Ilya Mordvintsev, candidate of biological sciences, leading researcher at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, spoke about the preliminary results of the program this year and plans for the next period.
In September, scientists conducted aerial research from a Mi-8MTV helicopter. Experts assessed the frequency of occurrence, distribution and condition of polar bears during the ice-free period on Bely Island and the coast of the Yamal Peninsula.
"Meetings of 10 single individuals were recorded. An adult male polar bear was caught on the island, a set of biological samples was taken and morphometry was carried out,” said Ilya Mordvintsev.
From July to August, during the expedition “Arctic Floating University - 2023”, organized by the Northern (Arctic) Federal University (NAFU), ship and helicopter observations of encounters and distribution of polar bears and their food sources were carried out on the helicopter-carrying scientific expedition vessel (RV) “Mikhail Somov”.
From July 4 to August 16, encounters of 11 bears were recorded on the islands of Franz Josef Land, Vaigach, Uedineniya and the coast of the Yenisei Bay.
“Our employees conducted round-the-clock surveillance to register not only polar bears, but also all marine mammals encountered along the route of the RV Mikhail Somov. In addition, we conducted lectures and seminars for students of the Arctic Floating University,” the scientist noted.
A comprehensive joint expedition of the Russian Geographical Society and the Ministry of Defense with the support of the Russian Arctic National Park also took place in September. Experts conducted field route observations to assess the occurrence and condition of polar bears on the island of Alexandra Land in the Franz Josef Land archipelago.
This year’s results indicate a high number of animals on land during the summer ice-free period and the good condition of bears in the areas where we were able to work, emphasized Ilya Mordvintsev.
“This year, for a number of reasons, we were unable to carry out one very important expedition to the Bear Islands archipelago in the East Siberian Sea, so plans for 2024 include continuing polar bear research on the islands of this archipelago and the coast of the Nizhnekolymsky region of Yakutia, which were started us in 2022,” he said.
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