Employees of the Medvezhyi Islands Nature Sanctuary, together with specialists from the Environment Ministry of Yakutia, conducted a traditional count of polar bear dens and recorded the tracks of female bears with cubs on the Medvezhyi Islands archipelago in the East Siberian Sea.

During the count, which took place from 30 April to 5 May, researchers found 12 maternity dens, as well as solitary bear tracks on all the islands of the archipelago. According to experts, there were about 10 single polar bears in the area of work.

Two families of polar bears, each with one cub, were recorded on the mainland part of the Kurdigino-Krestovaya Resource Reserve. No maternity dens were found.

“The number of polar bear cubs in the new nature sanctuary, Medvezhyi Islands, remains stable.We have been working with our Yakut colleagues on spring counts for almost 15 years; it is very important that the sanctuary expands research on the archipelago in the summer as well,” said Viktor Nikiforov, environmental protection director of the Tigrus Foundation.

(Photo © Viktor Nikiforov)