The Master of the Ice exhibition is on display in the Congress Hall of the Museum of the World Ocean in Kaliningrad. These unique photographs of polar bears were taken by professional zoologists Nikita Ovsyanikov and Irina Menyushina, who have devoted their lives to studying Arctic animals.

The polar bear is the largest land predator and the only one whose habitat is the drifting ice floes of the Arctic. Throughout its evolution, the polar bear has become perfectly adapted to living in this harsh environment.

The photographs show polar bears in their natural habitat, their behaviour in different situations, their hunting habits, and the threats they face, including the changing climate and a growing number of man-made threats.

Russia has long had very progressive policies on polar bear conservation, which have taken on added significance in the face of the mounting threat of extinction. These policies are a positive example of a scientific approach to preserving Arctic ecosystems and the world’s largest land carnivore, the polar bear.

The exhibition will be open until 31 March.

About the photographers

Nikita Ovsyanikov and Irina Menyushina are professional zoologists. They have devoted their lives to studying Arctic animals and have been observing the polar bear in its natural habitat for over 20 years.

Irina Menyushina, MA (Biology), graduate of Tver State University, has been studying the tundra carnivores of Wrangel Island since 1982. Initially, she and Nikita Ovsyanikov studied the behaviour and the social ecology of the Arctic fox as researchers with the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution. Every spring she participated in the expedition to Wrangel Island, spending several months in the tundra studying animals.

In 1990, she accepted the post of researcher at the Wrangel Island State Nature Reserve and settled in the village of Ushakovskoye. Her scientific interest shifted to the snow owl and its relationship with the Arctic fox and other tundra animals on Wrangel Island, including wolverines and wolves.

In 1993, Menyushina joined a long-term project to study the behaviour and social ecology of the polar bear on Wrangel Island.

In 1982, she began using photography to record the behaviour of the species she studies.

Nikita Ovsyanikov, PhD (Biology), Distinguished Polar Explorer of Russia, graduated from Lomonosov Moscow State University and took up Arctic zoology in 1977. In 1980, while working at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, he launched a project to study the behaviour and social ecology of the Arctic fox on Wrangel Island.

In 1990, he accepted the post of researcher at the Wrangel Island State Nature Reserve and settled on the island with Irina Menyushina, studying polar bears in their natural habitat by living among the animals for months at a time. Ovsyanikov has developed a system to protect the safety of both researchers and polar bears, which scientists at the Wrangel Island Reserve have been using for over 20 years.

Ovsyanikov also takes professional wildlife photos and video.

He has participated in many polar bear expeditions in other parts of the Arctic, including Herald Island, the New Siberian Islands, Franz Josef Land and Svalbard. He has also studied the polar bear from aboard research vessels in the central Arctic Basin and along the Northern Sea Route.

He is the author of two books about the polar bear and a monograph on the behaviour and social ecology of the Arctic fox.