Wrangel Island (Остров Врангеля) is the easternmost of the Russian Arctic's major islands. It lies 140 km off the mainland coast of Siberia, from which it is separated by the Longa Strait. The East Siberian Sea is to the west and the Chukchi Sea to the southeast. Administratively the island is part of the Chukchi Autonomous Region.
Wrangel measures 150 km in length and 125 km in width, covering an area of 7,608 km². The central and southern areas of the island consist of two eroded mountain ranges that run east to west across the island. The southern range contains the highest peak, where Mt. Sovetskaya rises to 1,093 m above sea level. Within the central mountains lie comparatively warm and sheltered valleys where the growing conditions of the brief Arctic summer are extended. The mountainous areas are flanked by regions of hilly terrain and upland plateaux. The northern half of the island is much flatter, comprising a low plain dotted with numerous lakes and rivers — five of them over 50 km in length. Smaller, tundra-covered plains, lie on the southern side of the mountains. The interior is tundra-like and often stony, and is for much of the year snowbound. The coastlines are varied, with tall cliffs, angled slopes, coastal lagoons, swamps and beaches of sand, rock or shingle.
Unlike the other islands of the Russian Arctic, Wrangel Island was not extensively glaciated during the last ice age. Its ecosystems are thus some of the richest to be found within the entire Arctic region — a fact which has led to the island and its surrounding waters being designated as a World Heritage Site of 19,163 km² in area. Vegetation cover ranges from arctic desert and sparse tundra to rich grasslands, marshland, low shrubs and meadows of dwarf species, to moss and lichen communities. In all, 417 species and sub species of vascular plants are present, of which 23 are endemic.
The island is home to the Russian Arctic's largest populations of Polar Bears (Ursus maritimes) and the worlds largest population of Pacific Walrus (Odeobenus rosmarus) where up to 100,000 individuals can be found in the most ice-free years. Other common mammals include: Arctic Fox (Alopex lagopus), and two endemic species of lemming: the Wrangel Lemming (Dycrostonix vinogradovi) and the Siberian Lemming (Lemmus sibiricus portenkoi). Wrangel is also an important site for seabirds — it is northernmost nesting area for over 100 migratory species — and is the only breeding habitat of the Snow Goose (Anser caerulescens) in Asia. Offshore the waters around Wrangel Island provide rich feeding grounds for the Grey Polar Whale (Eschrichtius gibbosus) and Beluga (Delphinapterus leucas)
Located some five hundred kilometres north of the arctic circle in the icy Chukchi Sea is the forlorn landmass of Wrangel Island. So remote and isolated is this frozen land that it was not properly mapped until the early 20th Century, and then inadvertently, when wildly over-optimistic explorers washed up, shipwrecked, on its shores.
After a couple of abortive attempts at settlement and protracted diplomatic argument, Wrangel Island is now occupied by a small team of Russian scientists and their supporting community who maintain a meteorological and research base at Ushakovskoye on the Southern coast. The little village confirms Russia's on-going territorial claim - one that wasn't properly resolved until 1974.Named after Baron Ferdinand Petrovich Wrangel in 1867 by American whaler and de-facto explorer, Thomas Long, as a tribute to the Baron who spent three years searching for the island but came out empty-handed. Long conveniently overlooked the fact that British Admiralty charts already referred to the island as Kellett Land after the Irish-born captain who first charted it in 1849.
In 1911 the famous icebreakers, Tamyr and Vaygach, as part of the Russian Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition (1910-15) briefly landed a party on Wrangel Island and claimed it for Russia. In 1914, survivors from the Vilhjalmur Stefansson-led Canadian Arctic Expedition' s doomed Northern Party camped on Wrangel Island for nine harrowing months. Their ever-controversial leader had abandoned them in September 1913, leaving them for dead aboard their ship, the CGS Karluk, stuck fast in the ice pack.
Not content with that fiasco, Stefansson landed an "occupation" party of five on Wrangel Island in 1921, apparently to assist Canada and Britain in the so-called "northward course of empire". In another epic arctic drama, his experiment ended in tragedy, leaving a brave young Inuit woman, Ada Blackjack, the sole survivor. In spite of this abject failure, another group of Inuit were installed in 1923, but these hapless souls were eventually evicted in 1926 by Russia, setting off yet another dispute that would simmer for years after.
A good part of the reason Wrangel Island was chosen for this extreme survival exercise is the abundance of wildlife. Polar bears, walrus, arctic foxes, snow geese, migratory birds and seals populate the immediate region in relatively large numbers. Ironically, Wrangel Island also escaped glaciation in the last Ice Age, leaving several unique species of vascular plants and was probably the last place on Earth to support a woolly mammoth population. Although many of the bones and tusks have been removed, it is still possible to see skeletal remains of these extinct giants scattered across the landscape.
Forget the string of courageous, but disastrous attempts by man to colonise, map and exploit this arctic desert and instead examine the immense natural beauty of this seemingly inhospitable environment. That's exactly what the UNESCO World Heritage committee did in 2004 when it included Wrangel Island on their list of global ecological hotspots, describing it as a "self-contained island ecosystem" with "the highest level of biodiversity in the high Arctic".
In 1991, the tourist-carrying icebreaker Sovetskiy Soyuz, visited Wrangel Island on the return voyage from the North Pole - and the secret was out. Now this veritable arctic wonderland is a regular inclusion on the itineraries of the world's most adventurous travel operators.
Naturalists, ecologists, archaeologists, "twitchers" and regular tourists in search of the unusual are now part of the minor throng that venture north every year from Anadyr in the helicopter-equipped icebreaker, Kapitan Khlebnikov. Being surrounded by ice almost all year, every year, Wrangel Island will always remain on the list of seldom-visited locations and the few who stump up to make this journey will forever hold a trump card to play against the inevitable dinner party braggarts.
- Roderick Eime
Brief Description
Located well above the Arctic Circle, the site includes the mountainous Wrangel Island (7,608 km2), Herald Island (11 km2) and surrounding waters. Wrangel was not glaciated during the Quaternary Ice Age, resulting in exceptionally high levels of biodiversity for this region. The island boasts the world’s largest population of Pacific walrus and the highest density of ancestral polar bear dens. It is a major feeding ground for the grey whale migrating from Mexico and the northernmost nesting ground for 100 migratory bird species, many endangered. Currently, 417 species and subspecies of vascular plants have been identified on the island, double that of any other Arctic tundra territory of comparable size and more than any other Arctic island. Some species are derivative of widespread continental forms, others are the result of recent hybridization, and 23 are endemic.
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Justification for Inscription
Criterion (ix): The Wrangel Island Reserve is a self-contained island ecosystem and there is ample evidence that it has undergone a long evolutionary process uninterrupted by the glaciation that swept most other parts of the Arctic during the Quaternary period. The number and type of endemic plant species, the diversity within plant communities, the rapid succession and mosaic of tundra types, the presence of relatively recent mammoth tusks and skulls, the range of terrain types and geological formations in the small geographic space are all visible evidence of Wrangel’s rich natural history and its unique evolutionary status within the Arctic. Furthermore, the process is continuing as can be observed in, for example, the unusually high densities and distinct behaviours of the Wrangel lemming populations in comparison with other Arctic populations or in the physical adaptations of the Wrangel Island reindeers, where they may now have evolved into a separate population from their mainland cousins. Species interaction strategies are highly-honed and on display throughout the island, especially near Snowy owl nests which act as protectorates for other species and beacons for migratory species and around fox dens.
Criterion (x): The Wrangel Island Reserve has the highest level of biodiversity in the high Arctic. The island is the breeding habitat of Asia’s only Snow goose population which is slowly making a recovery from catastrophically low levels. The marine environment is an increasingly important feeding ground for the Gray whale migrating from Mexico (some from another World Heritage site, the Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaino). The islands have the largest sea-bird colonies on the Chukchi Sea, are the northernmost nesting grounds for over 100 migratory bird species including several that are endangered such as the Peregrine falcon, have significant populations of resident tundra bird species interspersed with migratory Arctic and non-Arctic species and have the world’s highest density of ancestral polar bear dens. Wrangel Island boasts the largest population of Pacific walrus with up to 100,000 animals congregating at any given time at one of the island’s important coastal rookeries. Since Wrangel Island contains a high diversity of habitats and climates and conditions vary considerably from one location to another, total reproductive failure of a species in any given year is practically unheard of. Given the relatively small size of the area, this is very unusual in the high Arctic.
Wrangel Island (Russian: о́стров Вра́нгеля, ostrov Vrangelya) is an island in the Arctic Ocean, between the Chukchi Sea and East Siberian Sea. Wrangel Island lies astride the 180° meridian. The International Date Line is displaced eastwards at this latitude to avoid the island as well as the Chukchi Peninsulaon the Russian mainland. The closest land to Wrangel Island is tiny and rockyHerald Island located 60 km (37 mi) to the east.[1]
Wrangel Island is about 125 km (78 mi) wide and 7,600 km2 (2,900 sq mi) in area. It consists of a southern coastal plain that is as wide as 15 km (9.3 mi); a central belt of low-relief mountains; and a northern coastal plain that is as wide as 25 km (16 mi). The east-west trending central mountain belt, the Tsentral'nye Mountain Range, is as much as 40 km (25 mi) wide and 145 km (90 mi) long from coast to coast. Typically, the mountains are a little over 500 m (1,600 ft) above mean sea level. The highest mountain on this island is Sovetskaya Mountain with an elevation of 1,096 m (3,596 ft) above mean sea level. The east-west trending mountain range terminates at sea cliffs at either end of the island.[1]
Wrangel Island belongs administratively to the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of the Russian Federation. This rocky island has a weather station and two permanent Chukchi fishing settlements on the southern side of the island (Ushakovskoye[1] and Zvyozdny on the shore of Somnitelnaya Bay[2]).