Polar bears on Wrangel Island gnawed on Orlan drone

The researchers told about the curious case

Polar bears on Wrangel Island attacked an Orlan drone that took part in their count. A curious incident that occurred during one of the scientific expeditions became known during the Day of Expeditions and Tourism of the Russian Geographical Society, which is headed by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

With the most unexpected results, specialists and scientists from Wrangel Island returned, who for the first time counted the super predators – polar bears.

According to Ilya Chernook, a member of the Arctic expedition, preparations for a difficult expedition (as one of its participants put it, it’s hard to get to Wrangel Island, even harder to get out of there) began back in 2012. In 2016, Russian experts came to a “common denominator” with their American colleagues on how to count the polar bears of the Chukotka-Alaska population.

– No one has counted polar bears for a long time, in principle no one has ever counted them. This is a task for all Arctic countries. To say exactly how many polar bears live now, you need to simultaneously count them in Alaska and Chukotka, because bears do not recognize borders, – said Ilya Chernook.

Nevertheless, Russian scientists managed to get closer to the truth. Initially, experts came to the conclusion that a total of 3.5 thousand polar bears live on the Arctic island, which, by the way, are the main indicator of the state of the ecosystem of the entire Arctic. However, in fact, the number of white bears turned out to be less. After counting, it turned out that about 420 individuals live on the island, where 80% of all polar bears of the Chukotka-Alaska population are born. Another 360 “umoks” were counted during the survey of the territory from the ground.

According to Ilya Chernook, the process of counting polar bears deserves special attention. Firstly, in order to take a drone into the air, you need flying weather, which is extremely rare on the island. Secondly, a snow-white predator is very difficult to detect on ice. Thirdly, the expedition almost lost one of the three aircraft, which was used to count the bears.

It is noteworthy that bears are not afraid of drones, unlike airplanes or helicopters, from the sounds of which they scatter in all directions. According to the researcher, 3-4 drones can fly about three thousand kilometers a day and calmly count the animals.

However, one day everything turned out the other way around – the polar bears studied the drone itself in detail. Due to difficult weather conditions, one of the Orlans fell into a downward airflow and was forced to make an emergency landing. As a result, specialists had to organize a rescue operation to remove the drone from the predatory paws of bears, which in a matter of minutes chose modern technology:

– One of the planes was forced to make an emergency landing, the bears gnawed it extremely hard, – said Chernook.

Other members of the expedition had to be sent for Orlan, and as a result, the aircraft was saved.