28 Jul 2016

Polar Bear and Walrus Steal the Show on Wrangel Island

Wrangel Island NEVER disappoints!  Our recent visit to this remote Russian Arctic Island was no exception.

This is the earliest that we have been to Wrangel Island and it was only possible due to the changing ice conditions.  Historically Wrangel Island was almost impossible to reach by ship and there are countless tales of ships trying to reach Wrangel even during the height of summer without success.  With the current climate change taking hold on our planet there is less and less ice in the Arctic oceans and that is very obvious this year.  We still had to rely heavily on ice charts to navigate our way and there were occasions when the advantages of this ship and the experienced Russian crew became very apparent as there was still considerable amounts of ice to push and navigate through.  Fortunately we found open water along the shore of Doubtful Bay and were able to anchor there and use our zodiacs.  

During our two day stay we made four landings, including an extended walk into the high Arctic tundra, plus some ice cruising.  Highlights came thick and fast.  The unqiue flowering of the high arctic flora occurs due to the fact Wrangel Island wasn’t glaciated during the last period of glaciation meaning it has a large number of wildflowers, including many endemic, that simply aren’t found anywhere else.  We saw among other things snowy owls, Muskox and Snow geese but undoubtedly the species that everybody came for was Walrus and Polar Bear.  Our encounters with both these latter two species were “off the scale” and unlikely to be surpassed. There were literally hundreds of walrus around, predominately females with young and we were able to approach them both with the ship and zodiacs withour disturbing them to get some great observations and photographs.  We saw in excess of twenty-five Polar Bears, including a very curious female and cub that approached the ship as we drifted in ice.  Probably the best encounter with a polar bears was late yesterday afternoon when we found a ice floe with four bears on it, all very curious.  We watched them for close on an hour as they approached the ship and we watched on as they interacted with one another.  The expeditioners photos will tell the story of an incredible encounter.

Photo credit: Heritage Expeditions

Photo credit: Heritage Expeditions

Photo credit: Heritage Expeditions