RUSSIA ~Natural System of Wrangel Island Reserve - UNESCO~

...Great view of one of the most most northerly and isolated islands on the planet... and home of the polar bear ... the first species to become endangered because of global warming and climate change!! :(
Many Thanks Galina!!


With nice stamps:
Definitives series - Russian Kremlins - Moscow Kremlin
(Issued 01-10-2009)
100th Anniversary of Shipbuilding Plant "Severnaya Verf"
 (Issued 01-10-2012)

Wrangel Island is a Russian island in the Arctic Circle. This amazing snow-covered island is a haven for fabulous arctic wildlife, it  is famous as the breeding ground of polar bears (along with Herald Island), seals, walruses, lemmings and a summer breeding ground for birds and whales. Arctic fox also make their home on the island.The islands are two of the closest to the North Pole.

Wrangel Island may have been the last place on earth where mammoths survived. It was discovered 162 years ago.

There are no humans on this island, only a few people  work at the nature reserve and the staff at the arctic meteorological station who study the island’s fragile ecosystems, it is recognised as a UNESCO world heritage site in 2004 for its unspoilt natural environment.

The Wrangel Island Reserve did not even freeze during the Ice Age, when temperatures across the planet dropped for a long period. As a result, very rare ecosystems have evolved here in distinctive ways, and they are regarded as valuable.