Where is Wrangel. Wrangel Island: reserve, location on the map of Russia, climate, coordinates. Fauna and flora of Wrangel Island
Area: 4.66 million hectares
Criteria: (ix), (x)
Status: inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2004
Constituent objects:
The State Natural Reserve "Wrangel Island" with a buffer zone (689400, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Chaunsky District, Pevek, Obrucheva St., 38).
The reserve occupies the Wrangel and Herald Islands and the adjacent 12-mile sea area. The 180th meridian passes through Wrangel Island, so that it lies simultaneously in the Western and Eastern hemispheres.
Due to the unique combination of historical and landscape-climatic conditions, as well as inaccessibility, this territory is characterized by high endemism and a large number of rare and relic species. On the islands, as parts of the ancient land that united the Eurasian and North American continents, Euro-Asian and American species of flora and fauna have been preserved.
The vegetation of the islands belongs to the arctic tundra subzone. In places, phytocenoses similar to polar deserts have been formed. Relic steppe and tundra-steppe plant communities with a wide variety of flowering plants are widespread in the southwest and in the center of Wrangel Island.
There are no amphibians and reptiles on the islands. But 169 species of birds are noted here. Characterized by bird markets. The white goose nesting colony is the largest in Eurasia. Common eider and comb eider, Icelandic sandpiper, peregrine falcon, and gyrfalcon also nest on the islands.
Of the land mammals, Siberian and hoofed lemmings, arctic fox are common. A fox, a wolf, a wolverine periodically appear. The largest walrus rookery in Russia is located here. The islands are a big "maternity hospital" for polar bears. In some years, the number of ancestral lairs here reaches 500.
At one time, musk oxen and domestic reindeer were brought to the islands and now feel great. In coastal waters, whales can often be observed: gray, Greenland, fin whale, beluga whale.
About 3.6 thousand years ago, during the heyday of the ancient Egyptian civilization, a small subspecies of the mammoth lived here. The isolated island population of the small mammoth outlived its larger mainland relatives by nearly 6,000 years. The sites of the ancient man were also found on the islands.
The climate of the reserve is very severe. In February-March, the temperature can stay below -30 °C for weeks. Blizzards are not uncommon with winds up to 40 m/s and above. Summers are cool with frosts and snowfalls.
The largest island is Wrangel Island. It is located at the intersection of the 180 degree meridian, which separates the western and eastern hemispheres. To the east of it, sixty kilometers away, is the island of Herald. The area of Wrangel Island is only eight square kilometers. The Long Strait separates these islands from the mainland; this strait is covered with a thick layer of ice throughout the year. For this reason, the island remained unknown to people for a long time. By the way, in the forties of the 19th century, the island itself was discovered. It happened when famous geographer F. P. Wrangel in the north of the coast of Chukotka watched the flights of bird flocks. Later, he suggested that between Chukotka and East Siberian seas There is unknown land. Gradually, Wrangel carefully studied and tested his assumption, then accurately indicated the location on the map major island which was named after him. In 1976, a reserve was founded on the territory of this island. Soviet people Since 1968, a complex reserve regime has been established here. This reserve also includes Herald Island. natural world Wrangel Island leaves a huge impression on eyewitnesses. Where they are, look here.
Features of Wrangel Island
Interestingly, the sun does not appear on the island above the horizon from November 18 at all, and the phenomenon continues until January 25. For many, this time is known as the polar night. It is also impossible to say exactly where the sea begins and the land ends. Some things are only visible under the aurora or moonlight. Because Moonlight reflects from the ice, the landscape is painted in many shades. However, for many best time on the island is the period of northern lights. At this time, everything around changes beyond recognition. Light beams suddenly appearing in the dark sky, illuminated by numerous ice and snow crystals. This leads to the formation of arches, fans and banners. Where to find .
During the polar day, the reserve takes on a completely different look. At this time, the sun does not go below the horizon from May to July. By the way, this does not make the climate very hot, but it noticeably revives animals and some plants. In other words, they develop more vigorously. A particularly amazing sight is the variety of birds that fly to the island for nesting. Traditionally, during such a period, the snow melts and the Arctic islands are more like blooming oases in the ice kingdom. Wrangel Island is different unique nature. Some species of animals and plants can be seen here. Visit . You will not regret.
Gradually the climate of the island softens. The Pacific Ocean is also contributing to global warming. The average annual temperature is -11 degrees, slightly lower than the temperature of sea water. Wrangel Island is more typical of cloudy windy weather, which is often accompanied by fog. The reserve is rich big amount lakes, shallow rivers and streams. Since in winter time all reservoirs freeze, there are practically no fish here. There are approximately 310 species of plants, among which you can often see lichens and mosses growing on mountain slopes and plains.
Flora of Wrangel Island
Most of the island's plants are dwarf. After all, their average height reaches only ten centimeters. True, there is a meter shrub willow - the tallest plant. Since many plants do not have time to go through all the life cycles, they are perennials. In other words, they store immature seeds, flowers, and leaves under the snow. This is an amazing phenomenon: evergreens grow in the Arctic desert. For example, these are crowberries, lingonberries and dryads. TO unique plants Wrangel Islands include: poppy Ushakov, Potentilla Wrangel and poppy Lapland. The island has a region with a peculiar tundra and steppe vegetation, this place is called the mammoth prairie.
Many local animals generally prefer the sea over land. This can be explained by several reasons. After all, there is more food for animals and birds on the shore, and no one touches them here. Note that protected island surrounded by a security zone. Scientists from various fields work in the natural laboratory of the island. They observe unexplored plants and animals. Therefore, one should not be surprised that Wrangel Island has become a complex reserve.
According to some evidence, musk oxen lived on the territory of the island in the past. Today, twenty heads were brought here from the island of Nunivak, in America. Wrangel Island is also known for the largest walrus rookery in Russia. By the way, Wrangel Island is included in the list of paleontological monuments of the earth.
Only one Neolithic Paleo-Eskimo site is known - on south coast islands. Archaeologists did not find bones of land animals in the cultural layer, which indicates that the diet ancient population The islands consisted exclusively of marine animals and fish. When the islands were discovered by Europeans, there were no local residents.
There are direct indications that the availability big island MV Lomonosov spoke in this sector of the Arctic. In 1763, the great Russian scientist pointed out on the map of the Arctic in the area north of Chukotka an island, which he called "Doubtful". From this indicative name on modern map islands, the name of the bay is preserved - Doubtful.
In 1820, the Russian government equipped north coast Siberia, two expeditions: the first was looking for the legendary "Sannikov Land", the second under the command of the outstanding Russian navigator and polar explorer Ferdinand Petrovich Wrangel (1796/1797-1870) set off in search of the completely mythical "land of Andreev".
For four years, Wrangel explored the North, trying to find an unknown land. His persistence was also explained by the fact that the Chukchi had long known about the existence of the island. The Chukchi kamakai (leader) told Wrangel that in the region of the mouth of one of the rivers, on clear summer days, high snow-capped mountains are visible in the north. The Chukchi, who themselves were not able to get to the unknown land, laid down the legend that Krehai Kamakai of the fabulous Onkilon tribe, a people who supposedly lived earlier on the shores of the ocean, went to this land along with the whole tribe.
The stories of the Chukchi gave Wrangel additional strength, and in 1823 he set off towards an unknown land on a dog sled. He did not reach the earth, but he saw the mountains and put them on the map. Later this land was called "Wrangel Land".
In 1849, the English polar explorer Henry Kellet, on his ship, searched for the expedition of fellow countryman John Franklin frozen in the ice and also saw the peaks of the Wrangel Land mountains.
The first European who in 1867 was personally convinced of the reality of the existence of the island was the American whaler Thomas Long. The enlightened whale hunter was aware of the “Wrangel Land”, and he named the island after the Russian explorer.
The first to set foot on this island was an American: in 1881, the crew of the US ship "Thomas Corwin" visited the island, also searching for a ship that was captured. The Americans hoisted their flag here, called the island "New Caledonia" and declared it the property of the United States.
Only in 1911 did the Russian hydrographic vessel Vaigach arrive here, which managed to go around the entire island.
In 1924, the Soviet flag was raised on the island, the American claims to the island were rejected, and the planned development of this completely wild land began. IN different time experiments were carried out here on breeding domestic reindeer, and even a reindeer farm was created. Three villages were built, an unpaved military airfield was built, a military radar station was installed, rock crystal was mined, and the musk ox was acclimatized.
Population
In addition to scientists and the military, the island was inhabited mainly by the Chukchi, who were resettled on the island to organize the fishing of arctic fox, walrus, polar bear, white geese, goose.
Currently, the villages on the island are abandoned, there is no permanent population, the island is periodically visited by border guards and rare groups of tourists.
Nature
The Wrangel Island State Reserve was established by a decree of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR in 1976.
Currently, the reserve "Wrangel Island" is the northernmost of the protected areas in Russia. Its total area is 2.3 million hectares, including water areas - 1.4 million hectares. The reserve is located on two islands of the Chukchi Sea - Wrangel and Gerald. Two thirds of the territory are mountains. The climate here is extremely harsh.
The purpose of the reserve is to organize the protection of the natural complex of the island, its unique ecological systems, both on land and in the ocean. To do this, a five-kilometer protected zone was created around the island, the reindeer herding farm and the radar station were closed.
The status of the reserve helps to preserve the polar bear population: this is the only place in Russia where bears from 330 to 600 individuals come to arrange a maternity den and give birth to offspring. A walrus is guarded here, which is hunted by poachers from several countries.
The most numerous species of local pinnipeds is the Pacific walrus. During the summer feeding period, the largest coastal rookeries in the Chukchi Sea are formed here: up to 80-100 thousand walruses.
In total, 15 species of mammals live on Wrangel Island, including seals (ringed seal, bearded seal), Siberian and ungulate lemmings, arctic fox, fox, wolf, wolverine, ermine. Came here along with people, the house mouse took root in abandoned buildings.
There are a lot of birds: 400 species, among which the most numerous are the kittiwake gull, thick-billed murre, black goose, puffin, loon, Icelandic sandpiper, polar guillemot, Bering cormorant, long-tailed skua. Here is the largest white goose colony in Eurasia.
The waters around the island are poorly studied. When summer is coming to an end, gray whales, killer whales, beluga whales, humpback whales, fin whales and bowhead whales come to the shores of the island for feeding and migration. There are no fish in hundreds of lakes on the island.
Surprisingly, there are even insects on Wrangel Island: 31 species of spiders, 58 species of beetles, 42 species of butterflies. Such a diversity of invertebrate species, concentrated in one place of the Arctic tundra, is typical only for Wrangel Island.
Despite the harsh climate and other conditions natural area Arctic tundra, 417 species and subspecies of plants grow here, among which there are many endemics. There are species that have been preserved since the Pleistocene era: beskilnitsa, Wrangel's ostrich, Wrangel's cinquefoil, Wrangel's bluegrass, Gorodkov's poppy, Lapland's poppy. All these species are included in the Red Book of Russia.
The domestic reindeer brought here for breeding has already completely run wild and multiplied: its number is 1.5 thousand individuals. 20 musk oxen, released to the island in 1975, also successfully settled in, and now there are about 700 of them here.
When people still lived here, the reserve was allowed - and this was the only exception for Soviet reserves - the traditional use of natural resources for the Chukchi: on an extremely limited scale, they were engaged in hunting and fishing. Small tourist groups coming here are allowed to move around the island along the coastline, it is forbidden to fly by helicopter at an altitude below 2 km, it is allowed to observe musk oxen, deer, gray whales, tundra and sea birds. When ice conditions allows, visitors to the reserve can take several water routes by boat along the Doubtful Bay and Krasin Bay.
general information
Location:, between the East Siberian and Chukchi Seas.
Administrative affiliation: Shmidtovsky district of the Russian Federation.
Distance from the mainland (northern coast of Chukotka): 140 km - Long Strait.
Origin: mainland.
Settlements (all abandoned): Ushakovskoye, Zvezdny, Perkatkun.
Major rivers: Claire, Mammoth, Unknown, Tundra.
Lakes: Gagachie, Zapovednoe, Kmo, Komsomol.
Numbers
Area: 7670 km2.
Population: No permanent population.
highest point: Mount Sovetskaya (1096 m).
Rivers: 1400 rivers and streams over 1 km long, 5 rivers over 50 km long.
Lakes: about 900, thermokarst, total area - 80 km 2
Climate and weather
Arctic.
Active cyclonic activity.
Average annual temperature:-11.3°C.
Most cold month:
February (-24.9°С).
Warmest month: July (+2.5°С).
Frost-free period: 20-25 days a year.
Average annual rainfall: 152 mm.
Polar day - from the 2nd decade of May to the 20th of July; polar night - from the 2nd decade of November to the end of January.
Blizzards at wind speeds up to 40 m/s and above.
Relative humidity: 82%.
Attractions
Reserve "Wrangel Island"
Mountain Soviet
Mount Perkatkun
white goose colony
Pacific walrus rookery
bird markets
Paleo-Eskimo camp (Devil's ravine)
Landing site of Canadian settlers at the mouth of the Predators River
Doubtful Bay
Treacherous Lagoon
Krasin Bay
Curious facts
F.P. Wrangel was widely known as a fierce opponent of the sale of Alaska to the United States of America and did not hesitate to openly express his disagreement with Emperor Alexander II.
Until the mid-1960s, there was no border post on the island. In 1967 on northeast coast hundreds of butchered walrus carcasses were found: the result of poaching by foreign fishing vessels. After that, an outpost appeared here, which served until the end of the 1990s.
Since the 1980s the number of musk ox on the island has steadily increased, by 2003 the population was 600 individuals. The reason is that musk oxen are more adapted to the conditions of life on Wrangel Island than deer: in winter period the musk ox survives on accumulated fat reserves and does not need in large numbers pasture.
Devil's ravine is a paleo-Eskimo site on Wrangel Island, discovered in 1975. The most valuable artifacts dating back to 1750 BC were found here. - the time when the last mammoths died out.
In 1993, a number of scientific publications reported that an employee of the Wrangel Island Reserve discovered the remains of a small mammoth, 3.5-7 thousand years old, while mammoths died out 10-12 thousand years ago. This means that the very last mammoths on Earth lived on Wrangel Island.
Contrary to popular belief, there have never been Gulag labor camps on Wrangel Island.
The biological diversity of plant communities on Wrangel Island has no equal among the Arctic island territories and surpasses in this respect the entire Canadian Arctic archipelago.
In the reserve on Wrangel Island there are the world's largest walrus rookeries: up to 75 thousand walruses accumulate on Cape Blossom, and up to 20 thousand walruses on the Doubtful Spit.
The walrus is able to stay under water without air for up to 10 minutes.
Lemming Vinogradova - an endemic of Wrangel Island - builds complex burrows up to 30 m 2 in area, with three dozen entrances and a depth of up to half a meter.
Archaeological finds in the area of the 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 according to the stories of local residents of Chukotka, but on geographic Maps he came only after two hundred years.
Opening
In 1849, the British explorer Henry Kellett discovered in the Chukchi Sea new island and named it in honor of his ship "Herald" Herald Island. To the west of the island, Herald Kellett observed another island and marked it on the map. The island got its first name: "Kellett's Land".
In 1866 western island visited the first European - Captain Eduard Dallmann (German: Eduard Dallmann), who conducted trade operations with the inhabitants of Alaska and Chukotka. In 1867, Thomas Long, an American whaler by profession and explorer by vocation, - 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 unsuccessfully searched for it during 1820-1824.
In 1879, the path of the expedition of George De Long lay near Wrangel Island, who tried to reach the North Pole on the ship Jeannette (eng. "USS Jeannette"). De Long's voyage ended in disaster, and in 1881, the 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 proclaimed it a US territory.
In September 1911, the Vaigach icebreaker from the Russian hydrographic expedition of the Northern Arctic Ocean. The crew of the Vaigach 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" (born "Karluk"), led by anthropologist V. Stefanson, left the port of Nome (Alaska) to explore Herschel Island in the Beaufort Sea. August 13, 1913, 300 kilometers from the destination, "Karluk" was caught in the ice and began a slow drift to the west. On September 19, six people, including Stefanson, went hunting, but due to the drift of the ice, they could no longer return to the ship. They had to make their way to Cape Barrow. Later, allegations were made against Stefanson that he deliberately left the ship on the pretext of hunting in order to study the islands of the Canadian Arctic archipelago.
25 people remained on the Karluk - the team, members of the expedition and hunters. The drift of the brigantine continued along the route of George De Long's barque Jeannette until it was crushed by ice on January 10, 1914. The first party of sailors, on behalf of Bartlett and under the command of Bjarne Mamen, set out for Wrangel Island, but mistakenly reached Herald Island. Sandy Anderson, the senior assistant to the captain of the Karluk, remained on Herald Island with three sailors. All four died, presumably due to food poisoning. Another party, including Alistair McCoy (member Antarctic expedition Shackleton in 1907-1909), undertook independent hike 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 commemorative sign. Captain Barlett (who had experience of participating in the expeditions of Robert Peary) and the Eskimo hunter Kataktovik together set off across the ice to the mainland for help. In a few weeks they successfully reached the coast of Alaska, but ice conditions prevented an immediate rescue expedition.
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 cutter "Bear" (eng. "Bear") were also unsuccessful.
Of the 15 people remaining on Wrangel Island, three died: two died as a result of pemmican poisoning, the third was killed. The survivors earned their livelihood by hunting and were only rescued in September 1914 by an expedition on the Canadian schooner King and Wing (eng. King & Winge).
Expeditions Stefanson 1921-1924
Encouraged by the experience of the survival of the crew of the Karluk and the prospects for marine fishing off Wrangel Island, Stefanson launched a campaign to colonize the island. To support his enterprise, Stefanson tried to get official status from first the Canadian and then the British government, but his idea was rejected. The refusal, however, did not prevent Stefanson from declaring support for the authorities and then raising the flag of Great Britain 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: 22-year-old Canadian Alan Crawford, Americans Galle, Maurer (a member of the expedition on the Karluk), Knight and an Eskimo woman Ada Blackjack as a seamstress and cook. The expedition was sparsely equipped, as Stefanson relied on hunting as one of his main sources of supply. Having successfully overwintered the first winter and having lost only one dog (out of seven available), the colonists hoped for the arrival of a ship with supplies and a change in the summer. Due to severe ice conditions, the ship could not approach the island and people stayed for another winter.
In September 1922, the Magnit gunboat of the White Army (a former messenger ship armed during civil war) under the command of Lieutenant D. A. von Dreyer, but the ice did not give her such an opportunity. Opinions differ on the purpose of the Magnit’s trip 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 (expressed in the newspaper of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation in 2008). Due to the military defeat of the White movement on Far East, the ship never returned to Vladivostok, the Magnit crew went into exile.
After the hunt failed and food supplies ran out, on January 28, 1923, three polar explorers went to the mainland for help. Nobody else saw them. Remaining on Knight Island, he 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 remained 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 winter. In 1924, disturbed by the news of the establishment of a foreign colony on Russian island, the government of the USSR sent the gunboat Krasny Oktyabr to Wrangel Island (the former Vladivostok port icebreaker Nadezhny, on which guns were installed).
"Red October" left Vladivostok on July 20, 1924 under the command of hydrographer B.V. Davydov. On August 20, 1924, the expedition raised the Soviet flag on the island and evacuated the settlers. On the way back, on September 25, in the Long Strait near Cape Schmidt, the icebreaker was hopelessly trapped in ice, but a storm helped it free itself. Overcoming heavy ice led to excessive fuel consumption. By the time the ship anchored in Providence Bay, there was 25 minutes of fuel left, and fresh water was not at all. The icebreaker returned to Vladivostok on October 29, 1924.
Soviet-American, and then Chinese-American negotiations on the further return of the colonists to their homeland through Harbin took a long time. Three did not live to return - the leader of the expedition, Charles Wells, died in Vladivostok from pneumonia; two children died during the ensuing journey.
Development
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, mostly Eskimos, who previously lived in the villages of Providence and Chaplino. In 1928, an expedition was made to the island on the Litka icebreaker, the boiler room on which the Ukrainian writer and journalist Nikolai Trublaini worked, who described Wrangel Island in a number of his books, in particular “To the Arctic - through the tropics”. In 1948, a small group of domestic reindeer was brought to the island and a department of a reindeer-breeding 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 sanctuary was created, which in 1968 was transformed into a sanctuary of republican significance.
Gulag
In 1987 former prisoner Yefim Moshinsky published a book in which he claimed that he was in a "corrective 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 from Nunivak Island were introduced to the island, and the executive committee Magadan region took the land of the islands under the future reserve. In 1976, to study and protect the natural complexes of the Arctic islands, the Wrangel Island nature reserve was founded, which also included a small neighboring island Herald. In connection with the reserve, a 5 nautical mile wide buffer zone was established around the islands. total area of the reserve amounted to 795.6 thousand hectares. In 1978, the Scientific Department of the Reserve was organized, whose employees began a systematic study of 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 the reserve was expanded by including in its composition the water area surrounding the island 12 nautical miles wide, by order of the government of the Russian Federation N ° 1623-r dated November 15, 1997, and in 1999, around the already reserved water area by the decision of the governor of the Chukotka Autonomous District N ° 91 dated May 25, 1999 A security zone 24 nautical miles wide was organized.
The area of the island is about 7670 km², of which about 4700 km² are mountains. The shores are low, dissected by lagoons, separated sandbars from the sea. The central part of the island is mountainous. There are small glaciers and medium-sized lakes, arctic tundra.
Relief
The relief of the island is strongly dissected. The mountains occupying most of the island form three parallel chains - the North Range, the Middle Range and the South Range - ending in the west and east with coastal rocky cliffs. The most powerful is the Sredny Ridge, in which the highest point of the island is located - Mount Sovetskaya (1096 m). The northern ridge is the lowest, it passes into a wide swampy plain, called the Tundra of the Academy. The southern ridge is low and passes not far from the sea coast. In 1952, a mountain in the central part of Wrangel Island was named after Leonid Vasilyevich Gromov.
Between the ridges are valleys with numerous rivers. 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 Academy Tundra (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 origin, the lakes are divided into thermokarst, which include the majority, oxbow lakes (in the valleys major rivers), glacial, dammed and lagoonal. The largest of them are: Kmo, Komsomol, Gagachye, Zapovednoe.
Climate
The climate is harsh. Most During the year masses of cold arctic air with a low content of moisture and dust move over the area. In summer, warmer and more humid air comes from the southeast from Pacific Ocean. Periodically dry and strongly heated air masses come from Siberia.
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, strong northern winds. average temperature January -22.3 ° C, especially cold months - February and March. During this period, the temperature stays below -30 °C for weeks, frequent snowstorms with wind speeds up to 40 m/s and higher.
Summers are cool, frosts and snowfalls occur, 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 better air heating and foehns, summers are warmer and drier.
The average relative humidity is about 82%, the annual precipitation is about 180 mm.
Flora
The first researcher of the vegetation of Wrangel Island B. N. Gorodkov, who in 1938 studied East Coast islands, attributed it to the zone of arctic and polar deserts. After a complete study of the entire island from the 2nd half of the 20th century. it belongs to the arctic tundra subzone of the tundra zone. Despite the relatively small size of Wrangel Island, due to the sharp regional features of its vegetation, it stands out as a special Wrangel subprovince of the Wrangel-West American province of the Arctic tundra.
The vegetation of Wrangel Island is distinguished by a rich ancient species composition. The number of vascular plant species exceeds 310 (for example, on much larger New Siberian Islands there are only 135 such species, on the islands Severnaya Zemlya about 65, in Franz Josef Land less than 50). The flora of the island is rich in relics and relatively poor in plants common in other polar regions, which, according to various estimates, are no more than 35-40%.
About 3% of the plants are subendemic (beskilnitsa, Gorodkov's poppy, Wrangel's poppy) and endemic (Wrangel's bluegrass, Ushakov's poppy, Wrangel's Potentilla, Lapland's poppy). In addition to them, another 114 species of rare and very rare plants grow on Wrangel Island.
Such a composition of the plant world allows us to conclude that the original Arctic vegetation in this area of ancient 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 open and undersized almost everywhere. Sedge-moss tundra prevails. In the mountain valleys and intermountain basins of the central part of Wrangel Island, there are areas of thickets of willow (Richardson willow) up to 1 m high.
The fauna of the island as a whole is not rich in species, which is associated with harsh climatic conditions.
Fish in the coastal waters of the islands have not been studied enough. There are no fish in the freshwater reservoirs of the island.
At least 20 species of birds regularly nest on the island, and 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 valley of the Tundrovaya River in the center of Wrangel Island and several small colonies. Passerines are also numerous, represented by snow bunting and Lapland plantains. For nesting and molting, black geese arrive in the reserve. Also among the inhabitants of the reserve are eiders, Icelandic sandpipers, tules, burgomasters, fork-tailed gulls, long-tailed skuas, snowy owls. Less common in the reserve are oystercatchers, pouts, arctic terns, skuas, red-throated loons, crows, and tap dances.
Quite often, birds from North America fly into the reserve or are blown by the wind, among which are sandhill cranes that regularly visit Wrangel Island, as well as Canada geese and various American small passerines, including finches (myrtle songbirds, savannah buntings, black-browed buntings, juncos, white-crowned zonotrichia).
The mammalian fauna of the reserve is poor. The endemic Vinogradov's lemming, previously considered a subspecies of the hoofed lemming, the Siberian lemming and the arctic fox live here permanently. Periodically, and in significant quantities, appears polar bear, whose maternity dens are located within the boundaries of the reserve. From time to time, wolves, wolverines, ermines and foxes penetrate the reserve. Together with people, sled dogs settled on Wrangel Island. IN residential buildings appeared and lives house mouse. Reindeer and musk ox were brought to the island for acclimatization.
Reindeer lived here in the distant past, and the modern herd comes from domestic deer brought in 1948, 1954, 1967, 1968, 1975 from the Chukotka Peninsula. The deer population is maintained in the amount of up to 1.5 thousand heads.
There is evidence that musk oxen lived on Wrangel Island in the distant past. In our time, a herd of 20 heads was introduced in April 1975 with american island Nunivak.
On the territory of the island is the largest walrus rookery in Russia. Seals live in coastal waters.
In the mid-1990s, you could read about a startling discovery made on the island in Nature magazine. An employee of the reserve, Sergey Vartanyan, discovered here the remains of mammoths, whose age was determined from 7 to 3.5 thousand years. Despite the fact that, according to popular belief, 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 back in the days when the Egyptian pyramids, and which disappeared only in the reign of Tutankhamun and the heyday of the Mycenaean civilization. This puts Wrangel Island among the most important paleontological monuments of the planet.
Wrangel Island is located in the Chukchi Sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is named after the Russian navigator of the 19th century. Ferdinand Petrovich Wrangel. Included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
This is very harsh land. The average temperature of a short summer here is about 0 degrees, and in winter it is truly unbearable. weather – strong wind from the north is so dry that it's hard to even breathe. The polar night, which lasts from November to the end of January, is unbearably cold. The temperature falls on average below -20, and sometimes even up to -60! Snowstorms that hit the island reach speeds of 140 km/h. On the coast, it is very difficult to hide from such an onslaught from the north, and only in the central part of the island, surrounded by mountain ranges, you can count on more favorable conditions.
Summer, although not long, gives a few species of plants and animals to continue their race and gain strength for a new wintering. The tundra of Wrangel Island is inhabited by polar bears, arctic foxes, walruses, and wolves. Reindeer and musk oxen were brought to the island for keeping as livestock, and both animals were found here before.
The island is very interesting for archaeologists who have discovered here the remains of mammoths that lived about 3-7 thousand years ago. As you know, it was believed that by this time all mammoths had already died out, but the find confirms that these prehistoric animals existed side by side with already practically intelligent people.
Freshwater rivers in the center of the island are empty - the fish do not live in them. Very little is known about the fauna of the cold coastal waters. In winter, the Chukchi Sea is filled with drifting ice, where beluga whales spend the winter.
In general, drifting ice in this area is extremely dangerous for sea vessels. It was in the Chukchi Sea that Chelyuskin was badly damaged by drifting ice, which eventually sank. On Wrangel Island, many sailors found a forced refuge, who suffered disasters near it. In 1914, Canadian explorers were imprisoned on the island for 9 months after their ship "Karluk" was icebound. In 1926, a group of Soviet researchers was a prisoner of the island for 4 years. People could not sail away from the island due to the large accumulation of ice that drifted around the island for 3 winters. And only the icebreaker was able to rescue the captives.
The interest of scientists to the island is understandable - the reserve of the same name is located here. On its territory there is the largest walrus rookery in Russia. White geese, the most numerous birds on the island, nest in the center of the island. Many species of rare or endangered birds fly here, including the sandhill crane.
At the same time, one cannot fail to notice that the island has the most important strategic importance for countries bordering the Arctic Circle. Claims for the right to possess the island were expressed by both the United States and Canada. Moreover, there are politicians in the United States who are currently confident that Russian law for management northern islands nothing is backed up.
In the eyes of Americans, Wrangel Island is shrouded in veils of secrets. The United States is deeply convinced that one of the concentration camps for political criminals in the USSR was located on this island. It is believed that the German prisoners of war of the Second World War were serving their sentences in this harsh place.
In 1926 A permanent polar station was created on Wrangel Island and the village of Ushakovskoye was founded, which existed until 1994. Since that time, Wrangel Island has not had a permanent population. It was a difficult time - the consequences of Perestroika and the collapse of the USSR, the lack of funding and the complete loss of interest by the state in the development of northern villages, which were deserted one after another. With regard to Wrangel Island, all this was probably for the best. Now here is a unique reserve, one of the northernmost in the world, listed in 2004. to the lists world heritage UNESCO.
Winter on Wrangel Island lasts 8 months, and the polar night is from November to January. At this time, there is a burning frost, darkness and silence (not counting the howls of the Arctic wind), but in the short spring and summer the island literally comes to life. The tundra is covered with a carpet of bright colors (there are 7 species of poppy alone), tens of thousands of birds appear above the coastal cliffs, and polar bears, together with their cubs, get out of their dens. By the way, Wrangel Island is the largest “maternity hospital” for polar bears in the Arctic. In addition, there is the only nesting territory of the last Asian white geese on the planet and the largest population of the Pacific walrus - up to 100 thousand individuals.
There is also a sad page in the history of Wrangel Island. It became a cemetery for the last mammoths on Earth: it is established that they died somewhere in the 1300s. BC, while throughout the rest of the planet their death dates back to 6-8 thousand years BC. It is likely that people had a hand in the death of the last herd of shaggy giants - a Paleo-Eskimo site dated 1750 was discovered on the island. BC. 
In July-August, from Anadyr you can make a 15-day cruise to Wrangel Island (with disembarkation and 3-day accommodation on the island itself). The cruise is carried out by a small comfortable cruise icebreaker (there are some, it turns out). The main contingent of tourists is Canadians and Americans, but there are almost none of ours. Indeed, what we have not seen in these ices ... UNESCO, by the way, since 2004. asks to remove the landfills on the island, left over from Soviet times, and empty barrels of diesel fuel scattered here and there. Our people are asked to leave the barrels, as they are part of the landscape and their location on the island corresponds to historical realities. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad...
