Wrangel Island

Location of Wrangel Island

Wrangel Island

Not to be confused withWrangell IslandinAlaska,USA

Wrangel Island(Russian:о́стров Вра́нгеля) is a smallislandin theArctic Oceanbelonging toRussia.It lies between theChukchi SeaandEast Siberian Sea.Wrangel Island lies across the180°meridian.TheInternational Date Lineis displacedeastwardsat thislatitudeto avoid the island and theChukchi Peninsulaon theRussianmainland. It is roughly 7,500 square kilometres (2,900 sq mi) in area. The closest land to Wrangel Island is tiny androckyHerald Islandlocated 60 km (37 mi) to the east.The distance to the closest point on theSiberianmainland is 140 km (87 mi).Wrangel Island may have been the last place on earth whereWoolly Mammothsurvived. It is home to manyarcticanimals includingpolar bears.Since 1976 it has been anature reserve.

History

BaronFerdinand von Wrangel(1796–1870) was aGermanexplorerandseamanin the service of theRussian Empire.He noticed birds flying north near theKolyma river.From this he correctlydeducedthere was an island in the Arctic ocean.He searched for the island in the 1820s but never found it.

In 1881 anAmericansteamship,theThomas L. Corwin,searching for a lost expedition found themselves off Wrangel island.They searched the island for survivors but found none. They raised anAmerican flagon the and claimed it for theUnited States.They named it "New Columbia", but the name never stuck.Nothing was done about the discovery for the next 30 years.

In 1913,Vilhjalmur Stefanssonled a largeexpeditionto discover a lost continent he believed was under the Arcticice cap.They sailed fromVictoria, British Columbiaon June 17, 1913. Six weeks later their ship was caught in the ice. Stefansson and several companions left the expedition and returned to safety. When the ship was crushed, the crew set up camp on the ice.In March of 1914, Captain Bartlett led what was left of his crew 80 miles across the ice to Wrangel Island.Twelve survivors were picked up by a small whaling schooner in September of 1914.

In 1921, Stefansson claimed Wrangel island forCanada.An expedition from Canada tocolonizethe island failed. By 1926 Russia re-established their claim to the island by setting up a colony there.Eventually the colonists returned to the mainland leaving the island deserted.

In 1976 theSoviet Uniondeclared the island azapovednika,afederallyprotected nature reserve. InEnglishit is called the Wrangel Island Nature Reserve. It protects large colonies of snow geese, polar bears, and walrus that live here. OnlyofficialRussiangovernmentpersonnel and invitedguestscan visit the reserve.

Galápagos of the far north

Wrangel island was never covered byglaciersduring the lastice agesand it was never covered by water when the ice retreated.The soil and plants on Wrangel have been undisturbed by time. The interiorvalleysare mainly ancientPleistocenetundra.They boast over 400 unique plant species.

Wildlife

Even though it is a very harshclimateWrangel island has a large and diverse wildlife population. It is the world's largest Polar Beardenning ground.There are about 400 female bears who raise their young here.It has the world's largest population ofPacific Walrus.The island has large populations ofSnow Geese,Snowy Owls,seals,Arctic wolves,Arctic foxandlemmings.One thing the island seems to be missing ismosquitoes.

Woolly Mammoths

Wrangel island may have been the last place Woolly Mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) existed before becomingextinct.The island is littered with mammothtusks.A population of mammoths existed here some 6,000 years after they went extinct on themainland.They survived until about 1650 BCE.Archaeologicalevidenceon the island shows them to be a smaller subspecies,Mammuth primigenius wrangelensis.