On 29 December, on the threshold of the New Year, Russia is marking a special environmental occasion: The Birthday of Polar Bears.

At the end of December, several thousand tiny bear cubs weighing about 600 grammes are born in snowy lairs all around the Arctic. In approximately three months, when the cubs leave the lair with their mothers, they will weigh about 10 kilos. They gain weight quickly, because bear’s milk is very nutritious and rich in fat: up to 45 percent.

“The first two years of life are the most difficult for the bear cubs. During this time, between 35–85 percent can die,” says Viktor Nikiforov, Polar Bear expert. “Unfortunately, in recent years, mass poaching has been added to the problem of global climate change.”

According to Nikiforov, only in the first six months of this year, officers from the Ministry of Internal Affairs found sets of polar bears’ skins in Chukotka and Yamal, and representatives of the Russian Federal Security Service seized skins in the Khabarovsk Territory and in the Amur Region.

The world’s population of polar bears is about 25,000. There are between 5,000–7,000 bears in the Russian part of the Arctic. Polar bears are protected by the Red Data Book, and the hunting of them has been prohibited completely since 1957.