Russia has created a new reserve - «Bear Islands» (or The Medvezhyi Islands). As reported by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Russia, the decision to create a new nature reserve was signed by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. The reserve will be financed from the federal budget.
WWF Russia, which prepared the draft for the conservation area, said that the Bear Islands archipelago consists of six islands near the mouth of the Kolyma River. These places are famous for the highest concentration of breeding polar bear lairs recorded in the area from Taimyr to Wrangel Island, and females with cubs go on adjacent ice in the spring. According to scientists, up to 26 cubs of polar bears are born here every year. This feature has become one of the main arguments for creating a reserve in this territory, according to WWF.
The project was developed with the active support of the Ministry of Ecology, Nature Management and Forestry of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The reserve occupies 815.6 hectares, including almost more than 468 hectares of the East Siberian Sea adjacent to the Bear Islands, its most valuable part, according to experts, is the site of the Lower Kolyma tundra on the mainland.
On the territory of the reserve, 27 species of animals and 8 species of plants are included in the international, federal and regional Red Books. Rare birds such as the pink gull, little swan, black geese, white-headed loon, peregrine falcon, and white-tailed eagle inhabit the islands. On the territory of the reserve you can see a wolf, arctic fox, wolverine, muskrat, Siberian and ungulate lemmings, wild reindeer and musk ox. Sea hares, ringed seals live in the water area, beluga whales, walruses and even sea lions inhabit the islands.
In the water area around the archipelago there are unique little-studied communities of benthic organisms that have been preserved here since past warmer eras. Shallow water is also a kind of "nursery" for juvenile native fish of the Arctic seas.
According to WWF Russia, the Bear Islands have remained intact for at least the last three hundred years with no permanent population and no economic activity.
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