Wrangel Island is a maternity home for polar bears. Polar Bear Island The island is called the maternity hospital of polar bears.
Wrangel Island. Almost the entire year, this island is ice-bound - a harsh 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 polar lights. 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 all day and night. The land in these places is not only cold as ice. She is on great depth literally riddled with never-melting ice - permafrost captured the river valleys lying between the mountain ranges, the vast tundra in the north, the entire southern coast.
Many children here saw bushes and trees only in pictures. And their parents work... foresters, forest rangers, they 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. Rumors about the Great Land lying to the north of Chukotka reached the Russian pioneers as early as the 16th century. However, it was not possible to confirm them for a long time - impenetrable fogs, knocking winds down, clouds clinging to hummocks, did not let people through to 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 the 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. Before that, no one knew that the island has a large colony of white geese that have almost disappeared in the world, that it is here that walruses arrange their rookeries - so vast that they cannot be found all over the world, that these places were chosen by the owner of the Arctic himself - the polar bear. It turned out that this small, completely 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, and insects.
More recently, before the creation of the reserve, up to fifty thousand goose eggs were exported from the island. 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 nothing threatens rare and endangered species of animals and plants here. The pride of the country, the reserve is also valuable because if scientists on the mainland are trying to preserve island ecological systems, then nothing needs to be done artificially on Wrangel Island, but simply leave everything as it is, and, of course, protect it.
Rich, interesting and beautiful in its own way nature on the island, lost in the icy desert. In winter, under the cover of snow and ice, it seems lifeless. But as soon as the sun warms, the earth will throw off the winter stupor - a miracle happens. Violet saxifrage flowers, blue forget-me-nots appear on the hillocks, the ice inversion is lit with golden lanterns. Above them, the yellow corollas of polar poppies sway on thin legs. Just a few warm days - and the whole tundra broke out with poppies. Throughout the mountains, where the icy streams have frozen, islands of life last. These lichens are the most unpretentious of plants, red, yellow, green, orange, colors and shades, they color the rocks with bright spots, cover the river. colored carpet scant 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 - shrub willows, sometimes creeping along the ground, sometimes 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 for polar bears.
Wrangel Island is not only a maternity hospital, it is a kind of nursery for cubs. Here they take their first steps, look with curiosity into a new world for them, and develop, acquire skills self standing life. It is very important that during this period nothing prevented female bears - caring and selfless mothers - from raising and training their offspring.
The number of polar bears declined sharply in the middle of our century, when the previously deserted Arctic began to rapidly develop and develop. Members of numerous expeditions and inhabitants of the 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 sporting interest. The master of the Arctic, its living emblem, is on the verge of extinction. This could not but cause concern. After all, white honey is an ornament, the pride of our North, our national wealth, a unique object for scientific research on the problem of adapting the body to living conditions in the North. Wealth that must be preserved - both for ourselves and for future generations.
The first step in this direction was the prohibition of hunting for 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 - only 10-20 thousand representatives remained 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 give birth and raise their offspring. It became obvious that not only hunters, but also people should not disturb the animal in the breeding grounds, 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 lair area 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 fly here. White geese, eiders, skuas, sandhill cranes, snow buntings and many other species build nests and rush to breed. Around the clock, the noise in the bird markets does not stop.
The ground is pitted with burrows and passages of lemmings. Where there are many lemmings, there are arctic foxes. Sometimes wander from the mainland and wolverines.
Only rivers filled ice water, are lifeless. But in the sea bays life is in full swing. In addition to walruses, bearded seals and seals are found off 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, they became even larger and more well-fed 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 serves as almost the only food for deer.
The bear family leaves the den as soon as the cubs are able to move independently. For the next few days, the she-bear, emaciated over the winter, does not dare to go far from the den and eats only what she can extract 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 moss moss, start games. The elevation at the entrance to the lair serves as a slide for them, which they climb and then slide down. In the future, these games become more complicated: the cubs move down on their belly from the nearest ice slope, spreading their hind and front paws - apparently, imitating their mother, who descends with them. Sometimes a she-bear, standing at the end of the descent, catches her cubs every time they roll down to her, rolling in the snow. Bear 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 she-bear with her two or three cubs forever gives a den to roam and hunt all her life among the endless ice fields of the Arctic, only occasionally hiding from severe snowstorms in snowdrifts behind hummocks.
But do not empty the maternity dens in the fall, other she-bears settle here, and in the spring they leave again. co with their offspring.
Almost all bear cubs born and bred in the reserve leave the island without hindrance. Mothers are not killed, of course. They are put to sleep for a while by shooting them with a bullet with sleeping pills from a special gun. This technique is also used in cases where, for scientific purposes, you need to examine it, weigh it, or attach a bright plastic collar, a badge 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.
There is no larger carnivore on our planet. Only marine predators like whales grow bigger. But how big can a bear grow? The clues very often come from the hunt. Since people compete in the hope of killing the largest individual.
About 12,000 years ago, grizzlies crossed the ice that connected the islands near Alaska to the mainland. When the ice melted, they were trapped. This is one of the best things that has happened to a group of bears. The green growing season on these islands lasts about 8-9 months. There are also a lot of salmon and, in addition to this, several deer flocks. Therefore, it is a long season with a lot of calories. Because of this, the animals grew in size.
Currently, about 3 thousand individuals live on these islands. Where males can be over 3 meters tall and weigh over half a ton. In 1952, an Alaskan biologist shot the largest bear ever recorded. He weighed 540 kilograms.
But there is another representative of the animal world, worthy of the title of the largest in the world. And he lives in one of the toughest places on Earth. Alaska, the Beaufort Sea - these places are located more than 300 kilometers above the Arctic Circle. The sea is covered with a layer of one and a half meters of ice and covered with snow. It's hard to imagine how anything survives here at all. However, polar bears rule this water area.
They will be able to gain 450 kilograms in weight without much effort - if they eat well. But these are just averages for polar bears. Adult males can easily reach a weight of more than 750 kilograms. The largest of the attested individuals was 3 meters 65 centimeters tall and weighed more than 900 kilograms.
How can a world as barren as the Arctic produce such huge animals? It's all about what's underneath polar ice hiding very nutritious food. Ringed seals are covered with a 13 cm layer of fat. This is a very high calorie food. Naturally, provided that you can catch her.
When brown bears wandered into the Arctic 250,000 years ago, nature began to turn them into sealing machines. Such an extreme arctic update. As grizzlies evolved, their back teeth evolved from plant crushers to meat cutters. In this they are more like lions or tigers than grizzly cousins. The same is true with their claws. They are real meat hooks and help not to miss even a huge prey.
To survive in such harsh conditions, the polar bear needed to change one more part of its body. In the process of evolution, the neck was stretched forward and gained additional muscles. Thanks to this, they can grab and pull seals from its air hole or from under the ice.
When this predator hunts, bioengineering works with it to create the perfect arctic hunter. Like a military leader, he strikes the snow with his strong paws until he breaks through the roof of the seals' shelter. Then it sticks its long neck inside and grabs the seal with its razor-sharp teeth. In this hunt, size equals success. The larger the animal, the more efficiently it breaks through the ice. And the faster he does it, the more likely it is to catch the victim.
An adult male is able to overcome almost any Arctic prey - even the biggest one. An adult walrus can have 90 cm tusks and weigh almost 2 tons. But even he is practically helpless against the attack of a polar bear.
In 1994, a tourist climbed over 2 protective fences to take a closer picture of a sleeping animal. In the end, despite the third fence, a dangerous predator broke the tourist's leg and inflicted many bites before the zoo workers could free her from the steel grip.
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“Anyone who is lucky enough to visit and work on it will fall in love and remember this “Unknown Land” for the rest of his life. (A.I. Mineev)
The main policy of the reserve is non-interference in 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 roam near the houses, in winter musk oxen come to the village. Arctic foxes hunt lemmings near houses, snowy owls use buildings as bait. The Wolverines play near the cordons. White geese during spring migration often rest after a long flight near the village.
MAIN "MATERNAL HOSPITAL"
The Chukchi name of Wrangel Island is "Umkylir", which means "Bear Island". And indeed it is. The Arctic is unimaginable without the polar bear. It is the largest of the land predators. The white giant (up to 700 kg) is superior in mass to its land relatives. Every year, starting from 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 highest density of birth dens for the entire Arctic has been recorded on Herald Island.
Counting polar bears throughout the Arctic is a complex matter that requires constant joint efforts of scientists and practitioners from all polar countries. The total number of polar bears is estimated at about 22 thousand individuals. The Chukchi-Alaska population has about 2000 individuals. However, these figures are approximate. Just two decades of intense hunting for the polar bear has brought it to the brink of extinction. In Russia, any polar bear hunting has been prohibited since 1956, and poaching entails criminal penalties. This rare species is listed in the Red Book.
International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) and the Red Book of Russia. Sometimes there are cubs that were lost by a mother bear or she was killed by poachers. Sometimes young female bears lose their cubs, especially if there are several cubs in the litter, when they are pursued by people. This is not always associated with the desire to get a bear, often people want to photograph them at a short distance. So in 2010, with the participation of the staff of the reserve, a bear cub found near Aion Island was transferred to the Moscow Zoo. They called him Aion. His mother was not found.
Currently, the preservation of the polar bear population and its study is one of the priority tasks of the reserve. It is successfully solved by the leading researcher of the reserve, candidate of biological sciences Nikita Ovsyanikov. Despite a long controversy, the production of a polar bear was never allowed. We believe this is a great achievement. Natural conditions are changing too quickly at the present time, there is not enough data to be able to say with certainty that the extraction of a small number of bears will not affect the population. It is necessary to carry out large-scale research involving the latest achievements in genetics, labeling using satellite tracking sensors. The reserve has accumulated a lot of experience in researching the polar bear, but, unfortunately, there are often not enough funds to conduct such research.
AT modern world The well-being of the polar bear is threatened by poaching, global warming, pollution of the Arctic. AT last years one of the main factors influencing the state of the population was the lack of ice at the end of summer and autumn. Animals are forced to go to land, to starve for a long time. This leads to problematic encounters with people in coastal communities. In the reserve, animals also come to the village where its employees live, however, thanks to the large accumulated experience of communicating with these predators, there are no problems. In their lectures and consultations, scientists of the reserve share their experience in preventing problematic encounters with polar bears.
WHAT ELSE ARE RICH
The avifauna is rich in the reserve - more than 169 species of birds, of which 62 species nest on the island. White geese arrive every year from North America to Wrangel Island. The creation of the Wrangel Island nature reserve was closely connected with 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 for the 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 nesting side by side, arriving from two geographically separated wintering grounds.
The annual monitoring of the Wrangel population of white geese was started by Doctor of Biological Sciences E.V. Syroechkovsky in 1969 and has been conducted by the staff of the reserve for 40 (!) years. In terms of the duration and intensity of observations for one population, these studies are exceptional.
Wrangel Island hosts the largest colonies of seabirds in the Chukchi Sea. Rare black geese are very interesting. Here you can also see the fork-tailed gull and yellow-throated oystercatcher, and in autumn, if you're lucky, off the coast of the island you can admire the rarest, most mysterious and beautiful creatures of the Arctic - pink gulls.
The musk ox, or musk ox, is a hoofed animal. “Umingmak” (“bearded”) is the name given by the Eskimos of Nunivak Island to the musk ox, which was moved to Wrangel Island in 1975. And he remarkably took root, now the scientists of the reserve number 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 resettle musk oxen to the northeastern territories (Chukotka, Eastern Yakutia) in order to create a full-fledged resource species in these places.
The reserve has developed a method of terrestrial trapping of musk oxen, and since 2002, trappings have been periodically carried out for resettlement in Yakutia. Currently, the issue of approving a regional program for the creation of free-living populations of musk oxen in Chukotka is being considered.
Reindeer have been living on the island since 1948, when a reindeer-breeding state farm was organized in the village of Ushakovskoye. With their appearance, the composition of the fauna of the island was enriched - the wolverine and the wolf came through the Long Strait, which separates the island from the mainland.
After the closure of the branch of the state farm, the deer began to run wild, acquired the color of the wild form. Their behavior also began to change. In recent years, the reindeer population on the island has declined dramatically. This is due to ice phenomena in winter. So in the winter of 2005, more than 6,000 deer died on the island.
The permanent inhabitant of Wrangel Island is the arctic fox. In winter, the Arctic fox is a handsome man, he resembles a fluffy ball of wool. In the reserve the most high density fox burrow.
A subspecies of the Siberian lemming and Vinogradov's hoofed lemming living on Wrangel Island are endemic. Once every three years there is a mass reproduction of lemmings, and then a lot of skuas, snowy owls, arctic foxes appear on the island. In the "lemming-free 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. Every summer, gray whales appear off the coast of the island. In autumn, herds of belugas pass by the coast 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 after Wrangel by scientists, grow only here, these are poppy, cinquefoil and bluegrass.
The entomofauna of the island has not yet been fully studied. Each time, entomologist Olga Khruleva, while processing 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 clean up the territory of the reserve from anthropogenic pollution left over from the time of operation on Wrangel Island of the branch of the deer-breeding state farm, the village of Ushakovskoye and military bases. Clearing the territory of the reserve from technogenic waste was one of the conditions for the inclusion in 2004 of Wrangel Island in the UNESCO World Natural Heritage List.
In February of this year, at the initiative of the administration of the Federal State Institution "Reserve" Wrangel Island "by the Minister of Natural Resources 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, on Wrangel Island, work began on cleaning 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 about cleaning up the Arctic.
In August 2011, the ship "Mikhail Somov" approached the island, on which equipment was delivered. Employees of the reserve and specialists who arrived on the ship took an active part in the work on cleaning up the territory of the reserve.
Scrap metal in the reserve is concentrated in several places. The main part is in the village of Ushakovskoye, the Doubtful station and at Cape Hawaii. As part of the preparation for the removal of scrap metal, the staff of the reserve in the summer of this year collected about 1,000 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 export 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 staff of the reserve will continue work on preparing scrap metal for removal for further disposal during the year.
Wrangel Island is called the "Pearl of the Arctic". We are sure 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 nature of the Arctic and will treat it very carefully.
The Russian Wrangel Island is located between the Chukchi and East Siberian Seas in the Arctic Ocean. This harsh island was named after the Russian navigator F.P. Wrangel. Heavy snowfalls and frosts occur here even in summer, and the air temperature hardly rises above +2 degrees Celsius, while in winter it stays below -30 for a long time. There is also a polar night on Wrangel Island for three months a year. However, with all this, the island is under the protection of UNESCO as a natural reserve, along with the neighboring Herald Island and coastal waters.
History of Wrangel Island
Finds made in this area by archaeologists indicate that the first people lived and hunted on Wrangel Island as early as 1,750 BC. Russian pioneers suspected the existence of this object already in the middle of the 17th century from the stories of the inhabitants of Chukotka, although geographic Maps the island was inflicted only two centuries later. The development of the island began in the middle of the last century, when in 1926 a polar station was established here under the leadership of G.A. Ushakov, and two years later the Litke icebreaker made an expedition to Wrangel Island. Later, domestic reindeer were brought to the island to organize a reindeer-breeding state farm, which in the sixties grew into a reserve of republican significance.
In the mid-nineties of the last century, an employee of the reserve suddenly discovered on the island the remains of woolly mammoths, whose age, according to preliminary estimates, was about 7-3.5 thousand years, while previously it was believed that mammoths died out 10-12 thousand years ago. Later, it was possible to establish that the remains found belonged to a rather small subspecies that inhabited the island in that historical period when the Egyptian pyramids were already built. This fact made Wrangel Island one of the most important paleontological monuments of the planet.
The harsh nature of the island
The area of Wrangel Island today is 7,670 square kilometers, and more than half of them are occupied by snow-capped mountain peaks located in the central part of the island. It is not surprising that the climate in this part of the world is very severe. For most of the year, cold arctic air prevails over the island, while in the summer months masses of wetter and more humid air reach Wrangel Island. warm air With Pacific Ocean and sometimes from Siberia. February and March are considered the coldest months here, when, in addition to stable frosty weather, the situation is complicated by snowstorms, as well as strong northern winds speed up to 40 meters per second. It happens on Wrangel Island and summer, but its own, arctic, which means it is very cold with snowfalls and frosts. The air temperature in the hottest month, July, reaches + 3 degrees Celsius. Sometimes natural anomalies happen here, as, for example, in 2007, when the summer was especially warm with a temperature of + 7 degrees.
In winter, under the thickness of ice and snow, Wrangel Island seems completely frozen and completely lifeless. However, as soon as the sun begins to warm slightly, a miracle happens and the first flowers appear on the hillocks. In just a few warm spring days, literally the entire island is covered with bright poppies and forget-me-nots. In the center of Wrangel Island, where the icy breath of the ocean almost does not reach, the vegetation is even more abundant. Here you can see not only flowers and grass, but even small trees - shrub willows that spread along the ground or rise 50 - 60 centimeters. In total, specialists on Wrangel Island count about two hundred species of plants, 114 of which were recognized as rare and very rare.
As for the fauna of Wrangel Island, in general it is not rich and cannot boast of a variety of species due to harsh climatic conditions. About 20 species of birds nest here, including the most popular local birds - white geese. They form the main colony and several smaller ones in the valley of the Tundrovaya River in the central part of the island. There are also black goose, arctic terns, crows, skuas. Sometimes birds from North America fly to the island - Canada goose and cranes. The fauna of mammals in this northern reserve is not particularly rich either. Lemmings can be called permanent residents, while wolves, foxes, ermines and wolverines are much less common. Together with polar explorers, the house mouse, which lives only in residential warm rooms, also got to the island. Also on Wrangel Island is the largest walrus rookery in the country, and seals are found in coastal waters.
Maternity hospital and nursery for bears
Despite the fact that the harsh Wrangel Island does not shine with a variety of animal species, it is often called a maternity hospital for bears. In fact, this is not only a maternity hospital, but also a real nursery for little cubs, where kids explore the new world with curiosity and develop the skills necessary for independent living. It is important that at these moments no one interferes with the she-bears to raise and train their offspring.
In the middle of the last century, the number of polar bears on Wrangel Island sharply decreased due to the fact that the previously deserted Arctic began to suddenly develop and be settled by people. The participants of numerous expeditions were so amazed by the huge number of bears that they began to kill them not for food, but for the sake of beautiful warm skins or simply out of sports interest and passion. Thus, in just a few years, the living emblem of this region was on the verge of extinction, which could not but cause alarm.
The first step in the conservation of polar bears on Wrangel Island was a ban on hunting and listing these endangered animals in the Red Book. Such a measure immediately gave excellent results, and the number of animals ceased to decrease. However, in order to save the remaining representatives of the species, this was clearly not enough. The provision of animals was required necessary conditions for the life and education of offspring. Then it became obvious that not only hunters, but people in general, should not disturb polar bears in the places of their breeding and raising babies. So Wrangel Island became the main maternity hospital for polar bears, where nothing disturbs the peace of expectant mothers. In the area of bear lairs, not only all types of activities, but also the stay of people in general, are strictly prohibited. Special exceptions are sometimes made for scientists studying the life of these animals.
Every year about half a thousand pregnant white bears come here, whose birthing dens can be located very close to each other. The best rookeries are mountain slopes located in close proximity to the coast. Usually, she-bears dig their lairs right in the snow, and if the snow cover is not thick and dense enough, then the rookery is built in some kind of depression. When the main part of the burrow is dug, snowfalls “complete” it, erecting walls and a ceiling of snow. In the ceiling of this snow den, bears make holes for air to enter, and the exit is usually located at the bottom, which allows you to maintain the required temperature inside the dwelling - even in the most severe frosts, the temperature in the den is about + 7 degrees Celsius.
As soon as the little bear cubs are able to move independently, the family gets out of their den. In the following days, the bear does not go far from the children, eating what she can get out of the snow - mosses, lichens, last year's grass. The rest of the time the polar bears devote to their cubs, teaching them to dig out reindeer moss, climb icy hills, etc. In the first days, the bear families return to their dens for the night, and then the she-bear with her cubs leaves her warm house forever to hunt for the rest of the time among the endless snowy fields of Wrangel Island, sometimes hiding in deep snowdrifts. However, the maternity dens do not remain empty - in the fall, other she-bears arrange a place for themselves in them, who again leave them with their offspring in the spring.
Visit to Wrangel Island
Once upon a time, the Chukchi lived on the territory of the present reserve on Wrangel Island, and to this day the remains of the houses of the indigenous people have been preserved here. However, now no one is allowed on the island except scientists. Only as an exception, a few tourist groups can get permission to walk along the coast of the island. Getting to the island on your own is almost impossible at any time of the year. In summer, you can try to get here by going on a multi-day sea cruise from the city of Anadyr. The cost of such a trip is extremely high - a 15-day tour of Chukotka with a visit to Wrangel Island on an icebreaker will cost from 9,800 to 13,000 US dollars (about 402,290 - 533,651 rubles) per person. It used to be possible to view the island from a helicopter, but recently flying over the reserve at low altitude was forbidden to anyone except scientists observing animals.
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 Ukchi Seas, the Laptev Sea and the northern part of the Bering Sea. They are listed in the federal and regional Red 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, cubs are born to the female (usually two). The cubs stay in the den until February-March.
Lifespan: 25-30 years old.
The brown and polar bears share a common ancestor. Their habits are somewhat different from each other, but both are dangerous to humans. The polar bear feels its prey for several kilometers, its sense of smell, sight and hearing are so developed. Produces seals, fish, in times of famine eats chicks, carrion, algae. Bears are extremely curious. They immediately go to investigate any unfamiliar object on the shore.
Polar explorer Toptygin
One Nenets fairy tale tells how bears went towards each other: white - to the south, and brown - to the north. They came face to face and began to fight. The fight ended in a draw: the white one was stronger, and the brown one was more dexterous. And the bears decided: we are brothers, we will each live in our own lands, so as not to interfere with each other ...
Polar and brown bears are indeed relatives, their common ancestors lived 150 thousand years ago. Now everyone has their own habitat, and from here - pdifferent habits and appearance.
The polar bear is a symbol of the Arctic: it is the only land mammal that lives on its drifting ice. Survival of the fittest under harsh conditionse.Sometimes you have to swim non-stop, overcomingrecord distances - up to 170 kilosmeters! And jump from ice floe to ice floe; even if the distance between them reaches six meters.
In European languages, the polar bear is called differently: northern, polar, ice. And his Latin name Ursus maritimus means "sea bear". The life of the polar bear is completely dependent 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 an excellent protection against frost. Doesn't freeze and subcutaneous fat up to ten centimeters thick. Under the white fur, the skin of the bear is black. Yes, and the fur actually only seems white or yellowish: these are hollow, colorless hairs that look like tubes. They let in the sun's rays, and the black leather retains heat.
It happened that in zoos the fur coat of polar bears acquired a green tint: microscopic algae started growing inside the hairs. Although, in general, bears constantly monitor 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. Since developmentIn the Arctic, commercial fishing began, and the number of polar bears was rapidly declining. Animal rights activists have sounded the alarm.
In 1973 the arcticEuropean states have concluded 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 a bear, and a strictly defined amount (the so-called quota) can be shot.
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 die out. because of global warming ice is melting. But the bear hunts the seal onlyon drifting ice floes. There are many developments of oil and gas fields in the Arctic, because of this the sea is not getting cleaner.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources has included 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 all year round winter?
Yes, they have a long sleep, but you can’t call it hibernation: the body temperature almost does not decrease, and the bear can wake up at any moment. Where the climate is particularly harsh and 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, cubs are born to them. They are very small: each weighs about 450 grams and fits in the palm of your hand, and their fur is more like fluff.
The bear's milk is fat, nutritious, the babies grow quickly. In March, they leave the snowy lair and accompany their mother everywhere, gaining life experience.
Polar bears are friendly to relatives, 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 mess with the brown one and will give way to him.
Man has long hunted a polar bear with dogs. But hunting has long been banned, and bears sometimes even play with dogs.
IFAW International Fund for Animal Welfare
Do you know someone who has done something special for animals? Perhaps this man dedicated his life to saving animals in the reserve? Or acted in defense of animals as an activist of the environmental movement? Or did he conduct daring rescue operations?
Are you ready to become a participant in the action in defense of polar bears? Visit site www.ifaw.org/russia/- there you will find tasks for independent work, as well ascolorful booklets, posters and film.
Bibliographic list of references
1. Bashnaeva, T. Sheltered among the ice / T. Bashnaeva // Anthill. - 2010. - No. 10. - S. 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. - S. 6-9
Northern and South Pole. Earth axis. Features of polar bears.
4. All sorts of things // Anthill. - 2013. - No. 1. - S. 17-19, 24-25
Brief funny notes about animals.
5. Dvoretskaya, G. Let's support Ursus maritimus! / G. Dvoretskaya // Murmansk Bulletin. - 2013. - 28 Feb. (No. 36). - S. 1.2
Action "Let's Save Polar Bears Together" on International Polar Bear Day in Murmansk.
6. Elina, E. Polar explorer Toptygin / E. Elina // GEOlenok. - 2012. - No. 12 (98). - pp. 10-15
Habits and lifestyle of a polar bear.
7. Is the lion rightly 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 AiF. - 2013. - No. 1. - S. 1-56.
The issue is devoted to the Arctic, which tells about the famous polar explorers, about how many difficulties and dangers they had to overcome, as well as about the unique nature of the North.
9. Shainyan, K. Human service / K. Shainyan // 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 these animals are studied, what is being done to preserve their populations.
Internet resources
Living symbol of the Arctic: [electronic resource] // IFAW International Fund for Animal Welfare: [website], 2013. - Access mode: http://www.ifaw.org/russia.