Wrangel island geography. Wrangel island: nature reserve, location on the map of Russia, climate, coordinates

The rocky island, washed by the icy waters of the Arctic Ocean, bears the name of the Russian navigator and explorer Wrangel with dignity. On the territory of the island there is a reserve of the same name, protected by UNESCO.

The island, where nature enchants with its immense beauty, lies at the junction of the western and eastern hemispheres. From mid-November to January, the polar night begins, diligently enveloping the island in a black veil. At this time, it becomes almost impossible to see the border between land and the deep sea. The local landscape takes on thousands of colors thanks to the reflected moonlight from the icy surface. Lovers of local beauty recommend visiting this protected area of \u200b\u200bthe Arctic, at least to contemplate the incredible natural phenomenon - the northern lights.

The polar day, lasting from May to July, enlivens the entire environment of the island and the reserve in particular. Although the heat from this solar phenomenon does not increase, the flora and fauna are becoming more active. At this time, Wrangel Island is filled with many species of birds that fly to this area to nest.

If we talk about the size of the island, then they are very impressive. The area is 7670 km², more than half of which is filled with mountains. The width is 150 kilometers, and the length reaches 125. The highest point of the island is considered to be Mount Sovetskaya, the top of which is at 1096 meters.

Wrangel Island records:

The remains of a dwarf mammoth were found on the island, the species of which was not known before. The mammoth lived in this area even 6,000 years after the early date of the extinction of the mammoth population around the world!

The climatic features of the island are very harsh, even the global warming of the planet is not improved by the harsh icy winds without moisture during the polar night, as well as the frequent thick fogs with the onset of the polar day. The average annual temperature is around + 11 ° С.

Features of the Wrangel Island reserve.

The flora is very unique, and everything also breaks records in its quantitative value. 331 species of mosses and 310 species of lichens grow here, which makes the reserve a leading position among the subzones of the Arctic tundra. Also on the territory of the reserve there are almost all types of landscapes characteristic of the Arctic zone, with the only exception being glacial ones. There is an interesting feature of the flora, because the height of the plants does not exceed 10 centimeters, and the shrub willow that grows up to a meter mark is considered a giant among them.

Many streams run through the reserve, as well as lakes and rivers, which do not differ in significant depth. The protected area also includes the Herald Island. As for the fauna, arctic wolves, wolverines, polar foxes, walruses, polar bears, lemmings and seals have become permanent residents of the area.

Currently, the development of eco-tourism on the island is underway, so it becomes much easier to get here. The complex reserve is explored by numerous scientists, and the charm of virgin nature bewitches everyone who was able to find himself in such a unique place.

Wrangel Island is one of the largest islands in the Arctic Ocean and a reserve of the same name. It is separated from Chukotka by the Long Strait, the width of which is 150 km on average. The area of \u200b\u200bWrangel Island is 7670 square kilometers, and most of it is covered with mountains with a maximum height of 1096 meters.

Wrangel Island is a very harsh land and people practically did not try to master it. Here for a short time there were small military bases and polar stations, the last of which was closed in 2003. But the tragedy should not be made of this, because the island is essentially a desert, but according to the classification it belongs to the Arctic tundra. The flora and fauna are represented very poorly, and titanic efforts are needed to develop these lands. For example, there is no summer here at all and the average temperature even in summer is only 2-3 degrees Celsius, and during the remaining 9 months the temperature rarely rises above zero.

Discovery history

The first people have lived on the island since ancient times, and the oldest found sites date back to 2 thousand years BC. The found remains of the island's mammoths, the youngest of all found on our planet, belong to the same period. By their appearance, they were dwarf relatives of the mainland mammoths. It is not known when exactly people left the island, but by the arrival of the first explorers, the island was already empty.

Despite the severity of the climate and the impossibility of development, a serious struggle was going on for the island, which eventually ended in favor of Russia. For the first time on the maps, Wrangel Island was entered in 1849 by the English explorer Henry Kellett. He named it after himself - the Land of Kellett, but the name did not catch on, and very few people were interested in the island itself. The next news about the island dates back to 1866, when an American trade expedition visited it. The expedition was led by Thomas Long, who named the island in honor of Ferdinand Petrovich Wrangel, who was looking for this island in the 20s of the 19th century but never found it. The next visitors to the island were the American rescue ship, which was looking for the missing De Long expedition. The Americans landed on the island to inspect its coast and at the same time proclaimed it a US territory, but this was somehow quickly forgotten, and in 1911 the Russian icebreaker Vaigach approached the island and planted the Russian flag on the island.

In 1913, an event occurred that once again unfolded a sluggish round of struggle for the island. The Canadian Arctic Expedition, heading to explore the Canadian Arctic shelf, was trapped in ice and could not get out on its own. The ship drifted for some time among the ice and ended up near Wrangel Island. A year later, the researchers were rescued, but only half of the team was able to survive the winter. The expedition was commanded by Villalmur Stefanson, who immediately saw the possibility of fishing off the coast of Wrangel Island and planned to establish a colony on the island. However, neither Canada nor Britain agreed to his proposal. Then Stefanson decided to act cunningly. In 1921 the first five settlers arrived here and the British flag was hoisted, which immediately caused a major diplomatic scandal. The British quickly disowned the entrepreneur's grief. However, two years later, another 13 settlers arrived here and this time the island was declared an American territory, which could not go unnoticed, and a small icebreaker with a detachment of military and armed with cannons immediately went to the island. In 1924, he took the colonists out by force and hoisted the USSR flag over the island.

This story served as a good lesson and after the expulsion of the uninvited guests, there were plans to colonize the island already from the USSR. 60 colonists were brought to the island, most of whom were from the indigenous northern peoples. This event finally staked out the island for Russia. In the 60s, two small military settlements were founded, as well as military infrastructure facilities were built. In the 90s, the inhabitants left the island and the military infrastructure was abandoned.

Flora and fauna

For the most part, the island is inhabited exclusively along the coastline, since the sea is the main source of food for almost all animals. For a long time, the interior was inhabited only by small rodents feeding on plant food, as well as birds. Only owls hunting rodents can be attributed to permanent residents among the birds of the island, while the rest of the birds fly to nest, for example, the rarest species of wild hollow geese that arrange their colony here. But for other predators, there was no place in the depths of the island, since rivers and lakes freeze completely and are fishless. In the middle of the century, the colonists brought reindeer here, but they scattered around the island and, in the absence of predators, multiplied very quickly. In 1975, musk oxen were brought to the island, which also took root here and found an excellent home for themselves without any threats from predators and humans.

The only large predator is the polar bear, which roams along the coast in search of food. Also, on the shore, you can find whole colonies of seals and walruses, which feel very comfortable here, because the presence of a person here is practically reduced to zero. The walrus colony here is the largest in our country. Birds also choose the coastal zone for their temporary colonies. However, such an abundance does not last long and already in autumn, with the onset of ice, many species move further from the coast, or, like a polar bear, simply hibernate before the arrival of warmth, and deer leave for mountain valleys, where they find food for themselves in winter.

Plants of the island differ little from the tundra of other places, but the set of species is unique. Most of these are dwarf plants, and because of the strongest northern winds, their height is no more than 10 cm. But with all this, most of the species are of very ancient origin and have not changed their appearance for many thousands of years. A total of 114 rare species are counted on the island, and due to the remoteness from the mainland and the harsh climate, the composition of plants here is much better preserved than on other northern islands. There are also small dwarf trees - Ivyanka, which are found in mountain valleys and gorges, protected from the wind. Their size rarely exceeds 1 meter in height.

Chukotka Autonomous District

Wrangel Island - image from space

Wrangel Island - an island belonging to Russia in the Arctic Ocean between the East Siberian and Chukchi seas.

It got its name in honor of the Russian navigator and polar explorer Ferdinand Wrangel.

History

The existence of the island was known to Russian pioneers from the middle of the 17th century. according to the stories of local residents of Chukotka, however, it got on the geographical maps only two hundred years later.

Opening

Wrangel Island was actually discovered by the American whaler Thomas Long in 1867, and the first landing on it was made only in 1881 by the crew of the American ship Corvin, under the command of Lieutenant Berry. Shortly before that, on October 21, 1879, the English explorer Kellett landed on the neighboring Herald Island in search of J. Franklin's expedition.

Mastering

For the first time, Wrangel Island was explored in 1911 by an expedition on the Vaygach ship, which planted the Russian flag on the island.

Relief

The relief of the island is highly dissected. Occupying most of the island, the mountains form three parallel chains - the North Ridge, the Middle Ridge and the South Ridge - ending in the west and east with coastal rocky cliffs. The most powerful is the Middle Ridge, in which the highest point of the island is located - Mount Sovetskaya (1096 m). The northern ridge is the lowest; it turns into a wide swampy plain called the Tundra Academy. The southern ridge is not high and runs not far from the sea coast.

Valleys with numerous rivers are located between the ridges. In total, there are more than 140 rivers and streams on the island with a length of more than 1 km and 5 rivers with a length of more than 50 km. Of the approximately 900 lakes, most of which are located in the Tundra Academy, 6 lakes have an area exceeding 1 km². On average, the depth of the lakes is not more than 2 m. By their origin, the lakes are divided into thermokarst, which include the majority, old (in the valleys of large rivers), glacial, dammed and lagoon.

Climate

The climate is harsh. For most of the year, masses of cold arctic air with low moisture and dust content move over the area. In summer, warmer and humid air from the Pacific Ocean comes from the southeast. Dry and highly heated air masses from Siberia come periodically.

Quite often, birds from North America fly into the reserve or are carried by the wind, including the Canadian cranes, which regularly visit Wrangel Island, as well as the Canadian geese and various American small passerines, including finches (myrtle songbirds, bush buntings, black-browed buntings, yunco, white bean zonotrichia) ...

The fauna of mammals in the reserve is poor. Ungulate lemming, Siberian lemming and arctic fox live here permanently. Periodically and in significant numbers, a polar bear appears, whose maternity dens are located within the boundaries of the reserve. From time to time, wolves, wolverines, ermines and foxes enter the reserve. Together with people, sled dogs settled on Wrangel Island. A house mouse has appeared and lives in residential buildings. Reindeer and musk ox were brought to the island for acclimatization.

In the mid-1990s, the magazine “mammoths, whose age was determined from 7 to 3.5 thousand (!) Years. Despite the fact that, according to popular opinion, mammoths died out everywhere 10-12 thousand years ago. Subsequently, it was discovered that these remains belong to a special relatively small subspecies that inhabited Wrangel Island even at a time when the Egyptian pyramids had long stood, and which disappeared only during the reign of Tutankhamun and the heyday of the Mycenaean civilization. This makes Wrangel Island one of the most important paleontological monuments of the planet.

Settlements

• Star
• Perkatkun

Sources

Literature

• Gromov L.V. A fragment of ancient Beringia. M., 1960.
• Mineev A.I. Wrangel Island. M .; L., 1946.
• Vegetation of the Far North and its development, issue 3. M.-L., 1958.
• Soviet Arctic (seas and islands of the Arctic Ocean). M, 1970.

Links

• Wrangel Island on the site of the Natural Heritage Protection Fund
• Information about the reserve on the website of the Botanical Garden of the FEB RAS

Archaeological finds in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Devil's Ravine indicate that the first people (Paleo-Eskimos) hunted on the island as early as 1750 BC. e.

The existence of the island was known to Russian pioneers since the middle of the 17th century from the stories of local residents of Chukotka, but it did not appear on geographical maps until two hundred years later.

Opening
In 1849, British explorer Henry Kellett discovered a new island in the Chukchi Sea and named it Herald Island after his ship Herald. To the west of the island, Gerald Kellett observed another island and marked it on the map. The island got its first name: "Kellett Land".

In 1866, the western island was visited by the first European - Captain Eduard Dallmann (German Eduard Dallmann), who conducted trade operations with the inhabitants of Alaska and Chukotka. In 1867, an American whaler and explorer by vocation, Thomas Long - perhaps not knowing about Kellett's previous discovery, or misidentifying the island - named it after the Russian traveler and statesman Ferdinand Petrovich Wrangel. Wrangel knew about the existence of the island from the Chukchi and during 1820-1824 unsuccessfully searched for it.

In 1879, near Wrangel Island was the route of the expedition of George De Long, who tried to reach the North Pole on the ship "USS Jeannette". De Long's voyage ended in disaster and in 1881 an American steam cutter, Thomas Corwin, under the command of Calvin L. Hooper, approached the island in search of him. Hooper landed a search party on the island and declared it a US territory.

In September 1911, the Vaigach icebreaking steamer from the Russian hydrographic expedition of the Arctic Ocean approached Wrangel Island. The Vaygach crew surveyed the coast of the island, landed and raised the Russian flag over it.

Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913-1916
On July 13, 1913, the brigantine of the Canadian Arctic expedition Karluk, led by anthropologist V. Stephansson, left the port of Nome (Alaska) to explore Herschel Island in the Beaufort Sea. On August 13, 1913, 300 kilometers from its destination, the Karluk was trapped in ice and began a slow drift westward. On September 19, six people, including Stefanson, went hunting, but due to ice drift they could no longer return to the ship. They had to make their way to Cape Barrow. Later, accusations were made against Stephansson that he deliberately left the ship under the pretext of hunting in order to explore the islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

On "Karluk" 25 people remained - a team, members of the expedition and hunters. The drift of the brigantine continued along the route of George De Long's barque Jeannette until, on January 10, 1914, she was crushed by ice. The first batch of sailors, on behalf of Bartlett and under the command of Bjarne Mamena, set out for Wrangel Island, but mistakenly reached the Herald Island. On the Herald Island, the Karluk's chief mate Sandy Anderson remained with three sailors. All four died, presumably due to food poisoning. Another party, including Elistair McCoy (a member of Shackleton's Antarctic expedition in 1907-1909), undertook an independent trip to Wrangel Island (at a distance of 130 km) and went missing. The remaining 17 people under the command of Barlett managed to get to Wrangel Island and came ashore in Draghi Bay. In 1988, traces of their camp were found here and a memorial sign was installed. Captain Barlett (who had experience of participating in the expeditions of Robert Peary) and the Eskimo hunter Kataktovik together went across the ice to the mainland for help. Within a few weeks they successfully reached the coast of Alaska, but ice conditions prevented an immediate rescue expedition.

The Russian icebreakers "Taimyr" and "Vaigach" in the summer of 1914 twice (August 1-5, then August 10-12) tried to break through to help, but could not overcome the ice. Several attempts by the American "Bear" cutter also failed.

Of the 15 people remaining on Wrangel Island, three died: two died due to poisoning with pemmican, the third was killed. The survivors hunted for their food and were rescued only in September 1914 by an expedition on the Canadian schooner King & Winge.

Stefanson Expeditions 1921-1924
Inspired by the survival experience of the Karluk's crew and the prospects of sea fishing off Wrangel Island, Stefanson launched a campaign to colonize the island. To support his venture, Stefanson tried to get official status from the first Canadian and then the British government, but his idea was rejected. The refusal, however, did not prevent Stefanson from declaring his support of the authorities and then raising the British flag over Wrangel Island. As a result, this led to a diplomatic scandal.

On September 16, 1921, a settlement of five colonists was founded on the island: the 22-year-old Canadian Alan Crawford, the Americans Halle, Maurer (a member of the Karluk expedition), Knight and the Eskimo woman Ada Blackjack as a seamstress and cook. The expedition was sparsely equipped as Stephansson relied on hunting as one of his main sources of supplies. Having successfully overwintered the first winter and having lost only one dog (out of the seven available), the colonists hoped for the arrival of a ship in the summer with supplies and a change. Due to severe ice conditions, the ship could not approach the island and people stayed for one more winter.

In September 1922, the White Army gunboat Magnit (a former messenger ship armed during the Civil War) under the command of Lieutenant DA von Dreyer tried to pass to Wrangel Island, but the ice did not give her such an opportunity. Opinions differ about the purpose of the Magnit's campaign to Wrangel Island - this is the suppression of the activities of Stefanson's enterprise (expressed by contemporaries and participants in the events), or, on the contrary, providing him with assistance for a fee (stated in the FSB RF newspaper in 2008). Due to the military defeat of the White movement in the Far East, the ship never returned to Vladivostok, the crew of the "Magnet" went into exile.

After the hunt failed and food supplies came to an end, on January 28, 1923, three polar explorers went to the mainland for help. Nobody saw them again. Remaining on Knight Island died of scurvy in April 1923. Only 25-year-old Ada Blackjack survived. She managed to survive alone on the island until the arrival of the ship on August 19, 1923.

In 1923, 13 settlers stayed on the island for the winter - the American geologist Charles Wells and twelve Eskimos, including women and children. Another child was born on the island during the wintering period. In 1924, alarmed by the news of the establishment of a foreign colony on the Russian island, the Soviet government sent the gunboat Krasny Oktyabr (the former Vladivostok port icebreaker Nadezhny, on which guns were installed) to Wrangel Island.

"Red October" left Vladivostok on July 20, 1924 under the command of the hydrograph B. V. Davydov. On August 20, 1924, the expedition raised the Soviet flag on the island and took out the settlers. On the way back, on September 25, in the Long Strait near Cape Schmidt, the icebreaker was hopelessly trapped by ice, but the oncoming storm helped it free. Overcoming heavy ice led to excessive fuel consumption. By the time the ship dropped anchor in Providence Bay, there was fuel for 25 minutes of sailing, and there was no fresh water at all. The icebreaker returned to Vladivostok on October 29, 1924.

The Soviet-American, and then the Sino-American negotiations on the further return of the colonists to their homeland through Harbin took a long time. Three did not survive to return - the head of the expedition, Charles Wells, died in Vladivostok from pneumonia; two children died along the way.

Mastering
In 1926, a polar station was established on Wrangel Island under the leadership of G.A.Ushakov. Together with Ushakov, 59 people landed on the island, mainly Eskimos, who previously lived in the villages of Providence and Chaplino. In 1928, an expedition to the island was made on the icebreaker "Litke", which was operated by the Ukrainian writer and journalist Nikolai Trublaini, who described Wrangel Island in a number of his books, in particular "To the Arctic - through the tropics". In 1948, a small group of domesticated reindeer was brought to the island and a branch of the reindeer herding state farm was organized. In 1953, the administrative authorities adopted a resolution on the protection of walrus rookeries on Wrangel Island, and in 1960, by decision of the Magadan Regional Executive Committee, a long-term reserve was created, which was transformed in 1968 into a reserve of republican significance.

Gulag
In 1987, former convict Yefim Moshinsky published a book in which he claimed that he was in a "forced labor camp" on Wrangel Island and met Raoul Wallenberg and other foreign prisoners there. In fact, contrary to legend, there were no Gulag camps on Wrangel Island.

Reserve
In 1975, musk oxen were introduced to the island from the island of Nunivak, and the executive committee of the Magadan region allocated the lands of the islands for a future reserve. In 1976, the Wrangel Island reserve was founded to study and protect the natural complexes of the Arctic islands, which also included the small neighboring Herald Island. In connection with the nature reserve, a 5 nautical miles wide reserve zone was established around the islands. The total area of \u200b\u200bthe reserve was 795.6 thousand hectares. In 1978, the Scientific Department of the Reserve was organized, whose staff began to systematically study the flora and fauna of the islands.

In 1992, the radar station was closed and the only settlement remained on the island - the village of Ushakovskoye. In 1997, at the suggestion of the Governor of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug and the State Committee for Ecology of Russia, the area of \u200b\u200bthe reserve was expanded by including the 12 nautical miles surrounding the island, by order of the Government of the Russian Federation N ° 1623-r dated November 15, 1997, and in 1999, around the already protected water area, by the decree of the governor of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug N ° 91 of May 25, 1999, a protection zone with a width of 24 nautical miles was organized.

The area of \u200b\u200bthe island is about 7670 km², of which about 4700 km² are mountains. The shores are low-lying, dissected by lagoons, separated by sandy spits from the sea. In the central part of the island, the terrain is mountainous. There are small glaciers and medium-sized lakes, arctic tundra.
Relief

The relief of the island is highly dissected. Occupying most of the island, the mountains form three parallel chains - the North ridge, the Middle ridge and the South ridge - ending in the west and east with coastal rocky cliffs. The most powerful is the Middle Ridge, which contains the highest point of the island - Mount Sovetskaya (1096 m). The northern ridge is the lowest, it turns into a wide swampy plain called the Academy Tundra. The southern ridge is not high and runs not far from the sea coast. In 1952, a mountain in the central part of Wrangel Island was named after Leonid Vasilyevich Gromov.

Valleys with numerous rivers are located between the ridges. There are more than 140 rivers and streams on the island with a length of more than 1 km and 5 rivers with a length of more than 50 km. Of the approximately 900 lakes, most of which are located in the Tundra Academy (north of the island), 6 lakes have an area exceeding 1 km². On average, the depth of the lakes is not more than 2 m. By their origin, the lakes are divided into thermokarst, which include the majority, oxbow (in the valleys of large rivers), glacial, dammed and lagoon. The largest of them are: Kmo, Komsomol, Gagachye, Zapovednoye.

Climate
The climate is harsh. For most of the year, masses of cold arctic air with low moisture and dust content move over the area. In summer, warmer and humid air from the Pacific Ocean comes from the southeast. Dry and highly heated air masses from Siberia come periodically.

The polar day lasts from the 2nd decade of May to the 20th of July, the polar night - from the 2nd decade of November to the end of January.

Winters are long, characterized by stable frosty weather and strong northerly winds. The average January temperature is -22.3 ° C, especially during the colder months of February and March. During this period, the temperature for weeks remains below -30 ° C, frequent snowstorms with wind speeds of up to 40 m / s and above.

Summers are cool, there are frosts and snowfalls, the average July temperature ranges from +2 ° C to +2.5 ° C. In the center of the island, fenced off from the sea by mountains, due to the better warming of the air and hair dryers, summer is warmer and drier.

Average relative humidity is about 82%, annual precipitation is about 180 mm.

Flora
The first researcher of the vegetation of Wrangel Island, B.N.Gorodkov, who studied the eastern coast of the island in 1938, assigned it to the zone of arctic and polar deserts. After a complete exploration of the entire island from the 2nd half of the XX century. it belongs to the subzone of the arctic tundra of the tundra zone. Despite the relatively small size of Wrangel Island, due to the sharp regional features of its vegetation, it is distinguished into a special Wrangel sub-province of the Wrangel-Western American province of the Arctic tundra.

The vegetation of Wrangel Island is distinguished by its rich ancient species composition. The number of vascular plant species exceeds 310 (for example, there are only 135 such species on the much larger New Siberian Islands, about 65 on the Severnaya Zemlya islands, and less than 50 on Franz Josef Land). The flora of the island is rich in relics and relatively poor in plants widespread in other circumpolar regions, of which, according to various estimates, no more than 35-40%.

About 3% of the plants are subendemic (rangel, Gorodkov's poppy, Wrangel's poppy) and endemic (Wrangel's bluegrass, Ushakov's poppy, Wrangel's poppy, Lapland poppy). In addition to them, 114 species of rare and very rare plants grow on Wrangel Island.

Such a composition of the flora allows us to conclude that the original arctic vegetation in this area of \u200b\u200bancient Beringia was not destroyed by glaciers, and the sea prevented the penetration of later migrants from the south.

The modern vegetation cover on the territory of the reserve is almost everywhere unclosed undersized. Sedge-moss tundra prevails. In the mountain valleys and intermontane basins of the central part of Wrangel Island, there are areas of willow thickets (Richardson's willow) up to 1 m high.

The fauna of the island as a whole is not rich in species, which is associated with the harsh climatic conditions.

Fish in the coastal waters of the islands have not been studied enough. There are no fish in the freshwater bodies of the island.

At least 20 species of birds regularly nest on the island, another 20 species are vagrant or irregularly nesting for the reserve.

The most numerous birds are white geese, which are among the rare animals. They form one main colony in the Tundrovaya river valley in the center of Wrangel Island and several smaller colonies. Passerines are also numerous, represented by snow buntings and Lapland plantains. Black geese arrive in the reserve for nesting and molting. Also among the inhabitants of the reserve are eiders, Icelandic sandpipers, tules, glaucous gulls, long-tailed gulls, long-tailed skuas, white owls. Dunlin sandpipers, puffers, Arctic terns, skuas, red-throated loons, ravens, and tap-dancing are less common in the reserve.

Quite often, birds from North America fly into the reserve or are carried by the wind, including the Canadian cranes that regularly visit Wrangel Island, as well as Canadian geese and various American small passerines, including finches (myrtle songbirds, bush buntings, black-browed buntings, yunco, white bean zonotrichia) ...

The fauna of mammals in the reserve is poor. The endemic Vinogradov's lemming, which was previously considered a subspecies of the hoofed leming, the Siberian lemming and the Arctic fox, live here permanently. Periodically, and in significant numbers, a polar bear appears, whose maternity dens are located within the boundaries of the reserve. From time to time, wolves, wolverines, ermines and foxes enter the reserve. Together with people, sled dogs settled on Wrangel Island. A house mouse has appeared and lives in residential buildings. Reindeer and musk ox were brought to the island for acclimatization.

Reindeer lived here in the distant past, and the modern herd comes from the domesticated deer introduced in 1948, 1954, 1967, 1968, 1975 from the Chukotka Peninsula. The reindeer population is maintained in the amount of up to 1.5 thousand "" head.

There is evidence that musk oxen lived on Wrangel Island in the distant past. In our time, a herd of 20 heads was brought in April 1975 from the American island of Nunivak.

The island has the largest walrus rookery in Russia. Seals live in coastal waters.

In the mid-1990s, one could read about an amazing discovery made on the island in the journal Nature. Reserve employee Sergei Vartanyan discovered the remains of mammoths here, whose age was determined from 7 to 3.5 thousand years. Despite the fact that, according to popular opinion, mammoths died out everywhere 10-12 thousand years ago. Subsequently, it was discovered that these remains belong to a special relatively small subspecies that inhabited Wrangel Island even at a time when the Egyptian pyramids had long stood, and which disappeared only during the reign of Tutankhamun and the heyday of the Mycenaean civilization. This makes Wrangel Island one of the most important paleontological monuments of the planet.

This is how L.V. Gromov, one of the first geologists to investigate its subsoil in the 1930s. During the Pleistocene epoch, which began about one million years ago, the vast land that connected Asia and America, and received the name "Beringia", appeared and disappeared several times. The last time it existed 25 thousand years ago, during the Sartan glaciation, and again disappeared 10-12 thousand years ago, forming the modern geographical picture of the world. Beringia was the center for the formation of specific tundra-steppe landscapes and the accompanying "mammoth" fauna, typical representatives of which were the mammoth itself, as well as the woolly rhinoceros, saiga, musk ox, reindeer, cave lion and cave bear. It was here that the main route of primitive settlement of the American continent lay.

Before the beginning of the polar night.
Scythe Doubtful, November 1997

Wrangel Island, due to its geographical position and features of the relief, has best preserved some of the features of the ancient Beringian landscape. In the center of the island there are many relict areas of tundra-steppe vegetation. A number of plants and insects, as well as some species of birds that inhabit the island, are more characteristic of the tundra of North America than of our Asian north. Among them there are real relics of the Pleistocene, which today are not found anywhere except on Wrangel Island. Of the plants, these are the Wrangel bison, one flowering shardfish, Wrangel's cinquefoil, and from insects, the weevil beetle rhynchenus. The remains of many Pleistocene animals that lived here were found on the island: rhinos, musk oxen, wild horses, reindeer, primitive bison, and, of course, mammoths, whose tusks and teeth in abundance lie in river beds and protrude from the coastal cliffs. The most recent sensational discovery is associated with mammoths - on Wrangel Island they outlived their mainland counterparts for 7-8 millennia and became extinct only 3.5 thousand years ago, during the heyday of the Egyptian and Ancient Greek civilizations, a little short of our era! In truth, Wrangel Island is one of the last "lost worlds" on Earth.

The highest peak of Wrangel Island is Mount Soviet. April 1999.

"Blizzard Island"

This definition belongs to G.A. Ushakov, head of the first Soviet settlement on Wrangel Island. Indeed, the island is rightfully considered one of the windiest places on the globe. The speed of the hurricane "bora" in the Rogers Bay area can reach 40 and more meters per second. Completely calm days on the island are the greatest rarity. Even if it is calm in one place, a strong wind can blow in any of the many mountain canyons. Sometimes the border between calm and windy zone is expressed so sharply that you can go from blizzard to calm and back to blizzard in several steps.

The Drem-Head mountain range is one of the main "maternity homes" of polar bears. April 1999

Due to its size (145 kilometers in length and 83 in width) and the diverse relief (from the vast coastal plains to the Central Mountains with peaks over a kilometer above sea level), Wrangel Island has a peculiar climate that distinguishes it from most of the Arctic islands. The coast is affected by the influence of the sea, and in winter it is not too cold here (-25 - 30 ° C), but the average temperature of the hottest month - July, fluctuates only from 1.5 to 3.5 ° C. At the same time, the central part of the island , surrounded by mountains, has a pronounced continental climate: in summer, intermontane basins warm up to 8-10 ° C, and even over 20 ° C, while in winter there are regular frosts down to -40 -50 ° C. Simply put, Wrangel Island is a real little "mainland"!

Sunset over Mount Utterton. September 1994

"Island of discord"

Ushakovskoe village in September 1989

This name was given to Wrangel Island by William McKinley, using a bitter play on words: Wrangel (Wrangel) and Wrangle (quarrel, discord). McKinley was a meteorologist for the Canadian Arctic Expedition aboard the ship Karluk. The ship received a hole and sank in January 1914. Part of the team moved across the ice to Herald Island, where they died. The rest of the people (17 people) went to the northern coast of Wrangel Island, losing four more along the way. Captain Bartlett, accompanied by one of the Eskimos, crossed the ice of the Long Strait on foot, across the whole of Chukotka reached Providence Bay, from there he moved to Alaska on a random ship and returned in September of the same year at the head of a rescue expedition. Bartlett accomplished an unparalleled feat that will forever remain in the Arctic tablets.

The first "Robinsonade" on the island was accompanied by fear and despair. People did not trust each other, hid food from prying eyes, often quarreled. Two people died of kidney inflammation, one shot himself, another went crazy. The survivors remembered Wrangel Island only as a nightmarish, hellish place ...

The history of the island was strange and bizarre. Those who wanted to find, who overcame many obstacles on the way to him, could not even see him. And the discovery and the first studies of it were made along the way, between times, and both happened during the search for lost expeditions ... The island changed one name after another: Doubtful Island, Tikegen Land, Kellet Land, New Columbia, and, finally, the island Wrangel ... Changed state flags: English, American, Canadian, Russian, Soviet, and finally, Russian ... Became an arena for political and human passions, tragic events that were destined to play a role in the history of Russia and the whole world.

In the 17th-18th centuries, Russian explorers and Cossacks often reported about unknown lands located not far from the Chukchi coast. Most often they meant the American continent, but among the descriptions and sketches of that time, one can catch hints of Wrangel Island. The first cartographic image of the island is considered to be a drawing by the Yakut clerk Ivan Lvov, made in 1710-1714. Probably, taking this picture as a basis, Mikhailo Lomonosov himself indicated the location of a certain "Doubtful Island" in 1763 on his map. At that time, there were many reports about the lands lying north of Chukotka, so the search for Wrangel Island was intricately intertwined with the discovery of the Bear Islands at the mouth of the Kolyma, as well as with the search for the mythical lands of Sannikov and Sergeant Andreev. At the end, in 1821-1823. Several sledging trips on ice in the East Siberian Sea were made by Fleet Lieutenant F.P. Wrangel, who collected the most accurate information about the island's location from the words of the Chukchi who lived in the vicinity of Cape Shelagsky. During the third campaign from the Aachim Peninsula, Wrangel reached the latitude of the island and was some 100 km from its western coast, when a huge ice-hole blocked his path. From the high hummocks he tried to see the ground, but in vain. Wrangel did not see the land later named after him. If he took the direction to the northeast, he would have come to the area of \u200b\u200bCape Blossom and opened his island, but fate decided otherwise ...

Islanders.

Eskimo Yuri Alpaun is standing,
Chukchi Grigory Kaurgin is sitting.
Krasin Bay, August 1990

26 years later, a sailor of the English ship "Herald" under the command of Captain Kellet, cruising in the Chukchi Sea in search of the missing expedition of J. Franklin, was the first among Europeans to see the mountains of Wrangel Island. On the same day, the Herald Island was discovered 60 km to the north-east. For the first time close to the coastline of Wrangel Island in 1867, the American whaling boat "Nile" of Captain T. Long approached, after whom the strait between the island and the mainland was named. In 1879, the Jeannette drifted past Wrangel Island, the crew of which later died on the Yakut coast. The search for this disappeared expedition in 1881 led to Wrangel Island at once two American ships "Thomas Corwin" and "Rogers", commanded by Captains Hooper and Berry. It is to these navigators that the priority of the first explorers of the island belongs, and the English names of capes, rivers and mountains are still preserved on the map in great numbers, having survived the Soviet era.

The development of the island was accompanied by no less tragic events, and it happened as a result of another discord. Tensions arose between the USSR and Canada, which was the British dominion in those years. Here is how it was. Until 1924, Russian ships made only three attempts to reach Wrangel Island. In 1876, the clipper "Horseman" failed due to heavy ice blocking the way. In 1911, members of the famous hydrographic expedition of the Arctic Ocean from the Vaigach icebreaker landed on the southwestern coast of the island. Again "Vaygach" tried to break through the ice to the island in 1914 to save the crew of "Karluk", but broke the propeller and retreated.

However, the 1914 "Robinsonade" attracted the attention of the famous Canadian polar explorer Villalmur Stefanson to Wrangel Island, the leader of the expedition, which included "Karluk". He believed that Canada, and with it the British Empire, could lay claim to the Wrangel and Herald Islands, despite the Russian note from 1916, which secured the right of ownership of these islands to Russia. In 1921, Stephansson sent a five-man detachment to the island, led by Alan Crawford, to explore and create a fishing base that would allow Canada to declare its hitherto uninhabited island. And again - a tragedy! In the fall of 1923, when the Donaldson came to take out Crawford's consignment, it turned out that there was practically no one to take. All Europeans, including the chief, died, only the Eskimo Ada Blackjack survived. Nevertheless, another shift was landed on the island - 13 Eskimos, led by the former hairdresser Wells. The attempts of Canadians to colonize Wrangel Island became known in Moscow. In 1924 the gunboat "Red October" was sent to the island under the command of B.V. Davydov. Canadian colonists were removed from the island, Wells died of pneumonia upon arrival in Vladivostok, and the Eskimos were sent to Alaska.

But the point was not put on this. In the same year, 1924, with the support of the United States government, businessman Karl Loman, the founder of domestic reindeer husbandry in Alaska, equipped 3 ships at once on Wrangel Island. This campaign ended in failure, only the ship "Herman" reached the Herald Island. The Soviet-American confrontation over Wrangel Island was avoided.

Finally, in 1926, a Soviet settlement of 51 Eskimos and 9 Russians was founded on an island in Rogers Bay, headed by the first "chief of the island" G.A. Ushakov (who later was the first explorer of Severnaya Zemlya, the head of the high-latitude expedition on the steamer "Sadko" and the head of the Main Directorate for Hydrometeorology under the USSR Council of People's Commissars, and then worked for many years at the Academy of Sciences). The village that grew up on this place was named Ushakovsky, in honor of its founder. Now the question of the state ownership of the Wrangel and Herald Islands was not raised by anyone. Nevertheless, more recently, in 1986, the US Senate considered the application of the state of Alaska on the rights to these islands ...

Wrangel Island has seen many more tragic events in its lifetime: the wreck of the Chelyuskin, who was trying to bring a team of winterers to the island; famine and epidemic among the Eskimos in the winter of 1934-1935, when 12 people died; the textbook "murder case" of doctor N.L. Wolfson, thanks to whom the "star" of the investigator and writer L.R. Sheinin and the notorious public prosecutor A.Ya. Vyshinsky; the first “enemies of the people” to be shot in the Soviet Arctic: the head of the polar station Semenchuk and the musher Startsev ... And later there were enough ridiculous deaths and mutual grievances. "Island of discord" was and remains a harsh examiner of man for humanity.

"Maternity hospital of polar bears"

Polar bear tracks in the Drem Head mountains.
March 1999

This is the name of Wrangel Island by zoologists S.M. Uspensky and F.B. Chernyavsky, whose names are associated with the first detailed studies of the ecology of the polar bear in the Chukchi Sea. The phrase has taken root among journalists and popularizers, and it really is based on an immutable fact: the Wrangel Islands and the Herald breeding site about? of all female bears of the Chukchi-Alaskan population. There are from 200 to 400, and sometimes more than 500, ancestral dens there annually. On some comfortable snow slopes, their density reaches the highest values \u200b\u200bin the entire Arctic - up to 4-5 per square kilometer. The privacy of the islands and the ice conditions around them contribute to this abundance of dens. In late summer and autumn, the southern edge of the ice passes nearby, on which polar bears are concentrated in large numbers. In September-October, pregnant bears, in search of a place for a den, go to the nearest land - the Wrangel and Herald islands. Bear cubs are born in December, and already in March and April, bear families go into the ice.

The bear is playing. Scythe Doubtful,
September 1991

The island is not only the main breeding ground for polar bears. These largest predators on the planet are common here all year round. Especially many bears can be seen on the coast at the end of summer and in autumn, in those years when the Chukchi Sea is completely cleared of ice. During this period, bears usually concentrate on promontories and spits protruding into the sea, where walrus rookeries are located. A bear cannot get an adult walrus, so predators try to catch small walruses. The most experienced hunters resort to the safest and most prey method: they scare away walruses, which in panic begin to go into the water, causing serious injuries to each other. Many, sometimes more than a hundred, depressed walruses remain on the shore. Up to one and a half to two hundred white predators gather for a grand feast. The bears eat their fill, sleep well, explore the surroundings, make acquaintances, play in the snow for a long time. Such a carefree life continues until the supply of meat runs out ...

The bears feed on the carcasses of dead walruses.
Scythe Doubtful, October 1996

For polar bears, Wrangel Island is not only a "maternity hospital", but also a "restaurant" and a "club" for communication, in some way - a bear "capital".

"Island of Arctic Treasures"

This name was given to his book about Wrangel Island by the same zoologist F.B. Chernyavsky. For a naturalist scientist, the island is, without any exaggeration, a real treasure. Among other Arctic territories, there is not a single one that could compete with Wrangel Island in the diversity of plant and animal species. There are over 400 species and subspecies of vascular plants alone, which is twice the size of any island and archipelago in the Arctic. The fauna of insects and other arthropods is no less rich. There are 169 bird species on the island, of which 56 nest (this is one and a half times more than in other Arctic tundra). By the number of species of marine and land mammals, Wrangel Island also stands out from other Arctic islands.

A group of walruses gets out onto the ice floe. Krasin Bay, September 1994

Wrangel Island is a “maternity hospital” not only for polar bears, but also for some other mammals and birds. The density of brood foxes and snowy owls' nests is much higher here than in other areas of Chukotka. The breeding of Arctic foxes and owls is usually highly dependent on the abundance of rodents: mice and lemmings. On Wrangel Island, these predators can also feed on the large number of nesting birds, so they reproduce well in years with a low number of lemmings. In years "fruitful" for lemmings, the density of owl nests reaches 2-3 per square kilometer, and that of fox holes - 20 or more per 100 square kilometers. In Chukotka, owl nests and polar fox burrows are relatively rare. On Wrangel Island there is the largest seabird breeding center in the Eastern Arctic - “bird colonies” at Waring Cape and the cape, which is called the Bird Market.

Fawn. Cape Blossom, May 1997

And, of course, one cannot help but recall the only large colony of white geese in Eurasia in the valley of the Tundrovaya River. Pacific walruses breed in the Bering Sea but migrate to Arctic waters in summer, forming clusters at the ice edge. In some years, two thirds of the entire Pacific walrus population gathers in the area of \u200b\u200bWrangel Island, with the bulk of the animals being females and young. Therefore, the island can deservedly be called a walrus "manger". In addition to the walrus, the coastal waters are inhabited by the ringed seal, the bearded seal (sea hare), beluga whales, gray and bowhead whales, fin whales and minke whales regularly appear. In 1975, musk oxen were brought to the island from Alaska, which perfectly settled down and reached the number of more than six hundred heads. My friend French naturalist Pierre Vakoulon visited different Arctic regions, but, having twice visited Wrangel Island, said that he had never seen such a concentration of polar exoticism on such a limited area. It is not surprising that in 1976 the first Arctic reserve in Russia was formed here, which still exists today.

"Pearl of the Arctic"

Arrival of white geese in the valley of the Tundrovaya river. May 1997

This succinct definition of Wrangel Island, quickly picked up by journalists, belongs to the biologist Yu.A. Gerasimov. I think there is no need to prove the validity of this name. The island combines the standard of the Arctic nature and a number of unique features that distinguish it from other polar territories. And the exciting story of search, discovery and development brightens its "pearl" brilliance.

Arctic foxes during the rut. Valley of the Dwarfs, March 1999

I had a chance to live and work on Wrangel Island for over ten years, to see the flowering of human activity and witness its gradual fading. In the late 1980s. there were more than 200 inhabitants on the island: military men, polar explorers and, of course, employees of the reserve, who lived and worked in the village of Ushakovsky on the shores of Rogers Bay. The economic crisis in the country could not but affect the fate of this most isolated village in Chukotka. During the 1990s. communication with the mainland became more and more problematic, for almost ten years no fuel and lubricants, construction materials and coal were brought to the island. Stocks of products accumulated in warehouses in 1991-1992 were removed from the island for a quick and profitable sale. Already in the mid-1990s. Due to the high cost of flight time and frequent breakdowns of an old helicopter based in the village of Mys Schmidta, long supply interruptions began to occur in Ushakovsky. I remember a period when there was no flour on the island for several months, and the inhabitants baked semolina cakes. The lack of sugar and cigarettes was just chronic, not to mention canned food. For several years, the main food of the islanders was venison, since wild reindeer were shot every year. A few years later, and with this product there were interruptions due to a shortage of ammunition. The post office, shop, kindergarten and school were closed back in the mid-1990s. People were gradually leaving the island. In 1997, the doctor left, which was a big blow for the remaining residents, especially those who had children. The reserve office moved first to the regional center Cape Schmidt, then to Pevek. People born and raised on the island were taken there as well. In 1999 I left Wrangel Island and I ...

Pack Creek, June 1992

In 2002, the family of Lev Nanaun, the son of one of the first settlers who arrived with G.A. Ushakov in 1926. Now there are only two permanent residents on the island - the reserve inspectors. Four more people work at the polar station. Scientists of the reserve live in Moscow and St. Petersburg, visiting the island only during a short field season. So sadly ended the history of the village of Ushakovskoye, another page in the amazing chronicle of Wrangel Island ...

But maybe it’s not all that sad? After all, the history of Wrangel Island itself does not end there. The unique nature will do just fine without a man who at first caused great damage to it, and only in the last 30 years tried to do it justice. The last reason for optimism: in 2004, Wrangel Island, together with the adjacent water area, was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The "Pearl of the Arctic" continues to sparkle in the crown of polar ice ...

Judging by the finds of archaeologists, the first people appeared here in 1750 BC. e., on the maps the Wrangel Island was plotted in the middle of the 19th century. In 1921, the colonization of the island began: first, settlers from the USA and Canada arrived here, and in 1924 the Soviet flag was raised over the island. The first polar station under the leadership of the Russian Arctic explorer Georgy Ushakov was established in 1926.

The geographical position of this territory is surprising: Wrangel Island is divided by the 180th meridian into two almost equal parts, which means it is located simultaneously in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Today the island belongs administratively to the Iultinsky District of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. The reserve, washed by the Arctic Ocean, is the northernmost in the Far East, and in terms of the number of endemic plants and animals (that is, living in only one climatic zone) it has no analogues in the world and even surpasses Greenland.

The territory of the buffer zone on the Wrangel and Herald islands is almost 800 thousand hectares. Mountains occupying two-thirds of the territory are the main type of landscape. The rest is Arctic tundra with shallow lakes and streams, of which there are about 900. Despite the proximity of the Arctic Circle, there are no glaciers on the island.

The flora and fauna of the island

The Chukchi name of Wrangel Island - Umkilir - translates as “the island of polar bears”. Indeed, the number of dens of this northern predator is the largest in the world. Every year 400-500 bears hibernate on the island. And the history of the creation of a full-fledged reserve began with another mammal - the musk ox. It was they who were introduced in 1975 in the amount of 20 individuals and, after many years of adaptation, took root. Now there are about 900 individuals on the island. Another ungulates - reindeer - were brought here in the early 1950s, and today it is the only large population of reindeer on the islands (9-10 thousand individuals). The coast is home to walruses that migrate to the Bering Sea for the winter. And in the water area of \u200b\u200bthe reserve, scientists study cetaceans; the most common are belugas and gray whales, and sometimes bowhead whales. The island has the largest colony of white geese in Asia. In general, the fauna is unique in terms of population size. Arctic fox, wolverine, wolf, red fox, Siberian lemming and Vinogradov's lemming - the aborigines of this territory - also live here.

The harsh climate does not contribute to the diversity of flora: there are no frosts only 20 days a year; the polar night, when the air temperature drops to -30 ° C, and the wind reaches 40 m / s, lasts over three months. Nevertheless, there are 417 plant species on the island: more than anywhere else in the Arctic climate zone. These are mainly lichens, mosses and dwarf trees.

Tourist routes

Due to climatic conditions, the only village on this territory was officially declared uninhabited in 1997: only groups of research scientists and reserve staff are on the island. Visits to the Wrangel Island nature reserve are limited, but there are about 10 tourist routes in summer and autumn. They include traveling along rivers and ravines in all-terrain vehicles or, very rarely, on foot, but most importantly, watching animals: deer, polar bears ... and whales, if you're lucky, of course. One must not move more than 20 m from the guide, so as not to meet one on one with the fierce northern predators.

In 2004, the Wrangel Island reserve was included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.