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Wrangel Island, Arctic Russia: Polar Bears International (PBI)

Conservation at a Glance

• Polar bears live on Arctic coasts including northern Alaska and Russia, historically hunting on ice masses, which extend from the land.
• Arctic regions are directly affected by global warming. The increase in temperature melts ice and has the potential to dramatically change the landscape as the bodies of water that separate the land masses increase.
• The Philadelphia Zoo supports Dr. Nikita Ovsyanikov through Polar Bears International (PBI). For over a decade he has spearheaded research based on Wrangel Island, documenting the effects of global warming on this polar bear population.
• Dr. Ovsyanikov’s research has shown that polar bear predation behavior has recently changed. Where before polar bears hunted on the ice masses, in 2006, 60% of the bears on Wrangel Island moved farther inland and shifted towards scavenging on reindeer carcasses. 
• Some bears appear to have adapted to life farther inland.  But more bears are showing signs of being malnourished or are even drowning as they try to swim the increasingly longer distances between ice masses in search of prey.
• The Zoo collaborated with PBI to support 2008 as “The Year of the Polar Bear.”  Zoo staff was instrumental in planning this year-long event to increase awareness of polar bear conservation.
• In October 2009, two Zoo staff traveled to Churchill, Manitoba, to help lead a program on polar bear conservation in conjunction with PBI.  Churchill, know as the ‘Polar Bear Capital of the World’,  is a town where polar bears congregate as they wait for the ice to freeze so they can begin hunting.