Our company has been helping to preserve the polar bear population on the Arctic coast of Russia for several years. We bought equipment for inspectors, purchased fuel and snowmobiles for anti-poaching raids.
In April 2017, our representatives decided to personally participate in the monitoring of a polar bear on a distant archipelago in the East Siberian Sea - Bear Islands. The road to the Arctic is not a long one – 6 hours by plane to Yakutsk, 4.5 hours by an old An-24 to Chersky, an hour by winter road by car to the village of Pokhodsk, and then a long road along the channels of the Kolyma and on the ice of the Kolyma Bay on an all-terrain vehicle almost 300 km to the Krestovaya base. True, no one here counts kilometers – from Pokhodsk to the base, the road took us 3 days and 2 nights, the tractor that was carrying fuel for the expedition went hard and slowed us down, we had to spend 2 nights in sleeping bags on the cramped benches of the all-terrain vehicle. We are 3 inspectors of nature protection of the Nizhnekolymsk Inspectorate of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Yakutia: Ruslan and Vyacheslav Sleptsov, Valera Arbatsky, Alexey Kishinets from the company "4 Seasons" and the head of the expedition is our long–time partner, an expert on polar bears from Moscow - Viktor Nikiforov.
We rested at the base for a couple of days, got on 2 snowmobiles and went to monitor the Bear Islands. Such work has been taking place here for the 10th year; the end of March– the beginning of April is an important time for polar bears - mothers with cubs leave their birth dens. It is necessary to register the dens and mark the traces, collect biological material for genetic analysis and check whether there are outsiders here – mothers with cubs stay near the den for a week and can become a good prey for poachers. This year the weather favored us, despite the usual cold in the morning (-25-27 C), it was sunny. In places, our path was blocked by ice hummocks, and the sleigh was shaking violently on the sledges, but we still managed to do the work in full - to go around 5 islands of the archipelago in 5 days (more than 400 km on snowmobiles). The first trace of a bear with a bear cub, and here is a living den, we watch from afar as a bear pokes its head out of a snow cave. Two overnight stays in a small beam on one of the islands, and then the expedition headquarters moved toFour-column, where they settled in an abandoned weather station building. People left these places in the late 90s and now polar bears are the rightful owners here - they sometimes enter empty buildings.
And now all the dens are examined, all traces are marked - it's time to return to the Krestovaya base, but on the last island we meet mom with a very tiny bear cub. We do not drive up, so as not to frighten, but from afar we observe this Arctic miracle.
Two weeks without a mobile phone and the usual Internet flew by very quickly, it's time to return to Chersky to "civilization" (to the soul!)
Thanks to everyone who helps save polar bears. And we left a flag with our logo on the inspection base "Krestovaya" - a bear's head and 4 SEASONS, as we explained to our friends in Yakutia – we help white bears all 4 seasons a year …
The base of the expedition on O.Four - column
We mark the tracks of a polar bear
Lair - an inside look
Inspection of polar bear dens
Laika Umka is a member of the expedition
Arctic cuisine: cheer and "4 Seasons"
Alexey Kishinets represented TM "4 Seasons" in the expedition
Krestovaya Inspection Base
On the ice of the Kolyma Bay
Laika Kuchum also helped us in our work
