In the field season this year, populations of the ivory gull, the Atlantic subspecies of the walrus and the wild reindeer were studied.
The work was carried out by the Institute of Problems of Ecology and Evolution. A.N. Severtsov, the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, the Siberian Federal University and other scientific organizations together with the Rosneft company, the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources said on its website.
Expeditions in 2022 took place in little-studied and hard-to-reach Arctic regions.
Thus, observations of walruses were carried out as part of the voyage of the "Floating University" along the route Dikson - Franz Josef Land - Arkhangelsk. The largest rookery of animals was found on Hayes Island: 658 individuals (previously, no more than 150 individuals were recorded). At the same time, walruses kept far from the water - such behavior of animals has not been described by scientists before, the ministry noted.
Research on the population of the white gull, a rare species of seabirds listed in the Red Book, was carried out this year in the north of the Kara Sea on Vize Island.
“Also, in the course of the work, eight more nesting sites were examined, including the islands of Golomyaniy, Sredny, Domashny. GPS trackers were installed on eight gulls to identify foraging areas. We also managed to remove two trackers installed in 2020, which will allow scientists to analyze the annual movements of birds,” the Ministry of Natural Resources said.
The study of the wild reindeer population during the field season this year was carried out in Eastern Taimyr. The length of animal aerial survey routes exceeded 13,000 kilometers. The correction was carried out according to the signals of the radio beacons installed on the reindeer in previous years.
These studies were carried out within the framework of the national project "Ecology".
For three years (2020, 2021, 2022), specialists from the company and leading specialized scientific institutes of the country spent more than 14 months on expeditions.
“With the help of installed camera traps, 200,000 photographs were taken. More than 600 biological samples have been selected for laboratory analysis,” the report says.
Based on the results of the field work, practical solutions will be proposed for environmental protection at the licensed areas of the Rosneft company.
