A motion-sensor camera installed on the Oranskiye Islands near the walrus rookery recorded a polar bear sneaking up on a group of young pinnipeds, according to the Russian Arctic National Park press service.

However, the predator did not have luck hunting and set off to wander through the tundra, eating something from the ground. Once the snow-white animal passed close by the camera trap.

“Camera traps are widely used by researchers at Russian Arctic National Park to monitor the fauna of the Arctic desert. The ability to select the range, sensitivity and trigger interval allows them to get scientifically valuable footage of how animals behave in their natural habitat, without the disturbance factor,” said Alexander Kirilov, director of Russian Arctic National Park.

The data were collected from the camera trap in June when the Arctic Floating University expedition landed on Bolshoi Oransky Island. The camera trap worked all winter, proving its ability to function all year round on 12 lithium batteries.

“After landing on the island, we saw that one camera trap had been blown down by the wind. We put it back up. Three more cameras had been washed out to sea as a result of coastline change. The rest recorded polar bears and polar foxes visiting the islands in the spring,” said Ivan Mizin, deputy director for research at Russian Arctic National Park.

Data were also retrieved from camera traps at Cape Zhelaniya. It turned out that the endangered bears were present at the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya throughout the year.

“For the 2021/22 season, we left eight camera traps after changing the batteries,” added Ivan Mizin. “Four on the Oranskiye Islands and eight on Cape Zhelaniya. There are also camera traps on the Franz Josef Land islands as part of the Atlantic walrus research by the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution at the Russian Academy of Sciences.