Predicting the time and place of polar bear sightings during their autumn migration from the northwestern to southeastern part of Chukotka’s Arctic coast is no easy task, but it is important in order to protect both local residents and the bears. Experts are closely monitoring ice cover in the Chukchi and East Siberian seas. This information combined with monitoring data on the location of the bears on the coast in the summer and the remains of whales and walruses in the autumn have helped predict where polar bears were likely to turn up and when. They appeared near the village of Ryrkaipii in early November. The residents have been prepared for their arrival and are trying to limit their movement to the Cape Kozhevnikov nature reserve, where a female with two cubs born this year and an adult male are living.

“Our researchers are monitoring polar bears near Cape Kozhevnikov,” head of the Polar Bear Patrol Viktor Nikiforov said. “We are mainly concerned about the concentration of polar bears a few dozen kilometres from the village to the west. So far, we have spotted 11 animals near a dead gray whale. A winter road runs near this place, so we are concerned about possible illegal hunting.”

(Photo by © Maxim Deminov)