For the past five years, a group of volunteers and environmentalists have formed bear patrols to protect polar bears from poachers.

The Spring Trail campaign was launched in late March as part of the Bear Patrol programme. The patrol will protect female polar bears with cubs and collect data about the life of these animals, head of the WWF Russia’s Bear Patrol project Viktor Nikiforov said. He noted that it is precisely when the female polar bears with cubs start leaving their dens that they need to be protected from poachers. That is also the perfect time for assessing the number and size of the litters.

One of the first bear patrols will begin operating on the Arctic shore of Yakutia. It will explore the coast of the Kolyma Gulf and the Bear Islands Archipelago in the East Siberian Sea.