It’s been polar bears versus Russian scientists on a remote island in the Arctic.
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The five unfortunate scientists, based on the weather station Stantsiya Polyarnaya, located on the tiny island of Troïnoy in the Kara Sea north of Siberia, will have to be patient.
The scientists were staying on Troynoy Island located in the Kara Sea north of Siberia when, on August 31, a polar bear ate one of their two dogs and wouldn’t leave.
The scientists, who had run out of any means to scare off the bears, were advised to “stay inside” unless absolutely necessary and that new supplies were on the way.
“Since Saturday the bears have practically been sleeping under the windows”, Vadim Plotnikov, the station commander, said in a statement to Russian news agency TASS.
Researchers’ encounters with polar bears on Troynoy Island is fairly common, Vassiliy Shevchenko, head of the Sevgidromet State Monitoring Network, told The Guardian.
However, the Guardian reported earlier that help arrived much sooner than that, in the form of Russian research vessel Akademik Tryoshnikov, which the newspaper said was operating in the area. They called for help and were told they would have to wait a month for the next scheduled supply ship. Ms. Novikova added that the bears do not have the habit of going to the Troïnoy island. Just previous year, a team of scientists stationed at the Vaygach Island was forced to leave because of bears that chose to camp right outside their weather station.
Polar bears are considered a vulnerable species worldwide.
Polar bears use sea ice to hunt, and this means the less time they can spend in the sea ice is less food they can eat, forcing them to scavenge on dry land. TASS says the bears are considered an endangered species in Russian Federation, where hunting them has been banned since 1957. In the spring, the snow is melting faster.
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Around four and six polar bears tend to spend their summer months on the island. The situation looks grim for the polar bears, as models have shown that ice-free Arctic summers could be expected by mid-century.
