Wrangel Island, the most pristine nature reserve on the planet

“Wrangel Island is a place where nature  reveals its power and grandeur. There is no room for the hustle of the modern world here, only the silence and magnificence of the wild nature.”
John Muir

The word ‘remote’ might have been created for Wrangel Island. Sitting on the top of the world within the Arctic Sea off the northern coast of Chukotka, it was once domestic to woolly mammoths. It is believed that Wrangel Island is the last place on earth where woolly mammoths roamed. Evidence has been found of human occupation as early as 1700 BC, with some stone and ivory tools discovered in 1975. The Chukchi people of Siberia tell of a chief who led his people across the ice to settle the island. Whether this legend is true or not, there is evidence that hunters followed the reindeer herds north on their annual migration and mammoth tusks can still be found, protruding from the ground. Nowadays, polar bears, walruses, musk ox and heap feathered creatures live, feed and breed on its shorelines, cliffs and tundra. The island has claimed the lives of numerous pioneers, but gutsy 21st century travelers can get here securely on an expedition journey, accompanied by expert guides.

For centuries, Wrangel Island, lying 140km off the northeast coast of the Russian Distant East, had nearly legendary status; a rumored land, portion of Chukchi legend, out there within the frozen Arctic Ocean, but never reached. It was not claimed by Russia until the early 20th century, and has taken a toll the lives of numerous unfortunate explorers, stranded here by the ice among the polar bears and rolling tundra. Today, the island is an uninhabited and intensely protected, with UNESCO World Nature Heritage Status, the first place within the Arctic to pick up that level of protection.

In spite of the harshness of the climate here, Wrangel Island could be a treasure trove of Arctic biodiversity, a wealthy relic from the Pleistocene age which supports over 400 plant species. There are mountains, coastal fields and interesting geological formations, all packed inside a compact geographical space (the island is approximately 7,600km2) and contributing to its special evolutionary status inside the Arctic. The central and southern areas of Wrangel Island consist of two eroded mountain ranges that run east to west across the island. The southern range contains the highest peak Mt Sovetskaya which rises to 1,093 meters ASL. Within the central mountains lie comparatively warm and sheltered valleys. The mountainous areas are flanked by regions of hilly terrain and upland plateau. The northern half of Wrangel Island is much flatter, comprising a low plain dotted with numerous lakes and rivers. Smaller tundra-covered plains lie on the southern side of the mountains.

Due to its extreme remoteness, Wrangel Island is one of the worlds least visited, most restricted and most well-protected wilderness reserves on earth. Reaching Wrangel and braving its harsh, polar climate is not for the faint of heart. Access to Wrangel Island Reserve is extremely limited. Tourist cruise ships may only visit when sea ice conditions allow during the brief summer months of July and August. Only a few fortified expedition ice-breakers are properly equipped and licensed to take passengers to the reserve. Wrangel cruises depart from the port of Anadyr, the administrative capital of Chukotka. The easternmost town in Russia, Anadyr is accessible via direct flights from Moscow. Once through the narrow Bering Strait, cruises travel west along the coastline before crossing the De Long Strait to Wrangel Island. The journey was made conceivable in recent years by a defrosting; both of the legislative issues of the region and of the summer pack ice within the Chukchi Ocean. In the past, Wrangel may be cut off by ocean ice at any point all through the year, indeed within the summer. Small ships, regularly carrying only around 50 travelers, make the journey here. Alongside the team, there are expert expedition team guides, who lead walks and Zodiac cruises, and give onboard addresses that bring this one of a kind High Arctic scene to life. A few cruises make use of a six wheel Tundra vehicle to explore the island’s interior.

Wrangel Island’s remarkable, perfect vegetation and wildlife are what anybody who’s travelled the thousands of miles to get here is eager to see. Wrangel is the only land mass in the Chukchi Ocean, and almost all wildlife within the region comes here to breed and feed, either on the island, or in the shallow waters around it. The natural life is extraordinary and abundant. Wrangel Island has a few of the planet’s most noteworthy concentrations of polar bear caves, with tremendous numbers of female polar bears raising cubs here each winter. It too, has the greatest population of Pacific walrus in the world and in ice free years, between 80,000 and 100,000 of them gather in coastal rookeries. Reindeer, musk ox (reintroduced here from Canada in 1975) and Arctic foxes also wander the tundra of Wrangel Island, and a bewildering cluster of birds come here to breed in summer, counting a few 200,000 settling snow geese – the only population of these in Asia – snowy owls, skuas, Arctic terns, puffins and various gulls. Because Wrangel Island was not affected by the last ice-age, many of the plants on the island date back to the Pleistocene era. There is now over 400 species of plants here. Combine this with the many species of wildlife and it is easy to see why scientists value this region so highly.

Since Wrangel Island is located in the Arctic region, the island can only be visited by expedition cruises in the high summer period from July to September. This is when the pack ice in the Chukchi Sea has retreated enough to allow passage through the cold region. This is also the period when the wildlife is most active on Wrangel Island, giving tourists the best chance of seeing polar bears, musk ox, seabirds, and walrus. The Arctic tundra that permeates much of the landscape of Wrangel Island is in full bloom and the days are at their warmest with temperatures ranging between 5 °C and 10 °C. The colors are most vibrant at this time of year and the red grass contrasts nicely against the white of the polar bear.