced the "Clean Island" campaign, the purpose of which is to cleanse the reserve from anthropogenic pollution left over from the time when a branch of a reindeer-breeding state farm, the village of Ushakovskoye and military bases functioned on Wrangel Island. Clearing the territory of the reserve from technogenic debris was one of the conditions for the inclusion of Wrangel Island in the List of World Sites in 2004. natural heritage UNESCO.
In February of this year, on the initiative of the administration of the Federal State Institution "Reserve" Wrangel Island "by the Minister of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation Yu.P. The Trutnevs were instructed to prepare a Project for cleaning up the territory of the reserve. In the summer of 2011, work began on Wrangel Island to clean up the coastal strip from scrap metal as part of the implementation of the decree of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin on cleaning up the Arctic.
In August 2011, the ship "Mikhail Somov" approached the island and delivered the equipment. The staff of the reserve and the specialists who arrived on the ship took an active part in the work to clean up the territory of the reserve.
Scrap metal on the territory of the reserve is concentrated in several places. The main part is in the village of Ushakovskoye, the Somnitelnaya station and on Cape Hawaii. As part of the preparation for the removal of scrap metal, the staff of the reserve in the summer current year collected about 1000 barrels scattered throughout the reserve and stored them for further disposal. In just four days of work, 8.5 tons of barrels were prepared for removal and loaded onto the ship. Of course, this is not enough, but the first, main step has been taken - equipment and tools have been delivered.
The reserve staff will continue to work on preparing scrap metal for removal for further disposal during the year.
Wrangel Island is called the "Pearl of the Arctic". We are confident that the CLEAN territory of the reserve will create more favorable conditions for the life of animals and attract tourists. Wrangel Island is waiting for its guests. Those who understand the vulnerability of the Arctic nature and will be very careful about it.

Wrangel Island. This island is frozen almost all year long - a severe winter with severe frosts and hurricane winds lasts from September to May. At this time, night reigns here, only occasionally illuminated by bizarre flashes of aurora borealis. A short, chilly summer with frosts and snowfalls does not have time to warm the island, although the sun shines tirelessly, not hiding behind the horizon around the clock. The land in these places is not only cold as ice. It is literally pierced to great depths by never melting ice - permafrost has captured the river valleys, the vast tundra lying between the mountain ranges in the north, the entire southern coast.

Many of the local children saw bushes and trees only in pictures. And their parents work ... as foresters, foresters, wear uniforms with oak leaves. These are employees of the reserve - rare, special, unlike others.

There was a time when the existence of this island was only guessed at. Rumors of the Great Land, lying north of Chukotka, reached Russian pioneers as early as the 16th century. However, it was not possible to confirm them for a long time - impenetrable fogs, winds knocking down from their feet, clouds clinging to hummocks did not allow people to reach the island. Only at the beginning of the last century, Admiral Wrangel, who led an expedition to search for northern lands, quite accurately determined the location of the island in the Arctic Ocean according to survey data collected from local population... Later, when the coordinates of the island were clarified, it was named after the pioneer of these difficult polar latitudes Ferdinand Petrovich Wrangel.

More than a hundred years after the island appeared on the map, it remained uninhabited. And when Soviet polar explorers landed here in 1926, a life full of surprises and discoveries began for the winterers and several families of Eskimos and Chukchi who arrived with them. No one knew before that there is a large colony of white geese that have almost disappeared in the world on the island, that it is here that walruses arrange their rookeries - so vast that they cannot be found anywhere in the world, that the owner of the Arctic himself, the polar bear, has chosen these places. It turned out that this small, chilled piece of land at the junction of the East Siberian and Chukchi seas is a reliable, and sometimes the only refuge for many species of animals, birds, insects.

More recently - before the creation reserve-off the island up to fifty thousand goose eggs were exported. Such a predatory attitude towards nature was not in vain, and only the organization of the reserve in 1976 changed the situation. The point is not only that now there is no threat to rare and endangered species of animals and plants. The pride of the country, the reserve is also valuable because if scientists are trying to preserve island ecological systems on the mainland, then on Wrangel Island nothing needs to be done artificially, but simply leave everything as it is, and of course, protect it.

The nature on the island, lost in the icy desert, is rich, interesting and beautiful in its own way. In winter, under cover of snow and ice, it seems lifeless. But as soon as the sun warms up, the earth will throw off the winter numbness - a miracle happens. Purple saxifrage flowers, blue forget-me-nots appear on the hillocks, ice inversion lights up with golden lanterns. Above them, the yellow corollas of polar poppies sway on thin legs. Just a few warm days- and the whole tundra flared up with poppies. On the whole mountains, where the icy streams are frozen, islands of life last. These lichens are the most unpretentious of plants, red, yellow, green, orange, colors and shades, they color with bright spots of rocks, cover the river. colored carpet is a sparse layer of permafrost soils.

In the center of the island, where the breath of the Arctic Ocean is weaker, the vegetation is even more abundant. There are even small trees - shrubby willows, now creeping on the ground, now rising above its surface by 50-70 centimeters. In total, there are about hundreds of plant species on Wrangel Island.

Rich and animal world... Wrangel Island is often called the maternity hospital of polar bears.

Wrangel Island is not only a maternity hospital, it is a kind of nursery for bears. Here they take their first steps, peer with curiosity into a new world for them, and develop, acquire skills by itself a worthwhile life. It is very important that during this period nothing prevented the bears - caring and selfless mothers - from raising and educating their offspring.

The number of polar bears declined sharply in the middle of this century, when the previously deserted Arctic began to rapidly explore and develop. Participants of numerous expeditions and inhabitants of polar stations, amazed by the abundance of animals, killed dozens of them - not for food, but for the sake of a beautiful skin or simply out of sports interest. The master of the Arctic, its living emblem, was on the verge of extinction. This could not but cause alarm. White honey, after all, is an adornment, the pride of our North, our national wealth, a unique object for scientific research on the problem of the body's adaptation to living conditions in the North. Wealth that must be preserved - both for oneself and for future generations.

The first step in this direction was the prohibition of hunting the polar bear; it was listed in the Red Book. This measure brought good results - the number of the species has ceased to decrease. But in order to avert the threat of extinction of the species - there are only 10-20 thousand representatives left on the entire planet - it alone was not enough. It was necessary to provide animals with the necessary conditions for life, to give them the opportunity in natural conditions to produce and raise their offspring. It became obvious that not only hunters, but also people in general should not disturb the beast in breeding grounds, or change the prevailing natural conditions.

In the main maternity hospital"- on Wrangel Island - nothing disturbs the peace of expectant mothers. Not only all kinds economic activity, but the stay of people in the area of ​​dens is prohibited here. An exception is made only for scientists studying the life of these amazing animals that live in the most severe region of the planet. In the reserve, scientists have a unique opportunity to observe in natural conditions. And not only for the polar bear.

With the onset of warm days, birds come here. White geese, eiders, skuas, Canadian cranes, snow buntings and many other species build nests and rush to breed. The noise at the bird colonies does not stop all day and night.

The ground is pitted with holes and lemmings. Where there are many lemmings, there are arctic foxes. Sometimes wolverines also wander from the mainland.

Only rivers filled with icy water are lifeless. But in the sea bays life is in full swing. In addition to walruses, bearded seals and seals can be found near the coast.

There are also large mammals on the island - reindeer and musk ox, brought by people from the mainland. They perfectly adapted to the new conditions, became even larger and fatter than their relatives on the mainland - the vegetation in these polar latitudes turned out to be not so scarce. Yagel - deer moss (actually not moss - lichen), covering the entire tundra, in winter time serves as almost the only food for deer.

The bear family leaves the den as soon as the babies are able to move independently. For the next few days, the female bear, emaciated over the winter, does not dare to move far from the den and feeds only on what can be extracted from under the snow - last year's grass, lichens, mosses. These first and very important days are devoted mainly to introducing the cubs to their new environment; they dig out reindeer lichen, start games. The elevation at the entrance to the den serves as a slide for them to climb and then slide down. In the future, these games become more complicated: the cubs slide on their belly from the nearest ice slope, spreading their hind and front paws - obviously, imitating their mother, who descends with them. Sometimes the bear, standing at the end of the slope, catches her cubs, every time they roll down to her, falling out in the snow. The cubs are very obedient. Some scholars even believe that the mother To knows how to talk to them.

In the first days, the family returns to the den for the night, then the bear with her two three cubs forever gives the den to roam and hunt all her life among the endless ice fields of the Arctic, only occasionally to hide from severe blizzards in snowdrifts behind hummocks.

But do not leave the maternity dens in the fall, other bears settle here, and in the spring they leave again with by their offspring.

Almost all cubs born and bred in the reserve leave the island without hindrance. In this case, of course, mothers are not killed. They are put to sleep for a while, firing a bullet with sleeping pills at them from a special rifle. This technique is also used in those cases when, for scientific purposes, it is necessary to examine, weigh it, or attach a bright plastic collar, a token with a number, and sometimes a portable radio transmitter. The tags help scientists track the movements of bears and study their life outside the reserve.

What attracted the attention of the UNESCO leadership on this relatively small island, remote from the mainland by the Long Strait and located on the border of the Western and Eastern hemispheres. Archaeological finds showing that the first people hunted on the island as far back as 1750 BC. This is the "maternity hospital" of polar bears, and the largest walrus rookery in the Arctic. What else is this island famous for?

ON THE EXISTENCE OF AN ISLAND IN THE NORTHERN ICE OCEAN Russian pioneers were told from the middle of the 18th century. the indigenous inhabitants of Chukotka and the Eskimos of Alaska. Unsuccessfully searched for this Mysterious Island during 1820-1824 F.P. Wrangel. In fact, the first European island was discovered in 1849 by the British explorer Henry Kellett, who named it Herald Island after his ship. However, in 1867, the American whaler Thomas Long, who decided that he had met new island, named it in honor of the then famous Russian navigator Wrangel Island.

In 1881, the American explorer Calvin Hooper declared the island a US territory. However, 30 years later, a Russian hydrographic expedition arrived on the island, surveyed the coast and raised its flag there. Later, the Canadians and the British tried to annex the island to their lands, but these attempts were unsuccessful. And in 1924, a Soviet expedition arrived on the island under the leadership of the hydrographer B.V. Davydov, which raised the Soviet flag on the island and took out the settlers (American geologist Charles Wells and 12 Eskimos) left on the island by the Canadians. They were later sent home through the city of Harbin.

It is interesting that the island's belonging to a particular country has not yet been legally formalized. According to international law, it should belong to the United States, but no one has disputed its belonging to Russia to this day.

Since 1926, Soviet settlers appeared on the island - 59 people (mainly Eskimos), who became the first inhabitants of the village of Ushakovskoye and employees of the polar station. In the 1950-60s. two more settlements were founded on the island and several military installations were built. At the beginning of 1980, about 200 people lived in the village of Ushakovskoye, there was a polar station and an airport that received helicopters and AN-2 planes. However, by the end of 1980, the military left the island, and in 1992 it was closed and radar station... Only the Eskimos remained on the island in the village of Ushakovskoye. By 2003, the village was completely deserted (according to available information, the last inhabitant of the village was eaten by a polar bear at the end of 2003).

IN 2010 THE WEATHER STATION WAS RESUMED WITH SIX EMPLOYEES ... But in 2014, Wrangel Island again became the focus of military attention. The first base was established here. Pacific Fleet Russia, in a few months a military town was built, a radar post and an aviation guidance point were founded.

What is the island from the point of view of a natural site? From 7670 sq. km of area 2/3 - mountains ( highest point- 1096 m above sea level). There are about 900 medium-sized shallow (no more than 2 m deep) lakes of various origins and about 150 small rivers and streams (of which only five are more than 50 km long). The low-lying shores are the arctic tundra.

The island is distinguished by a rather harsh climate dominated by arctic cold dry air. There is little precipitation - only about 135 mm / year. Winter is long and harsh. The air temperature in winter can drop to -30C -35C and below. Frosts are accompanied by frequent and strong gusty winds at a speed of 40 km / h or more, which further increases the severity of winter days. A rather cool summer does not spoil a person here, during which the air temperature rarely rises above +2 -40C, frosts and snow fall are frequent. Only in mountainous areas, sheltered from the winds, is it slightly warmer and drier.

However, in late spring and summer (the warm period lasts only 20-25 days), nature still comes to life. The tundra is covered with carpets of various poppies, which create a very colorful picture. Near the coastal cliffs, thousands of different birds fill the air with their hubbub. At the same time, polar bears with babies crawl out of their dens.

The flora and fauna of the island are unique in the Arctic for their richness and level of endemism. Therefore, together with the Herald Island and the adjacent water area of ​​the Chukchi Sea, it was recognized as a protected zone, and in 1976 a reserve was created throughout their territory. The purpose of creating the reserve was to preserve and study the typical and unique ecosystems of the insular part of the Arctic, as well as such animal species as the polar bear, walrus, the only large nesting colony of several tens of thousands of pairs of white geese that has survived in Russia and Asia, etc.

The island's vegetation is distinguished by its rich ancient species composition. The number of vascular plant species here is more than 310, while on the larger New Siberian Islands there are only 135, on Novaya Zemlya - about 65, on Franz Josef Land - less than 50. The flora of the island is rich in relics. There are also 114 species of rare and very rare plants. The features of the island's vegetation indicate that the original arctic vegetation here was not destroyed by glaciers, and the sea did not allow later migrants to penetrate from the south to the island.

The modern vegetation cover corresponds to the vegetation of the Arctic desert - an open, undersized cover of sedge-moss tundra. Only in the central part of the island are willow thickets up to 1 m high.

THE ISLAND'S HARD NATURAL CONDITIONS ARE NOT FAVORABLE FOR ANIMAL WEALTH. There are absolutely no amphibians and reptiles in the reserve, and fish (Arctic cod, capelin) are found only in coastal waters... But there are many birds on the island - as many as 169 species. Most of these birds are vagrant here, only 44 species constantly nest on the island, including 8 species of seabirds (gull, guillemot). Several tens of thousands of pairs of white geese, black geese, various species of eider, sandpipers and other bird species nest on the island. There are tens of thousands of guillemots, kittiwakes, and 3000 cormorants in the bird colonies on the steep sea coasts. The total number of seabird colonies on the island is estimated at 250-300 thousand nesting individuals. Huge bird world! In some years, bird species uncharacteristic for the Arctic nest on the island: turukhtan, ipatka, hatchet, talovka warbler, etc.

The world of mammals on the island is rather poor: lemming, arctic fox, ermine, wolverine, feral reindeer, wolves, red foxes. But of course, polar bears, the real masters of these places, make the island and the entire reserve especially famous. This part of the Arctic has become famous as the world's largest concentration area for the polar bear's ancestral dens. In some years, from 300 to 500 she-bears arrange dens in the reserve! In the spring, emaciated female bears come out of their dens with still immature bear cubs and disperse across the expanses of the Arctic in search of food.

Today, there are up to 9-10 thousand wild reindeer on the island, brought here in the late 40s - early 50s of the twentieth century. In 1975, 20 musk oxen were brought to Wrangel Island from the American island of Nunivak. They gradually took root on Wrangel Island, and today their population already numbers more than 1000 individuals. Interestingly, both of these species of animals lived on the island in the late Pleistocene, and the reindeer and later - only 2-3 thousand years ago.

Wrangel Island is also famous for the largest Pacific walrus rookeries in the Arctic. These interesting animals, like polar bears, have chosen the water area of ​​the reserve for summer feeding. In the summer-autumn period, female walruses with their cubs accumulate near the islands. They usually stay at the edge of the ice, and after their disappearance, they approach the islands and form the largest coastal rookeries in the Chukchi Sea on the spits, which can simultaneously contain up to 70-80 thousand walruses, and taking into account the animals swimming in the water, up to 130,000 individuals. For wintering, walruses migrate to the Bering Sea.

The ringed seal that lives in the coastal waters of Wrangel Island is the food for polar bears throughout the year. In the summer-autumn period, the water area of ​​the reserve becomes a feeding and migration area for cetaceans, of which the gray whale is the most numerous. The number of its population off the coast of Wrangel Island is increasing every year. Large herds of beluga whales migrate along the coast of the island in autumn and head to give birth to the Mackenzie River Delta in North America.

ON WRANGEL ISLAND EMPLOYEE OF THE RESERVE, OUR FATHER, SERGEY VARTANYAN in the mid-90s. XX century found the remains of woolly mammoths, whose age was determined at 7-3.5 thousand years. However, according to the opinion of scientists existing in those years, mammoths died out everywhere 10-12 thousand years ago. The find of Sergei Vartanyan raised many questions. But then it turned out that the found remains belong to a special small subspecies of the mammoth, which inhabited Wrangel Island during the heyday of Egyptian civilization. The sites of an ancient man were also found on the island.

Today, the island attracts many scientists with its flora and fauna, archaeological finds, and migrations of marine animals. In recent years, Wrangel Island has been increasingly visited by tourists who travel around it on all-terrain vehicles. At the same time, the island is of great strategic importance for countries bordering the Arctic Circle. Some US politicians still dispute Russia's right to rule northern islands... However, Wrangel Island is for Russia a part of a single chain of defense of the country's northern borders, which has been especially evident in recent years in connection with the return of the military to the Arctic islands.

In the middle of the endless expanses of the Arctic Ocean is the northernmost nature reserve in Russia - "Wrangel Island". It is here that the largest number of polar bear ancestral dens in the world is located, and the herd of musk oxen numbers almost 1000 individuals. The reserve is included in the list of natural heritage sites of "UNESCO", and in addition to land, its protected zone includes the adjacent sea area.

State nature reserve"Wrangel Island" was organized in 1976, although separate measures to protect the animals living there have been taken since the 30s of the last century. The reserve, in addition to the Wrangel Island itself, includes the Herald Island, located to the north-east of it, as well as the territory of the Chukchi Sea. The total area of ​​the protected area is 2,225,650 ha and it belongs to the Chukotka autonomous region.

Wrangel Island stands out among other Arctic islands for its very rich flora and fauna. This is the region with the highest level of biodiversity of flora and fauna, not only among Russian islands Arctic Ocean. It surpasses the islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago combined in terms of the number of plant and animal species.

62 species of birds nest on the island, and a total of 169 species of birds have been recorded on the territory of the reserve. The bird colonies of the island number up to 300,000 individuals.

In 1975, a consignment of musk oxen from the American island of Nunivak was brought to Wrangel Island. The adaptation of the animals was not easy, but, in the end, the musk oxen acclimatized and began to breed. According to the latest data, the number of these amazingly beautiful and hardy animals on the island is about 1000 individuals.

Even earlier, in the 1940s, domesticated reindeer were brought to the island, which took root well, and today the number of feral ungulates is several thousand individuals.

According to paleontological data, reindeer and musk oxen lived on the island in the late Pleistocene. Therefore, their introduction can be considered a reconstruction of the historical past of the island.

The fauna of marine mammals living in coastal waters and on the coast is represented by pinnipeds: Pacific walrus, ringed seal and bearded seal (sea hare). The latter two species form the basis of the diet of the polar bear, the largest predator in the Arctic.

Harald Island has the highest density of polar bear ancestral dens in the world. On the small island there are about 100 of them. On Wrangel Island, places of a special concentration of dens are also distinguished, where bears lie in hibernation and where they bear offspring: the area of ​​Cape Werring, Mountain range Drem-Head, Western Plateau, valleys of the Thomas and Morzhovy brooks. Total in the reserve in different years there are from 300 to 500 ancestral dens. It is not for nothing that in the language of local residents the island is called Umkilir, which means “the land of polar bears”.

Wrangel Island has some of the harshest living conditions in the entire Arctic region. The warm breath of the Gulf Stream cannot penetrate so far to the east, and the reserve remains one of the few places in the Arctic waters where the ice cover stays most of the year. Ice is very important for the survival of polar bears. The fact is that the successful rearing of offspring depends entirely on whether the she-bear can get enough seals. Bears usually hunt on ice, waiting for pinnipeds at the breathing holes. The rapid melting of the Arctic ice, as well as the lengthening summer, make it impossible for polar bears to get food in the right amount. Therefore, these protected lands are today a place of prosperity for polar bears.

Despite the considerable distance and difficulties with delivery, the reserve "Wrangel Island" offers tourists several excursion routes, which are becoming increasingly popular. Therefore, if you are bored with the beaches of Thailand and the Red Sea, visit Wrangel Island for an unforgettable experience.

General information

There are 19 populations of polar bears in the Arctic - only 20-25 thousand animals? In the Russian Arctic, polar bears live in the Barents, Kara, East Siberian, Chthe Ukot Seas, the Laptev Sea and in the northern part Bering Sea... They are listed in the federal and regional Red Data Books.

Dimensions: the length of the male reaches two and a half meters, its weight is 350-600 (up to 800) kilograms, the weight of the female is 200-300 kilograms.

Offspring: In November-January, the female gives birth to cubs (usually two). The cubs remain in the den until February-March.

Life span: 25-30 years old.

The brown and polar bears have a common ancestor. In their habits they differ somewhat from each other, but both are dangerous to humans. The polar bear feels its prey several kilometers away, so developed is its sense of smell, sight and hearing. It catches seals, fish, eats chicks, carrion, algae in times of famine. Bears are extremely curious. They immediately set off to investigate any unfamiliar object ashore.

Polar explorer Toptygin

One Nenets fairy tale tells how the bears went towards each other: the white one - to the south, and the brown one - to the north. They collided nose to nose and began to fight. The fight ended in a draw: the white one was stronger, and the brown one was more agile. And the bears decided: we are brothers, each of us will live in our own land, so as not to interfere with each other ...

White and brown bears are indeed relatives, their common ancestors lived 150 thousand years ago. Now everyone has their own habitat, and hence - pVarious habits and appearance.

The polar bear is a symbol of the Arctic: of the land mammals, only he lives on its drifting ice. The strongest survive in harsh conditionse.Sometimes you have to swim without stopping, overcomingrecord distances - up to 170 kilosometers! And jump from ice floe to ice floe; even if the distance between them reaches six meters.

In European languages, polar bears are called differently: northern, polar, ice. And his Latin name Ursus maritimus means "sea bear". The life of a polar bear completely depends on the sea, here its main food is the seal. On land, he does not go far from the coast: water is his salvation in case of danger.

Thick fur is excellent frost protection. Does not freeze and subcutaneous fat up to ten centimeters thick. Under the white fur, the bear's skin is black. And the fur, in fact, only seems white or yellowish: these are hollow, colorless hairs, similar to tubes. They let in the sun's rays, and black skin retains heat.

It happened that in zoos, polar bears' fur coats acquired a green tint: microscopic algae grew inside the hairs. Although in general, bears are constantly monitored for cleanliness: it is important that the fur does not lose its insulating properties.

Polar bears in the Red Book

Eskimo hunted polar bears
s, Chukchi and other peoples of the North. But they never took more animals than they needed. And they even asked for forgiveness from every bear for being forced to kill him. With masteringIn the Arctic, commercial fishing began, and the number of polar bears was rapidly declining. Animal advocates have sounded the alarm.

In 1973, the ArcticEuropean states have signed an Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears. And in our country, hunting for them was banned back in 1938. Now only the indigenous peoples of the North can hunt bears, and you can shoot a strictly defined amount (the so-called quota).

In 2011, such hunting was also banned in Russia. But the forecasts are still bad: in forty years, two-thirds of all polar bears will become extinct. Ice is melting due to global warming. But the bear hunts the seal onlyon drifting ice floes. There are a lot of oil and gas development in the Arctic, because of this, the sea is not becoming cleaner.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources has listed the polar bear in the Red Book of Endangered Species. Wrangel Island and Herald Island, where the largest "maternity hospitals" of polar bears are located, have already been declared a state reserve. Recently, Greenpeace activists around the world dressed up as polar bears and took to the streets, urging governments to abandon the development of the Arctic and create a nature reserve on its territory.

But what about the famous bear hibernation, if polar bears have winter all year round?

Yes, they have a long sleep, but you cannot call it hibernation: the body temperature hardly decreases, and the bear can wake up at any moment. Where the climate is particularly harsh and the winds are strong - for example, in the Canadian Arctic - males can lie in a snow den in September, October and January. In the north of Taimyr, bears also sleep from mid-December to early February. Females stay in dens longer: in the middle of winter they give birth to cubs. They are very small: each weighs about 450 grams and fits in the palm of your hand, and their fur looks more like fluff.

The bear's milk is fatty, nutritious, babies grow quickly. In March, they leave the snow den and accompany their mother everywhere, gaining life experience.

Polar bears are friendly to their relatives and often play with each other. If they find the carcass of a dead whale, they feast together.

Can brown and polar bears actually meet?

Yes, for example, in Chukotka and Alaska. But, contrary to the Nenets fairy tale, the polar bear will not get involved with the brown one and will give way to him.

People have long hunted polar bears with dogs. But hunting has long been banned, and sometimes even bears play with dogs.

IFAW International Fund for the Protection of Animals

Do you know someone who has done something special for animals? Perhaps this person dedicated his life to saving animals in the reserve? Or advocated for the protection of animals as an environmental activist? Or was he conducting daring rescue missions?

Are you ready to take part in the action in defense of polar bears? Visit the site www.ifaw.org/russia/- there you will find tasks for independent work, as well ascolorful booklets, posters and film.

Bibliographic list of literature

1. Bashnaeva, T. Sheltered among the ice / T. Bashnaeva // Anthill. - 2010. - No. 10. - P. 23-25

Inhabitants of the Arctic reserve "Wrangel Island".

2. Begisheva, A. Your neighbors are sleeping ... polar bears / A. Begisheva // GEO / GEO. - 2012. - No. 1. - S. 64-79.

3. Visiting the Big Dipper // Why and why. - 2011. - No. 10. - P. 6-9

North and South Pole. Earth axis. Features of polar bears.

4. All sorts of things // Anthill. - 2013. - No. 1. - P. 17-19, 24-25

Brief funny notes about animals.

5. Butler, G. Let's Support Ursus Maritimus! / G. Dvoretskaya // Murmansk Bulletin. - 2013 .-- Feb 28. (No. 36). - S. 1.2

Save Polar Bears Together Campaign on International Polar Bear Day in Murmansk.

6. Elina, E. Polyarnik Toptygin / E. Elina // GEOlenok. - 2012. - No. 12 (98). - S. 10-15

Polar bear habits and lifestyle.

7. Is the lion rightfully called the king of beasts? // Fun lessons. - 2012. - No. 8. - P. 7

The largest and most powerful predators among animals.

8 ... Feklushin, V. Arctic / V. Feklushin // Children's Encyclopedia of the AiF. - 2013. - No. 1. - S. 1-56.

The issue is dedicated to the Arctic, which tells about famous polar explorers, how many difficulties and dangers they had to overcome, as well as unique nature North.

9. Shahinyan, K. Human service / K. Shahinyan // Around the world. - 2012. - No. 12. - S. 242-254.

What are the features of the life and structure of the body of polar bears. How are these animals studied, what is being done to preserve their populations.

Internet resources

Living symbol of the Arctic: [electronic resource] // IFAW International Fund for the Protection of Animals: [site], 2013. - Access mode: http://www.ifaw.org/russia.